Get out your good vibes

How rock concerts can change mindsets

Okay, raise your hands: who remembers the Sony Walkman? Your first one, with the cassette tape.

Almost universally described as having revolutionized how people consume audio, the Walkman created the category of portable music players. And individual listening.

Because of it, the “mixtape” – with personalized song collections – also emerged, well before streaming and Spotify.

And it was oh, so cool. Check-out the ads:

• Here, one from the year I graduated high school (yipes).

• A cheeky reflective pondering version.

• And two consecutive ads with multi-gen vision.

The Walkman’s coolness rippled across cultures

It got us using headphones – made them acceptable outdoors, moving around. Its 1979 launch coincided with a jogging boom. Suddenly, runners could take their music with them, making it more enjoyable. Helped people start or stick with jogging. Music made running feel like a lifestyle. Fitness brands began marketing to “active music lovers.”

Before the Sony Walkman, one rarely saw a person wearing headphones in public. Headphones signaled a professional or expert – audio engineers and radio operators, hi-fi enthusiasts listening at home, pilots, telephone operators, military personnel.

Over time, of course, the Walkman has been replaced by smartphones, earbuds, streaming platforms. Yet think about how many new mindsets and possibilities that first portable music device set in motion. And since then, how quickly we have adapted to each change.

Brilliant!

Let’s take another audio device: the hearing aid. People tend to start losing some hearing ability already by the time they are 30. Most of us may need at least a little hearing help eventually.

Here, we see signs of innovation, both within and outside of the industry:

Take, for example, Apple AirPods (1). In 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the Apple AirPods Pro 2 to be sold over the counter with a software “Hearing Aid Feature.” For mild to moderate hearing loss. This decision has potential to mainstream hearing support, similar to how the Walkman mainstreamed how we consumed audio. Suddenly, “hearing health” is a thing. Cool at all ages. (I see earbuds so often, I sometimes feel like sticking mine in my ears just for the “look.”)

Now you can buy such hearing support in the States at Apple Stores (the beloved consumer tourist location), as well large retailers such as Walmart, Target and Best Buy.

Hearing aid manufacturers themselves will bring new technology – devices nearly invisible, Bluetooth connected, audio streaming, apps. In other words, fitting more into a consumer lifestyle.

The challenge for established players? When hearing loss is more severe, medical fitting and service at the moment remains important. Yet retail locations owned by hearing aid companies still often look more like doctor’s offices than the Apple store. That’s huge difference in the feeling and reason to go there.

How about we flip the old story? Go to rock concerts. I once had a colleague whose music could be heard “leaking” through his individual headphones. Always. Made us all smile. I’m sure he will be a hearing health and wellness candidate one day. He probably knows it, too. And a great place to find him is at a concert. Give him a quick hearing test before it. Then let him do it again at the next concert or when he is ready. (Make it short and fun. Like a selfie. Don’t give him a coupon to do it later. Start the awareness now. Be part of where he enjoys being.) Flip the old story!

This intersection of consumable lifestyle audio and medically helpful audio shows great potential. Pretty soon, when we ask ourselves what is the difference between the vibe of a hearing aid and that of an earbud, the answer could be “nothing.” Only history. And the old stories.

Let’s celebrate the possibilities

The next time you open your playlist or podcast, take a moment to thank the innovators. The Sony Walkman inventors (2).

We need those new vision believers.

For the rest of you who want to sell stuff to us, I have a message: get out your good vibes vision and build us something innovative, useful, and beautiful. Fun even. That changes our wider lifestyle for the better. Comes to us through destinations that we enjoy. Make us cool.

Don’t worry, we humans have a long track record of adapting to fast tech changes.

I am excited to see what the next decade will bring, that we could not have imagined. Those new ideas will change cultures and life quality. And, importantly, our mindsets. Often for the better.

Let’s all get out our good vibes!

Notes

(1) To be clear, I have no vested interest in or preference for one supplier over another. My motivation is to influence positive mindset changes that will drive better product design – and thereby use – for important needs. I love observing how innovation and technology enable culture change that disrupts old entrenched stories. Often making something cool in the mainstream. Worthy of us as consumers. Here is a link to the Apple Airpod Pro 3, the more recent version with a hearing aid feature. Take a look at how they now talk about health overall and hearing health specifically.

Read more here, if interested:

• In Forbes. About potential for market disruption.
• An ABC News video about young people and removing the stigma with “super cool features.”
• And here an original story in The New York Times. About making it easy and affordable. Democratizing hearing health – so that the 70% of people who could use, yet refuse to buy, hearing aids might actually change their views.

(2) The portable music player invention and success story was, of course, its own longer – and fun personal – story. Never underestimate the many steps and persistence required to reach that breakthrough moment.

Sony Walkman invention and early year expectations:

• Nippon.com
• Iconeye.