FEATURE:
Wired for Sounds
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Why An Upswing in the Popularity of Wired Headphones Is Unexpectedly Positive
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ONE might expect…
PHOTO CREDIT: Anastasiya Badun/Pexels
that, despite a rise in vinyl popularity, people would still fancy music on streaming and using wireless earphones and earbuds. I know that these wireless options provide comfort and ease, though I have always been a fan of wired headphones. I tend to prefer the chunky-eared headphones, as they seem more comfortable and noise cancelling when it comes to sounds around me. As I live in London, there is a tonne of noise everywhere. When it comes to music and how people experience it on the go, I advocate that it should be private and definitely not shared. I appreciate that some people might want to pass a phone to a friend to play them a video or message, but I find that incredible annoying and rude. If you are on public transport or a café, you do not want to hear other people’s phones. It is common in cities where you get people playing music out loud. Apart from a lack of manners and basic respect, I do think that there is something about the comfort of headphones that connects you more to music. I have dabbled with Airpods and earbuds but I find them to be a bit uncomfortable. Maybe I have odd-shaped earlobes, but they tend to come out and I am forever jiggling and repositioning them so they stay in. The price we pay for music portability! It was the same when I was growing up and listening through a Discman. It was not the smoothest of listens. There is also the issue of losing earbuds and the cost and inconvenience there. However, whilst there may be some sense of discomfort and obvious drawbacks to wired options – the eternal and agonising issue of wires being tangled and taking forever to untangle it! -, maybe it is to do with that security and connection. A literal and direct connection to the music. Also, as someone who uses headphones, I do also find they make the listening experience better. Maybe less sound leak or something a bit more panoramic, it does seem better than wireless options.
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Also, there is that thing of going back in time and experiencing music pre-streaming. Maybe a reason physical music is doing so well. I personally prefer to listen to music on a laptop through big headphones. That is optimal for me. Whilst the perfect listening experience is vinyl, if you are listening to albums and songs on streaming or on your phone/laptop, wired headphones and earphones do seem preferable. I was struck by a recent article to The Guardian where they spotlight the upswing and resurgence of wired headphones. Not to be pedantic, but headphones would go over your head and anything that goes into your ears would be earphones/earbuds. I think they are looking more generally at both options but are calling them ‘headphones’. Anyway, the fact that a lot of hugely influential people who you might expect to be wire-free and go with the herd are actually dispending with that in favour of quite basic wired options. It is pleasing to see this trend and change:
“I see more and more people, especially people around my age, rocking the classic white iPod-associated earbuds instead of the previously ubiquitous AirPods. Celebrities and politicians such as Bella Hadid, Zendaya, Dua Lipa and Kamala Harris use them, as do a lot of musicians I know. When New York magazine published its annual Reasons to Love New York issue last week, it featured stars such as Debbie Harry, Cameron Winter and Subway Takes host Kareem Rahma sharing wired earbuds on the cover, because photographer Hannah la Follette Ryan had noticed more and more people listening to music that way on the subway. You see the same casual intimacy on the tube in London and on buses. The other day I even saw a teenager recreating the ultimate symbol of cool of my youth: two white earbuds dangling from the inside of his collar.
IN THIS PHOTO: Zendaya/PHOTO CREDIT: Backgrid
Although there is undeniably some swaggy retro appeal in wearing wired headphones – especially dinky white ones, which allow Gorillaz-loving zoomers, of whom there are many, to relive the era of the Feel Good Inc-soundtracked iPod ad – I think the return to cords was likely born out of a desire for simplicity and economy. The facts of being young right now – just of being alive right now – are that wages have stagnated as prices have gotten higher and rent has become exorbitant. AirPods cost £99, wired Apple headphones are £17: the moment you lose an AirPod – or, as once happened to me, drop one as you leave a bus and look on in horror as the bus slowly rolls over it – you realise that they are emphatically a luxury product, not the everyday essential they may have seemed when you were using them to tune out a rowdy toddler on said bus. As with streaming, or TikTok, or next-day delivery, luxuries we’ve had access to for only a few years can seem indispensable when there’s actually evidence to suggest the world functioned a whole lot better before we had all these things.
That wired headphones are experiencing a resurgence is heartening – it may be a bellwether for a society ready and willing to slowly divest from all the crutches it uses every day. (I hope ChatGPT is next.) On the other hand, it could mean nothing except that 18-year-olds have just discovered the aura-increasing capabilities of white rubber-coated wire and PVC. Either way, I am ready for our corded future. When I go Christmas shopping this week, I certainly know what Shaad is getting”.
