So That Happened

Does This Recording Say ‘Yanny’ Or ‘Laurel’? The Answer Is Tearing The Internet Apart.

Get your earphones on because this is IMPORTANT.

In our era of alternative facts and fake news, it can’t help but feel like the deeply divided sides in America are not operating within the same reality. Another pair of candidates are tearing the nation apart, and their names are Yanny and Laurel.

We’ve got ourselves an auditory edition of the notorious DRESS, people!

We’ll attempt to explain later, but for now, is it blue and black or white and gold?

According to one wise Twitter commenter (not an oxymoron), it’s all about that bass.

Redditor Eike_Peace theorizes that the clip is “two different wavelengths and words that blend perfectly but your brain only detects one at a time.”

Here’s how you can access how the other half lives:

Turn the volume down.

It has to do with the bass frequencies not being perceived as loud at lower volumes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour

If you turn the volume very low, there will be practically no bass and you will hear Yanny.

Turn the volume up and play it on some speakers that have an actual bass response (aka not your phone) and you will hear Laurel.

What do you hear? And by the way, if you hear “Laurel,” you’re wrong.