The loudness war was not about making music audible over road noise
> So the recording and mastering engineers began to produce recordings with limited dynamic range that would sound "better" on iPods and car stereos that are used in areas with more ambient noise than a quiet listening room. [1]
> Today, many people listen to music primarily in the car or other noisy places, where louder music cuts through against the background noise. Record companies, especially today, tend to cater to this market of casual, “on-the-go” listeners and make heavy use of compression and limiting in order to make their album louder. [2]
[1] https://sites.google.com/site/dbremaster/home/-loudness-war-...