Headphone Culture in the 21st century

[Melooon]

I am curious about Headphone culture! I think its worth talking about it because it changes quite fast and it would be interesting to have a historical record of people attitudes and ideas around headphones - particularly from people at different ages and from regions of the world! 

Here are some key observations:

In the late 90s EVERYONE used super light on-ear headphones like the ones pictured below, they had thin foam and were kinda painful. I don't recall there being any particular cultural or aesthetics association about them, they were just the way you listened to your CDs and Tapes. For the most part they were considered semi-disposable and most people just used whatever ones came with their CD player 



This style started to change in the mid 2000s with the popularity of the iPod and other MP3s, suddenly everyone had earbuds - I don't recall a particular distinction between people with apple earbuds, or people with other-brands, however I do think you would have gotten picked on for wearing the 90s over-ear style. The trend of just using whatever earphones came with your MP3 player (and later phone) stayed in this era, but it would soon end.

In the early 2010s earbuds started to fall out of fashion and there was a trend for super-sized over-ear headphones; there was a bit of a cultural war between people who had Beats headphones (they were very popular) and anyone interested in music who was super anti-Beats. For me this was the first time I was aware of a class/culture related to headphone style; it was also the first time it became normal to start spending money on headphones for the average person. In 2009 I would spend around 15 euro a year on a new set of earphones, by 2014 I was happy to spend 200 a year on headphones. For my own part, I wore on-over-ear headphones made by Marshall at this time to be hipster The style of headphones you wore at this time said a lot about your interests and your cultural affiliations 



The big era of headphone slowly gave way to wireless earbuds in the late 2010s when headphone jacks started to be removed from phones. I remember mid-10s bluetooth earbuds were pretty clunky and had to have an extra wire connecting each earbud, but that changed with the AirPods. At the start these were excessively expensive and not something I saw at home, but I did see them everywhere on a trip to New York in 2018.



By the 2020s bluetooth headphones had become more common and desirable. I remember a friend in the UK getting a set of AirPods in 2020 and saying it felt like it made them a member of the "upper class". Having AirPods was an indicator of wealth and social mobility for a lot of people.

In 2025 bluetooth earbuds are now affordable and ubiquitous; while AirPods are still expensive, I see them mostly worn by delivery drivers (im guessing for the hands-free features) and I don't think they hold the same class connotation. For average people walking to work, modest black over-ear bluetooth headphones and generic bluetooth earbuds seem to be the most common type I see at the moment 

In contrast, I've noticed office workers and people who want to show-off wealth now all wear AirPod Max's (over-ear headphones which are really expensive 500 euro plus).

In contrast again I see the more indie college-student crowd has started to swing back to on-ear 90s style headphones like KOSS or other wired earbuds - when getting near libraries the number of KOSS headphones rapidly increases! 


That get's us up to today! I'll report back with future observations, but Id like to hear about headphone culture where you live; whats happening with headphones? And do you think they will continue to be so culturally significant?

I also wonder if the reliance on battery headphones that need to be replaced every two years is sustainable for if people will get sick of it? (As of writing its EXTREMELY uncommon for bluetooth headphones to have replaceable batteries and battery technology only lasts about two years of daily recharges)

[Kafei]

I only ever use wired headphones/earbuds and nowadays it's become so rare around me that one guy asked why there was a wire on my headphones. At first I thought he was jokingly making the observation that most people use Bluetooth so I laughed, but then he looked genuinely surprised when he saw it was connected to my smartphone. To this day I don't know what that person expected from that wire.

I don't get the Bluetooth thing and I don't like that jacks tend to disappear.

Also I'm the kind of person to have a bag full of all the possible kind of wires for audio at my place.

[TheFrugalGamer]

Where I am, it's a constant struggle to find headphones and earbuds that don't break the bank, and last more than a few months at a time. In addition to that, the folks in my family are a little butter fingered, and we have this terrible habit of losing the earbuds, either wholesale or losing just one and then carrying half a case around from then on. I kept losing mine until I picked up a pair JLab Minis that have a keychain attachment present, and I clipped them to a small bag I keep on hand. The bag + several keychains is much harder to misplace!

When I'm not using those, I prefer the ipod-style wired earbuds (I think I chose the wrong one in the poll, whoops!). I had an old pair made by Sony for the longest time, until they stopped making that model. They were comfortable and managed to stay together for a decent amount of time, and when the last pair was gone, I was not a happy camper. I floated around using different brands, but wasn't happy with anything, until I happened across a pair that a seller on eBay tossed into a package along with an old MP3 player I ordered. They have no branding whatsoever, and I'm sure they cost at most about $5 next to a checkout stand somewhere. Welp, wouldn't you know, these stupid things have lasted far longer than any of my other earbuds, and I've been using them constantly ever since. Weird, huh?

