Prior to the advent of recorded audio, music was something people performed together, often as a family or community. Yeah, there were orchestras and professional singers, but the dominant way that people interacted with music was much more ephemeral and communal. Over time, more focus has been placed on music as a form of consumption. It became a marker of personal taste and identity, and importantly it did so in the way that all commodities do over time: in an increasingly individualistic manner.

I think the most immediate way to see how this processed had worked in the recent past is to look at the gentrification and corporate consolidation of music venues. But I think the whole thing about headphones is kind of a combination of these two phenomenon. Music is driven by its space and headphones are literally the driest space possible. And music is also increasingly individualistic under capitalism, so some music dovetails with capitalism better than others