Concerts are normally loud, with guitars, drums and vocals blasting so that the reach the back row of gigantic stadiums. For some attendants closer to the front, these concerts can be almost deafening. While this is often an unfortunate aspect of concerts, some people love the loud volume and the upbeat tempos that send the crowds dancing and singing. But for one woman in Portland, Oregon, the clanging and crashing at a Justin Bieber concert was too much. The young pop sensation travels with a band and back-up dancers, and puts on full-blown productions to sold-out crowds. Normally, these crowds include fanatic 8-16-year-old girls, which are targeted as those with “Bieber Fever.”
This mother took her “Bieber Fever”-afflicted children to the singer’s concert in 2010, and claims that the high volume caused her permanent hearing loss. The mother, who goes by the initials S.B., says that her hearing disappeared when she and her children were standing under a heart-shaped gondola which carried Justin over the crowd. Her lawsuit claims that Bieber enticed his fans to scream as he floated over them, and the sound exceeded what would be considered “safe decibel levels.”
Because the bottom of the large gondola was directly over S.B., she says that the watercraft channeled the sound, magnifying it. The blast, a combination of high pitched shrieks from young girls and loud music, caused both of her ear drums to sustain serious damage. She is now filing a $9.2 million lawsuit, claiming that his concert caused her permanent hearing loss. She says that she wants compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and a loss of quality of life. In addition to going after the singer, she is suing Islands Def Jam Records and the Vulcan Sports and Entertainment company that owns the venue where the concert took place.