Keeping Up With the Rapidly Changing Headphone Trends

By Billie Allee

The world is constantly changing: trends going in and out, styles, clothes, accessories constantly changing, but one thing that is constantly talked about and is owned by almost everyone is headphones. Whether it’s $30 wired headphones, wireless earbuds, or big Bluetooth headphones, kids and young adults have been using headphones to listen to services like Spotify, and Apple Music, audiobooks, and even just for the aesthetic. 

The reviving of wired headphones directly correlates to era trends coming back. For example, recently the early 2000s or “y2k” aesthetic has been making a significant comeback. One student at LREI elaborates on the correlation between style trends and headphones, “because of the trend cycle, we are going back to the 2000s and that kind of aesthetic, obviously they didn’t have Bluetooth headphones so that’s why the wired headphone  look is back in.” With these old/new styles people are wearing wired headphones because that is what style icons wore in the early 2000s. 

Not only are wired headphones a style choice, they are also a $30 item, while the cheapest pair of AirPods are $129. Many people don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on an item that has similar features to a $30 item has, especially since replacing an Airpod can be a large expense, whereas wired headphones are cheaper to replace. 

If you were to walk around LREI, you would see students wearing wired headphones, but recently there has been an exponential increase in students wearing chunky noise-canceling headphones like the AirPods Max, Sony, and Bose headphones. 

Wired headphones are trendy and have been since 2020, but so are their polar opposites, wireless noise-canceling headphones like the AirPods Max. A Teen Vogue article written about the new headphone trends said, “Yes, FashionTok has officially swapped 2021’s must-have “It” accessory (aka wired headphones) for chunky over-the-head “cans” — nicknamed for their noise-canceling ability.”

In addition, an Essence article elaborates on the new trend of wearing big headphones, writing “Last year, fashion writer India Roby let us know that AirPod Max Pros were the “it” accessory, and I quote, “It’s like a BBL but for your ears.” Because celebrities have started to be photographed with the new headphones there has been a chain reaction resulting in people all over the city wearing these new headphones. 

Within the LREI community there are students (and teachers) that wear both wired headphones and chunky headphones. An anonymous student had a comment on the recent trends, stating “it is funny that both $30 wired headphones are popular while $400 noise canceling headphones are trending too. They are two very different experiences but can match with similar and different moods and aesthetics. Because of how advanced noise canceling headphones have gotten, wearing them is an extremely cool experience, and are trendy for a reason.”

But what really caused the sudden increase of earbuds and headphones? With people working from home during COVID, people have been using earphones much more than pre-Covid. This has revolutionized the headphone world and led to tech advancements and a much increased revenue of headphones. According to a Business Wire article, The wireless headphones market is expected to grow by USD 8.23 billion during 2020-2024, according to Technavio. The report offers a detailed analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wireless headphones in optimistic, probable, and pessimistic forecast scenarios.” 

Additionally, an article from RBR discussed the growing role of headphones post-pandemic, stating “Futuresource also finds that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the demand for True Wireless (TWS) earbuds. These devices have improved significantly in terms of connectivity and battery life and are able to satisfy multiple use cases, which benefited its uptake during the pandemic.” Apps are being created so that you can change the setting of your headphones to make them noise canceling or ambient sound. The app also allows you to change the equalizers in the music and the app even analyzes your ear shape to optimize the audio experience so it’s almost like a real live performance. 

Wired headphones and bluetooth noise canceling headphones are too completely different experiences and style aesthetics, yet somehow are trending right alongside each other. Surprisingly enough, they have helped create new advances in tech and hopefully will continue to be a part of the fashion industry.

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