In 2017, Apple removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone. Like most of Apple’s seemingly spontaneous big moves, this left-turn turned out to be quite prescient: as Apple normalized AirPods, other brands’ wireless earbuds followed suit. It eventually made sense for everyone to cut the cord, too.
But that was nearly a decade ago. Taste is cyclical and though the tide goes out, it also comes in.
Wireless earbuds, now omnipresent, are so 2000 and late. Reject modernity, the next generation says, embrace tradition. As such, they’re wearing wired headphones — and loving it.
This should probably not come as a surprise.
You can typically predict (or at least rationalize) new trends by finding the opposite of whatever’s currently ubiquitous.
Trendsters flock to PUMA when arch-rival adidas is at the peak of its powers, low-rise and skinny jeans return when baggy pants were en vogue and pop stars reach for loud slogan T-shirts in the wake of quiet luxury.
These are all whims shaped, reflected and deflected by youth culture, itself dictated by an international collective of influencers, assumed wistfulness, desired distinction, and willful provocation, a confluence borne of TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram.
Specifically, though, why are wired headphones suddenly back as of 2024?
At the core of it all is a sense of nostalgia affected even by people who may not be old enough to have actually developed it themselves. Little wonder that wired headphone curation page @wireditgirls posts photos of contemporary tastemakers like Lily Rose Depp and Addison Rae alongside timeless icons like Lana Del Rey and Jessica Alba.
The case for wired headphones may be made as part of the greater wave of Y2K nostalgia, for instance. They are, after all, emblematic of Walkmans and first-gen iPods.
Wired headphones are a tangible callback to the Before Times, an era in which we didn’t have quite literally every song ever made within our pockets.
20 years ago, music — sound, even — was pleasantly selfish. You built the playlist and you listened to it yourself, plugging in headphones to shut out the world.
Wired headphones (or earbuds — they’re colloquially interchangeable terms) are a visible reminder that you cannot hear what anyone around you is saying and, frankly, you don’t care. As many awkward moments as those barely-visible AirPods might cause, wired headphones sidestep them all.
They’re also quaintly clunky. In stark contrast to crisp AirPods, which live within their own sleek little case, wired headphones brashly interfere. They get stuck on doorknobs and tangle up within pockets. They don’t work when accidentally tugged outside of the headphone jack. They’re annoyingly frail.
As such, wired headphones take on an analog quality. It’s like how listening to vinyl records demands proper equipment and forces the listener to think about how they consume tunes, because the act of putting on a record is so intentional.
Wired earbuds are, obviously, plug and play by comparison, though they still channel some of the same willful clunkiness as wearing a pair of clogs. Easy but restrictive.
In substituting a purposeful hindrance in place of streamlined ease, you’re telling everyone that you think for yourself, craving challenge over convenience.
There’s a bit of material benefit, too: Apple, conscious of how much its users enjoy palpable audio connection, sells wired earbuds that plug into modern iPhones’ charging ports and, at $20, are at least $100 cheaper than AirPods.
But the self-challenge of wired earbuds is a sort of luxury, regardless of price.
Like, there’s a knowing juxtaposition in wearing stylish clothes while rocking cheapo headphones and the celebs wiring themselves to their phones are doing so by choice. It’s now as much a fashion statement as any piece of clothing.
Little wonder that, as wired headphones become fashion, they hit the catwalk.
Fashion brands like Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS, Justin Bieber-approved Nahmias, and NYC-based Jane Wade have proposed wired earbuds as a stylish status symbol, simultaneously tapping into the devices’ earned nostalgia and legible design language.
On a physical level, wired earbuds have a slinky appeal that, simply, makes them an appealing accessory.
Whereas dinky AirPods are impossible to see when cocooned in the ear, slim wires dangling from curvaceous buds become a subtly impactful. Wired headphones’ cultural appeal may grant them greater clout but their physical presence is their single greatest asset.
Plus, it makes them far harder to lose. Frankly, that’s reason enough to return to simpler times.