system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
eli5 Why do some songs sound so much louder despite having the same decibels?

When I played smells like teen spirit at 90% volume on AirPods it registered at 86 decibels, then I did the same with shape of you by Ed Sheeran same volume it also had the same decibel reading.

But smells like teen spirit sounds much louder to me, how is this possible?
gpt
Decibels are not the only factor that contributes to our perception of volume.

Decibels are a measure of intensity in a logarithmic scale.Two waves with the same intensity will have the same decibels. It's useful but not the ultimate word.

The perceived volume is not only related to the decibels, but also to the root mean square. Which is a measure of how "crisp" is the sound.

The intensity of pure tone of a flute is very soft it goes up and down like rounded mountains

    /‾‾\_/‾‾\_/‾‾\_
And a pure tone of a clarinet is like cliffs

    _|‾‾|_|‾‾|_|‾‾|

At the same intensity the clarinet sound at more volume because there is more abrupt pressure changes.