[Slix]

I've been a fan of the basic Apple earbuds/EarPods since I got my first set in the early 2000s, but I've been using the 2012-style EarPods since well, 2012, across all my various iPods and stuff. People always talk about how these headphones have "awful sound" and obviously, a $200 pair of over the year headphones or AirPods Pro or something will sound better, but I never had an issue with the sound I get from them. I like having them not block out the sound around me when I'm out and about, and they do a good enough job for me! I do have a set of over the year (cheap) headphones I use at my desk sometimes but I don't like to carry them because they're so bulky.

It is rather interesting to have lived through the "AirPods are so expensive! Why would anyone want those, give me my headphone jack back!" brief period of time when they launched only to have just about everyone using AirPods and other similar wireless headphones in just a year or two after that.

I do wonder what people think of me when I am out on a walk in my neighborhood and on my phone playing Pokemon Go but also using wired headphones that go into my pocket to *another device* they can't see. :P

[Skykristal]

I use Aladin Audio Acura Pro over-ear headphones via Bluetooth for I think 7 years now. Absolute banger. In-ears hurt my ears really badly after a short time, and I prefer to have the sound quality of over ears, They're so nice if you want to forget the world around you. However, I don't use them when walking/outside because they are made of metal and quite heavy. I never listen to music there anyway as I wanna be aware of my surroundings.

[Blue]

I use Bluetooth earbuds, specifically JLAB ones, cause they're cheap and work well for that money. I used to mostly use wired earbuds fan until every single pair I would by would stop working after like 2 weeks, it was insane. When I was younger this was not the case, but in the last 3-4 years, I haven't been able to find wired earbuds that actually lasted me for some time 

I haven't had any problems with these Bluetooth earbuds since I got them (I had a different pair before this but they were even cheaper and didn't work as well, which later got crushed by a car. it wasn't a brand pair but they still worked well, their battery wasn't as strong as the ones I have now and they knew to disconnect if you remove the but from your ears from time to time). I'm a very techy person who cares about sound quality to a huge degree, so these work well for me.

[candycanearter07]

I use bluetooth earbuds with a ear hook for my phone (my ears are shaped weird and non hooked ones fall out constantly), I would LOVE to have wired earbuds but apple.. at least its carrying case is also a charger. At home I have some wired headphones for the computer.

[Rosaria Delacroix]

I usually use Sony stuff- it's just what I grew up with. I have a fantastic little pair of bluetooth noise cancelling earbuds from them that are perfect for travelling with: they are the only reason I was able to sit through large university lectures, because of my sensory processing issues. They were a pretty penny, (about 300$) but I used them for five years without any issues whatsoever: and they're still in fantastic condition, I like to use them while playing on my phone too, super easy syncing.

I recently got my hands on a decent pair of Sony headphones, (they prioritize Bass, so great for listening to music with for me) so I'll be using them once I'm back on campus: I think they'll do a better job of broadcasting 'I'm busy, do not disturb' while working on classwork in forgotten corners, since the earbuds aren't nearly as visible with my dark hair. Prior to that I was wearing some cute pink cat ear headphones, but those draw the wrong sort of attention in public, so my more subdued headphones will still be fun to customize with stickers, but not nearly as annoying.

[_ghost_]

I originally used wired earbuds exclusively just because they were cheap and easy to find. I still prefer wired, but I always hated earbuds; they were just convenient, and that's why I used them. I ended up using the Apple ones most of the time, which are the worst because the shape and the lack of any rubber or foam cushioning made them really painful. They never sat correctly in my ears and I had to adjust them constantly. Then phones stopped having the headphone jack, a trend I loathe, so I had to switch to bluetooth (or get an adapter, and those are so easy to break or lose that I kind of gave up on them), and this is when I switched to over-ear headphones. They're way more comfortable, I like the look of them, and aren't actually that much more expensive. One of the pairs I have also has the option to connect it to a headphone jack with an aux cord, which is what I do when I use it with my laptop, so most of the time I'm using them like wired headphones, anyway.

[Y2KStardust]

I don't mind the concept of bluetooth headphones/earbuds, but personally I NEED a wire bc otherwise these things get lost so easily. I can't lose something that stays plugged into my ipod (yep, i still have one, a nano even!) or my phone ^^;
I even make sure when I'm buying new devices that they have headphone jacks for this exact reason :p

[Eunice]

I'm agin it. I see young folks walking around town, eyes down on their phone, headphones on, completely separated from the world around them. I have to say, I saw one young lass walk right through dog poop and I thought it served her right. If she had been looking where she was going, she could have avoided it. Why do the young want to be out of the world like that? I mean, I get it that town is often busy, but they miss so much. They might as well walk around blind-folded as well as deaf, with headphones on. It angers me that I have to walk around them, when they are young and fit, and I'm over 60 and have bad knees, so have to use a walking stick. What happened to people respecting others? I tell you, the world has gone all to hell.

