I'd Rather Jack

Broadcast 9th September 2016. (Click on this link then scroll down to find the words
The demise of the universal headphone jack?) 

I’m not going to explain Apple’s new headphone solution now; it’s busily being debated on Twitter and in branches of Starbucks, so you can find out for yourselves.

What I am going to say is that maybe we shouldn’t be too sad to see the back of the jack plug.  After all, we’ve lived with it since 1878; that’s almost a hundred years before Cliff Richard released Wired For Sound. Everything else in connection with the way we listen to music has changed so why not Jack? Why should we lament a phallic, metal nubbin that was used mainly for telephone switchboards in the 1920s?

It was in the 1950s, when his bad boy, quarter-inch version was used on transistor radios that Jack really began to swing. People listened on proto-headphones called headsets and he was just the plug for the job.

By the time pop music went massive in the 1960s, Jack was a slimline, mop-top 1/8” inch size. Mind you, he was usually stuck on the end of the wire of those sinister beige earbuds that looked like hearing aids. Anyone who grew up in the 70s listening secretly to the John Peel show in bed is familiar with the instant tinnitus they brought on. Happy days.  For the real hi-fi enthusiast, you could now get proper stereo headphones with earpieces the size of a loaf of Mothers Pride. Even the Fabs had a branded pair: “Stereo headphones with full colour photos of the Beatles on each ear cup.”

By the 1970s, there was no stopping Jack. Whatever the electronic device, Jack came tumbling after - regardless of whether you’d consider using headphones with it or not. What was the point of playing your Stylophone to yourself on headphones? Surely the point was to annoy as many people as possible.

Without doubt the greatest boot-up the Jack got was when Sony launched the Walkman in 1979. Overnight his lightweight, slimline looks became emblematic of fast moving, modernity. And Apple’s white earbuds continued the winning streak. Now no journey is complete without Jack and branded headphones.

So now the company that kept him alive has abandoned him, surely Jack’s on the way out. After all, we’ve moved on from all the other outmoded ways of listening to sound  - who, other than museum curators, cares about phonographic cynlinders? 8 track cartridges? Cassettes or indeed “Hear Muffs – the firstheadphones you wouldn’t kick out of bed”?

To be fair to Jack, though, he’s a simple, cheap and effective bit of design.  Plus of course he’s not just for music. Any electronic device, which makes a noise that we want to keep private has a 3.5mm hole all ready for him. Try playing a Gameboy, using Skype, or watching Netflix on your tablet while your wife tries to sleep.  Jack is always in bed with you.

So it’s not goodbye, yet old friend. There are still plenty of people out there who are going to turn to you whatever some Bluetoothed suit in trainers tells them. There are still people who, quite frankly, would rather Jack, than Fleetwood Mac.