So I don't hear the increasingly worrying noises my car makes.

Because it's a fun hobby to build systems capable of doing that and seeing just how loud you can get them, granted my group is the only one in town that only uses them deep in agricultural fields so we dont burst people's eardrums. Regarding people that use them in cities, especially at night, i am absolutely with you.

Same reason children cry, they want attention.

From Lullaby by Palahniuk:

"People who would never throw litter from their car will drive past you with their radio blaring. People who’d never blow cigar smoke at you in a crowded restaurant will bellow into their cell phone. They’ll shout at each other across the space of a dinner plate.

These people who would never spray herbicides or insecticides will fog the neighborhood with their stereo playing Scottish bagpipe music. Chinese opera. Country and western.

Outdoors, a bird singing is fine. Patsy Cline is not.

Outdoors, the din of traffic is bad enough. Adding Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E Minor is not making the situation any better.

You turn up your music to hide the noise. Other people turn up their music to hide yours. You turn up yours again. Everyone buys a bigger stereo system. This is the arms race of sound. You don’t win with a lot of treble.

This isn’t about quality. It’s about volume.

This isn’t about music. This is about winning.

You stomp the competition with the bass line. You rattle windows. You drop the melody line and shout the lyrics. You put in foul language and come down hard on each cussword.

You dominate.

This is really about power."

Almost every explanation given in this comment section boils down to "I'm a selfish prick who only cares about what I'm doing in that moment. Fuck the lot of ya"

The way I do it is to sound good in the car. If you can even hear it at all with the doors closed that's by accident not design. I don't go nuts with 4 dual coil 18s in a civic hatchback either though so I'm probably not the best one to answer. 🤷

I like to feel the vibrations and a car is the most efficient space to have that environment in.

It is the only time when I can really pump up the jam and go nuts. You can't do it at home because your neighbors will murder you if you are loud enough. It is also unfair to lay all the dB's on the same people all the time. That said, I only use the kind of volume that makes it hard to see straight during the morning commute. It is annoying for the closest 400 cars, but not as annoying as if I fall asleep and plow right into you. Yes, I have already OD'd on coffee to the point of seeing god in the rear view mirror by that time, but I am still fully capable of falling spontaneously asleep, thank you very much. So think before you get too annoyed in the future. That obnoxiously loud asshole may just have saved your life by playing bagpipe music at a volume that makes the clouds shift above her car. You're welcome.

Edit: ohhh, that wasn't very popular at all, was it? Some folks even took it seriously. To be fair, I actually started sort of seriously, but the post got away from me. Hate when that happens. I like loud music and the only time you can ramp it up a bit is in the car. That much is serious. The rest was an attempt at humour, but I see I failed. Again.

I actually play loud music to sing along with as voice training as I spend maybe 2h in the car every day on average. Whitney's got nothing on me, lemme tell you. She is dead after all.

1. Capitalism has alienated us from collective experience in shared public spaces. Blasting loud music is an act of protest. A violent rebellion that creates a shared experience by force. A momentary slap in the face to wake you up and remind you that we are all connected and these places inherently belong to all of us, for us to use together in loud, chaotic, contradictory ways — not to be parceled up, individualized, isolated, and reduced to sheer utility value.
2. Haha windows go brrr

Edit: I guess I needed a /s

It sounds cool to hear the low notes and it’s easier to have a good sounding stereo in a small area that’s fully upholstered. Loud music covers up the road noise.

It’s cool to listen to music loud.

Love my loud music while zipping down a highway at 100+. Zoom, zoom.

Same reason why you would fire a gun in confined space. It makes deaf fasters, so you don't have to listen to the shit music you are forced to listen due to peer pressure.

Can't pump up music at home, too many nosy neighbours

I like feeling my music as well as hearing it

It's a cheap and easy thrill

They have speakers that point outside the window..... Yeah make sense with that.

So you can know how cool they are, obviously! Same with loud engines.

Because the soul is quiet, and it hides the flounder.