With a partner and gear, you can probably climb an average pitch (usually up to 200 feet) in about half an hour.

WSJ: Training for the Big Wall | By Michael J. Ybarra

The team analyzed data on loudness, pitch and timbre from just under half a million tracks spanning 55 years, finding the average volume of recordings has increased in that time -- said to be the doing of record labels so songs stand out amongst other radio noise.

ENGADGET: Researchers prove your grandmother right, modern music is louder and all the same