[KiwiMeowo]

I wasn't a fan of bluetooth earbuds/headphones, whenever I was playing games, it would always have a small delay. So most of the time, I use wired earbuds, it's far more convenient, one downside is that the wires would get tangled up.

My sister recently bought me a pair of bluetooth headphones, but because I play games with the sound muted lately, I didn't have much problem with it. The major downside with the headphones is it is so big, I have no place to store it other than hanging it on my neck.

Headphones, earbuds, wired or bluetooth, as long as it's useable, I don't really mind. But there's one thing I can't stand: why do bluetooth wired earbuds even exist???

[BlazingCobaltX]

I think your timeline is mostly right, Melon, though I would say the modern trend is a 50/50 between AirPods and Sony WH-series earphones (and copycats) of various colours. It's definitely become more common to go with headphones, which I understand: If you have to go wireless anyways, might as well use something high-quality. I have not seen the return of retro headphones happen myself so far, but I find it believable looking at the trend cycles these past years.

For me personally, I have TMJ and cannot wear headphones without getting an immediate headache. In-ears are the only option for me. On top of that, I have rather small ears, so anything with the plastic that I have to push in will not stick for more than 10 minutes. The classic earbud design is the only thing that works for me, significantly decreasing my options in the market.

I currently use Apple earphones as those are the only ones that really fit me comfortably without any issue. For nearly everything I use the wired ones, because I am quite clumsy and know I will lose the Bluetooth ones easily. It's also much more convenient to swap devices when I just have to plug a jack out and in (downside: my phones have to have a jack). But I do also have a pair of AirPods in the same shape, which I only use when I'm in the gym or cleaning the house. Those are two activities for which the wired earbuds are too tedious.

Using the wired ones is unfortunately not that sustainable: They break every year. I've yet to find a worthy replacement that fits my exact needs.

[Kolo]

I've used wired earbuds basically my entire life... I can't stand the over-ears and my conception of wireless earbuds being exorbitantly expensive has not faded despite the economy shifting on that hahah. When I was much younger the computers we used had those exact thin-foam over-ear headphones we had to wear when we took standardized testing, and it was a decidedly miserable experience I have no interest in repeating. Plus, I like to lay down when just listening to music, and earbuds are much easier for that.

I don't bump into a whole lot of unique people during my day-to-day but I don't notice most people wearing headphones... but I also live around a lot of older people, so maybe they just have a distaste for the kind of "leave me alone" energy headphones evokes when worn in public. They're all a bit overly friendly, too, very eager to talk to you and tell you all their woes, which probably adds to why I don't see headphones around. When I do see people with headphones in, I do assume it's a way to create distance and ward off social intrusions, even if it's say, only one earbud.

[Kalka]

Nothing very different from Melon's experience for me. It was the clunky metal bands with two foam discs that you put on your ears and suddenly earpods popped up from I-pod & first touch-phones. When I was younger I indeed considered it as a wealth display but buying my first I-phone made me regret it. I was forced to use I-tunes, couldn't upload anything on my phone, it wasn't working with my battery-powered thumb-sized MP3 with liquid crystals screen (imagine a calculator screen) and people were amazed "wow you're an iphone user too now ! welcome to the club !"

When my I-phone broke I said "never again" and stuck to android. I went back to my battery-powered MP3 and was pleased to see that I could move a music from one device to another without hassle. As for the ears I always went with what was provided with phone or MP3 and it's only in 2017-2018 that I considered saving up a small amount of money to afford something better. I really hate ear plugs, it gets dirty, it's not practical if you have small ear conducts and don't even start me on the ear wax that get accumulated in there. I cleaned it once a week, it was a bit gross.

Now I'm using an overear wireless JBL headphone. I had an non-branded overear wired version but since I often take bus and walk, it got stuck several times. Now I'm using a bluetooth MP3 with the bluetooth JBL and everything is perfect. I don't care much about logo or brands as long as there's minimum quality for me. I have JBL stuff at home and it's pretty good for the price.

However I do not understand people paying 400$+ for musician-tier music and they said "the quality is so good !!!" and you look at their playlist it's a bunch of MP3. Use .ogg format or something at least if you afford stuff like this, otherwise it's just giving jam to pigs ("donner de la confiture à des cochons" in french).

But that's only my own opinion, people are free to buy and wear whatever they want be it I'phone or aliexpress 1.99$ earbuds. I'm quite happy for a few years with my current headset.