Surrendering to Billie Eilish's whispers can prevent "the clash"; Also, look at how Apple was able to capture (once again) the spirit of the times and turn headphones into a growing business;
Those who studied Apple's latest financial reports and looked deeper into its interpretations were amazed to learn that Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, has made headphones the company's fastest growing product line. Those headphones that are wonderfully designed for the human ear, with Noise Cancellation technology and bass at the right level, are more than headphones - they are the spirit of the times.
While it is unclear whether Apple created the trend or recognized it earlier than anyone else, it is difficult to argue with the facts: millennials are addicted to high-quality and fashionable headphones. It's not just a fashion statement, it's much more.
Millennials experience the world through headphones. They do this through an intimate, quiet, and gentle filter. This is a counter-reaction to the overload of stimuli and surrounding noise. In this generation, notifications, metrics, impressions, engagement, and likes are all catalysts for adrenaline and anxiety. Funny as it sounds, headphones have become an official medical prescription for this generation.
There is a phenomena, which seems unnoticed by most companies (except for Apple, which makes billions from this).
Let's look at a millennial icon like Billie Eilish. She and her brother, the talented producer, are making millions of young people addicted to their soft, aesthetic, and symmetrical musical productions. While conveying an "open code" for how to dim the world and build walls around the flourishing narcissism of the millennial. Eilish's songs speak for an entire generation: "We are the center of the world and XXX You":
"Lips meet teeth and tongue My heart skips eight beats at once If we were meant to be, we would have been by now See what you want to see, but all I see is him right now"
A glimpse back into the 1980s provides an introspective comparison that stands out today. Gen X chose a different way to perceive the world: no filters. To get rid of the old money's hegemony, the class system, and the social order, they demanded to create a new world, not run away from it.
"Punk" was Gen X's sledgehammer. This is a music genre that worships disharmony, shattered aesthetics, and rebellious lyrics. "The Clash", for example, screamed 40 years ago words that were related to the climate crisis: it was about the world and the surrounding reality rather on their selves.
"The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in Meltdown is expected, the wheat is growing thin Engines stop running, but I have no fear ׳Cause London is drowning I live by the river."
As you may have guessed, this post has nothing to do with music at all. Instead, it is about the analysis of the mindset and impulses of the strongest consumer generation in history.
For brands and companies to capture a large share of this lucrative market, they must adopt an intimate, minimalist, symmetrical, and harmonious tone, and style. Only by whispering the right words can they cross the noise threshold and reach the "headphone generation".