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Of course, let’s not romanticise wired headphones. There is the satanic ball-ache of having to lumber around headphones. Mine are a bit hefty and being wired in can make you feel a bit there and restricted. The cheaper earphones you used to pair with an iPod are cheaper and sleeker but they tangle easily and, like I said, they can be uncomfortable. I love the over-ear option and the comfort there rather than something more in-ear. I am not sure if there is a science behind the sound and experience you get with both options. However, one cannot deny that there are benefits to wired head and earphones. Less likely to lose them for a start. It may sound a weird flex, but how inconveniencing is it to lose expensive earbuds and then having to replace them. You also have to keep them charged and they are not perfect when it comes to reliability. Sometimes basic and older is better than something designed to be more convenient and invisible. I can admire people who want to keep music private and also want to keep things wireless, but there is a psychology behind the new appreciation for the wire. I do think that, as less and less use C.D. players and devices to play our music – other than smartphones -, we are starting to become adrift and lose the physicality of music. I long to see a raft of affordable and stylish portable players and carry around C.D.s and even cassettes. Sure, it means I am carrying this weight around and am almost like a D.J. carrying a stack on vinyl to a gig. However, that relationship to something physical and the process of plugging in some headphones and feeling the music go through the wire and into your ears is something you cannot get from wireless options. There have been quite a few think-pieces and articles around this subject.
PHOTO CREDIT: Olena Bohovyk/Pexels
Whilst there are practical and personal reasons why wired is a better option, I do have to say that there might be a danger than fad, trendiness and this being fashionable risks diluting the argument or making it about being cool and retro – rather than actually there being clear practical and sonic benefits to wired over wireless. With celebrities, supermodels and actors not only going to wired and also purchasing real camera and older technology, like so many things, it is all about TikTok and social media. Rather than it being able the music and opening up discussions about physical music and why wired headphones represent something positive, many are seeing this celebrity-led revival as being about clicks and image. The Times wrote about this back in 2024. Even though Hannah Skelley said she prefers to be wireless, she did note this about a growing trend: “Yes, wires are on the rise, with twentysomethings ditching untethered devices and reverting to digital audio habits last seen in the 2010s. Their interest in the impractical trend is purely aesthetic. They consider it bohemian: just scroll through the 174.8 million videos on TikTok in which users dance to viral songs, eat, or vlog their day and style outfits — all while plugged in”. Wired headphones being more of a fashion accessory than something deeper and more connected to music. However, plenty of ordinary and reality-based people have also fully embraced wired headphones. Something cheaper and a little less easy can sometimes be more advantageous than a more expensive, new and perhaps easy-to-use option.
IN THIS PHOTO: Lily-Rose Depp/PHOTO CREDIT: Gotham/GC Images
Another article from The Guardian came out last month. Whether you are using Bluetooth wired headphones or some basic white ones that do the job just fine, I think this year will see that intensify. More and more people, especially those in their twenties, forgoing the high-tech and finding joy with physically connecting to music. The fact that cameras and once-obsolete and ‘bygone’ technologies and objects are now being picked up and used by a new generation is a positive thing:
“With white-wired headphones endorsed by celebrities including Lily-Rose Depp, Paul Mescal, Bella Hadid and Apple Martin, a growing number of people are breaking away from wireless listening.
For inspiration, there is the Instagram account @wireditgirls, or a Balenciaga campaign featuring the model Mona Tougaard reclining bed, wired headphones in place.
Daniel Rodgers, the fashion news editor at British Vogue, is familiar with the trend. “[It says] ‘I’m very effortless. I’m very nonchalant,” he says. “It’s become a real styleable accessory.”
But in a culture where the forward march of technology is often treated as compulsory, wired headphones represent more than aesthetics. “It’s an analogue way of opting out – of both tech but also life,” says Rodgers. “They’re visible in a way that AirPods aren’t. There is a sense of ‘do not disturb’.”
IN THIS PHOTO: Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Geese’s Cameron Winter/PHOTO CREDIT: New York Magazine
That symbolism is on full display on the cover of New York magazine’s latest issue, which features celebrities riding the subway: Debbie Harry with the Geese frontman Cameron Winter, Ben Stiller with the Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns and Macaulay Culkin with the SubwayTakes presenter Kareem Rahma. The real story, however, is not the star power but the shared accessory in each image: wired headphones.
The pictures were taken by Hannah La Follette Ryan, the Brooklyn-based photographer behind the Instagram account @subwayhands, which documents New Yorkers on public transport. She says: “I see the revival as an extension of digital fatigue. Who wants another glitchy expensive gadget to charge?”
Price is clearly part of the appeal of wired headphones – Apple’s EarPods cost £17 compared with £99 for AirPods – but nostalgia is also a factor.
“We’re seeing retro tech come back,” says Tom Morgan-Freelander, the deputy editor of the technology magazine Stuff. “And as part of that, brands are starting to bring back wired headphones.”
He says some younger consumers are switching to wired for sound quality, which is typically better with cables. “Bluetooth became the norm, and there was an acceptance that, for wireless convenience, you’re going to lose a bit of quality,” he adds.
