The statue "Water's Soul" by the artist Jaume Plensa is seen in Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S., October 14, 2021. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The statue “Water’s Soul” by the artist Jaume Plensa is seen in Jersey City, New Jersey
(New York, NY) — A quiet revolution is slowly taking overnight the nightlife scene in cities across the globe, as bars and clubs pump up the music and quiet the crowds so they can take it all in. Listening bars, sometimes also called hi-fi or vinyl bars are popping in places like, Brooklyn, San Francisco and Tokyo. The philosophy behind the trend is to take music out of earbuds and play old school vinyl albums loudly on some of the best sound equipment money can buy. Music is the star. Conversation is secondary.
Listening bars can be traced back to Japan and a movement in the 1950s called “Jazz Kissa”, where the Japanese would show up at tiny cafés to hear albums from the West played on high-end stereo systems that most could not afford to buy on their own. The kissa provided a communal space where people sip whiskey or coffee and take in new sounds they had never heard before in the East.
The philosophy behind the modern day kissa bar is to tune out the alerts on one’s phone, for intentional listening of the music that envelops them. Quiet conversation is encouraged. It’s being called a form of escapism for a generation of new night lifers who have never known the world without the interruption of a phone.
Brooklyn’s Eavesdrop listening bar has a state of the art sound system combined with a cozy living room feel. It’s a nod to the Japanese kissas of the 1950s. The crowd can sometimes be hipster Brooklyn, but those who love the space say it’s an incredibly welcoming. At Spiritland in London, the English who gather there say they like the curated experience of listening to songs that have been intentionally picked out by real people, and not music platforms like Spotify and Pandora.
At Studio Mule in Tokyo, bar goers say they are hooked on the hi-fi trend because they have grown tired of consuming music through compressed MP3s and Bluetooth earbuds. They say Studio Mule’s high-fidelity sound system gives them a physical, full-body experience that their parents have always raved about.
The most popular listening bars here in New York City, such as Public Records and Honeycomb, both in Brooklyn have a similar aesthetic. Heavy rugs, dim lighting, wood paneling and hundreds of vinyl records in bookcases ready to be played. The idea is to create a “cocoon” effect, making the bar feel like a sophisticated living room where the outside world ceases to exist for a while.
