As AC/DC blasted over the public address system before the Socceroos' friendly against Denmark in Roodepoort this week, you couldn't hear a note.

The fact Australian rock music's loudest export was drowned out by vuvuzelas - the eardrum-bashing African horns set to soundtrack this World Cup - tells you everything you need to know about the noise they make.

Be warned, South Africa is determined to show you its vuvuzelas for the next month - whether you like it or not.

Likened to the sound of wailing goats, a swarm of bees, or a stampede of noisy elephants, the metre-long plastic air horns have become a staple at South African football matches.

But unlike South America's samba drums or European football's chanting and singing, the sound of constantly blowing vuvuzelas for 90 minutes at every World Cup match is set to send visitors reaching for the Panadol in the confines of a large stadium and fans at home grasping for the television volume control.

Already some coaches and players have complained.

The Socceroos got a taster in rural Ruimsig Stadium, which has a grandstand only on one side and hilly plains on the other.

But even they admitted the relentless noise could cause issues in bigger stadia.

"It's a totally different atmosphere. It's impossible to hear with 5,000 people. I'm curious to hear what happens with 70,000 people," Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek said.

"It gives a very strange atmosphere in the stadium. I would not say annoying - or maybe it is annoying. But it's good for us to get used to it."

Legend is the vuvuzela's forerunner - the kudu horn - was first used in ancient times to summon people to gatherings.

But the vuvuzela - a word which literally means "pump up" - first infiltrated South African club football in the late 1990s, originally made of tin before becoming mass produced in colourful plastic.

Its popularity among South African football fans has now grown to the point where it is a de facto symbol of the national team.

The fact the horns can be louder than heavy metal music even with just 5,000 blowing them speaks volumes.

But FIFA has decreed those volumes won't be turned down.

"It is African culture, we are in Africa and we have to allow them to practise their culture as much as they want to," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said in a statement.

"Vuvuzelas, drums and singing are part of African football culture.

"It is part of their celebration, it is part of their culture.

"Let them blow the vuvuzelas."

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