La Follette Ryan suggests this is part of the appeal. “The tangle is inevitable,” she says. “Think of a headphone knot as a more user-friendly Rubik’s Cube. Relish the opportunity to slow down and solve a little puzzle.”
If wired headphones have become the choice of the fashion-conscious despite these inconveniences, that could change soon. AirPods remain the bestseller at Currys but the retailer reports sales of Beats Solo 4 over-ear headphones have risen by 193% since last year.
Morgan-Freelander also points to the £20 FiiO Snowsky Wind, a design that looks like the earphones worn with a Sony Walkman in the 1980s.
Rodgers still believes wired headphones have the edge. “Even though we are constantly being [sold upgrades], there’s a sort of disengagement [with wired headphones], which is always really hot, right?” he says. “You never want to look like you’re too into anything”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Stefan/Pexels
I am going to end with another article from last year. Talking more about college experiences and students wearing wired headphones, there is this debate as to whether stuff like reverting to wired headphones is about nostalgia and the past than it is any natural evolution or sonic choice. People discovering wired headphones are actually fine without having to be upgraded. Or is it being escaping the horrors and increased uncertainty of the future by trying to escape back to a seemingly better (or simpler) time? There is a lot to chew on:
“I thought at first that it might be the beginning of a pretentious aesthetics movement. In the same way that there was likely a boy in your highschool who insisted that vinyl was the only correct way to listen to music only to later prowl the halls with a used SONY walkman playing a brand-new Smiths cassette tape. Or in the way that men who live in Bushwick choose to not own bed frames because they think the room looks better that way. I spoke with my friends later about this, and they basically all agreed that the decision to ditch wires is a ploy to stand out and cultivate an “indie” vibe. Perhaps the purpose of the lesser-quality wires was to blast Clairo loud enough that an indie girl could hear it playing in the next seat over.
I thought about this for the rest of the day though, and I came to an entirely different conclusion about the revival of this trend. It couldn’t just be that all of these people were sacrificing sound quality for an aesthetic. After all, it wouldn’t be long before even a novice audiophile became tired of the muffled quality that more rudimentary headphones produce. It took a bit more thinking to reach the following verdict: that perhaps the shift back to wired headphones is a nostalgia for a simpler time where people my age could leave the house without being concerned about the wellbeing of their technological ecosystem. The daily routine of charging bluetooth headphones and patting down your own pockets to make sure you haven’t lost them is admittedly tedious and inconvenient. Wired headphones are easily replaceable and are convenient — replacing them will run you about twenty bucks, they do not lose battery and they are virtually attached to your phone at all times.
It has been assumed that college-age Gen Z’ers are obsessed with the “next best thing.” The return to wired headphones proves that assumption to be incorrect. Young people on campuses now recognize that new is not always better. This revival of an old listening device is different from the aforementioned person who only listens to vinyl or cassette tapes because that choice is categorically inconvenient. This choice points to a larger desire to return to a simpler time when the priority was listening to as much music as possible, not the newest, flashy device that you could listen to music with”.
It may be a fad, though I don’t think it is. I do think that we need to take the narrative away from celebrities and say how brilliant it is they are wearing them because, as I saw, they are in a minority and there may be some cynicism and jumping on the bandwagon there. Walk around a town or city and take public transport and you will see the everyday person wearing these headphones. Me and my bigger, chunkier headphones perhaps looks a bit odd, though I find them cosy and I like the fact that I am plugged in. I always have them on when I am writing at the ;laptop – like, literally, right now – and I would never fully go to anything wireless – though I can see its appeal. Not just about being sentimental and any sort of new craze, it is part of a wider shift from the hyper-modern and very high-tech, digital, wireless and less human and tangible back to the warmth, physicality, tangibility and, yes, the slight inconvenience of the past. I am not expecting people to rock a Walkman, have disposable cameras and lug a boombox around like a 1980s/1990s teen, though it is encouraging that we are getting more of a blend between the easy and hi-tech and the more modest and ‘old-fashioned’, if you will. Whilst I have scoffed at trendy celebrities who are doing this almost to get focus and parade this new/old fashion accessory, they do love music too and their profile and example could lead their followers to do likewise. Not rely on what is seen as convenient and fashionable. Expensive and often quite stressful, I do feel wireless is not always best. Also, I do think you get another level and layer when it comes to the listening experience of being plugged in. Though I find in-ear headphones to be a little uncomfortable, I do admire those who use them and carry them around. I will stick with my headphones, but also keep an open mind about balancing the wireless and wired. For now, as a ‘trend’ seems to be more of a norm and common thing, the love and appreciation of the humble wired headphones…
PHOTO CREDIT: George Milton/Pexels
CAN only be a good thing.