The loudness war is possibly the only war more pointless than the war in Iraq, it is an example of the music industry raping music for the most fickle of reasons. Basically with a lot of modern CDs the loudness of every instrument is increased to maximum volume which always used to be reserved for the loudest of drum hits. This means that the most People will just turn the volume down way below the level they would have if it had just been the drum hits that were at maximum volume, and because every thing is at the same volume you end up with pathetic sounding drums with no punch, and lots of distortion.