Headphone culture

In this week's Vista:

Headphone Culture: Tune In or Tune Out?

Remember when the kid who perpetually donned headphones was considered a loner or a misanthrope. They just couldn’t stand to listen to the world, so they tuned us all out? Now, how often does someone have to take out their earbuds to talk to you? Or worse yet, how many people talk to you with headphones in?

Back in the early 70s, fanatic audiophiles tuned out the rest of the world and plugged their bulky can shaped headphones in to whatever Procol Harum or Pink Floyd album they were listening to. By pulling their high fidelity Sennheisers over their ears, they let the world of the music coil completely around them and could immerse themselves completely in every solo and back beat.

The march toward mobile music took headphones along for the ride and received a boost in the late 70s with the commercialization of Sony’s Walkman. Each listener could plug headphones (albeit lo-fi factory issued ones) into a portable device and take music wherever they wanted. This technology evolved into Discmans and iPods. The hoi poloi no longer had to ride the subway in awkward silence; Devo could ride the train with them.

Widespread headphone culture has developed most completely in the last half-decade however. In the 80s and 90s, Walkmans and Discmans were Sony’s largest selling product, but headphone quality was poor, and tapes and CDs were limited in portability. Music fans would have to cart bulky tape and CD cases around if they planned to listen to more than an hour’s worth of music.

In 2001, Apple introduced the first generation iPod, allowing users to load hundreds and soon thousands of songs onto a device which could fit in most purses and pockets, outshining every other mp3 player on the market. The shock of loading hours of music onto an iPod after years of scratched CDs and poor quality tapes was enough to send the audio junkies into a spending frenzy. The technology trickled down to the masses, and now those little white buds are as ubiquitous in American culture as the shoes on our feet.

Now it seems that people can’t go anywhere without taking their music with them. Headphones have become a common part of shopping, walking to class, and exercising. Musical mobility has reached new heights, and everyone is able to soundtrack their everyday activities. We can create playlists for every mood or flippant thought, and take these “albums” wherever we go.

But what have we really accomplished with this saturated headphone culture? We are no longer forced to listen to the world around us: other people’s conversations, or even our own thoughts. If tune out enough, we can ignore our own psyche as easily as the girl chatting on her cell phone next to us. We do not have to force conversations with acquaintances; we can avoid awkward moments by technologically sticking our fingers in our ears.

Today, unlike in the past, the anti-social behavior exhibited by wearing headphones in public is widely accepted and marketed. How anti-social is the behavior though when these music lovers decide to share their music with the headphone free? Few invest in sound-isolating canal headphones, and so half the time, you are forced to listen to others musical choices if you decide to live a technologically free life.

Fanatic music fans may feel animosity toward the universality of portable music. Their private musical culture has been bastardized since Jane Doe can listen to Paris Hilton and the Pussycat Dolls and look the same as the hipster rocking to Pavement and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

So the next time you walk to class, the choice is yours. Listen to the world around you, or listen to your soundtrack about the world around you.