People are wearing wired EarPods again because of the 'music aesthetic'

EarPods on iPhone (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

People are wearing wired EarPods like it's 2001 all over again.
The trend seems to have been started by celebrities for reasons unknown.

Here's something you didn't expect to hear today — EarPods are fashionable again. Or, at least, wired headphones and earbuds are.

The news, as shocking as it might be, comes from a few different angles. It also isn't a new phenomenon, either. Back in 2019 Vogue suggested that celebs were ditching their AirPods in favor of something a little more "vintage." Now, TikTok has had its say, too.

Apparently, people are going back to wires because it's part of the "music aesthetic." That's a thing, see. It's the same as people who listen to vinyl records, too. According to the TikTok account @thedigitalfairy, at least.

Sure, why not. Also, today we all learned that music has an aesthetic.

@thedigifairy

I'd still very much wager that AirPods are the best iPhone listening experience you're going to come across right now, but I'm so far removed from being fashionable that I've yet to spell it right the first time all the way through this post. So there's that. But who am I to argue with the rich and famous?

Not a fan of EarPods but still looking to jump onto this new fashion trend? These are the best wired alternatives to EarPods we've seen. I'll be sticking to my AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, personally!

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.