It ain't really hip-hop unless you can feel the bass knock, but hearing specialists say your ears can't handle all that.
"We're seeing the kind of hearing loss in younger people that's typically found in aging adults," said Dean Garstecki, an audiologist and professor at Northwestern University.
The popularity of the iPod may actually be contributing to the growing problem. "Unfortunately, the ear buds are even more likely to cause hearing loss than the muff-type earphones that were used on Walkman and portable CD players," Garstecki said.
In a study published last year in the journal, Ear and Hearing, Harvard Medical School researchers found that the smaller the earphones, the higher their output levels.