About

Listening to Trash refers to photographs of men pretending to listen to a trash container through wire earbuds. Starting May 2014, the photographs have been circulated as reaction images in reference to poor taste in music.

Origin

On May 15th, 2014, Twitter^[1] user @HiphopStrt posted a photograph of unknown origin showing a man pretending to listen to a trash container through wire earbuds, captioned "Me listening to OLAMIDE and WIZKID".

Spread

The image didn't show any spread until 2017, when more posts containing the image appeared on Twitter^[2] and other platforms^[3]. On Twitter, the image gained popularity as a reaction to tweets by various musicians as a way to criticize the quality of their music (examples below).

The earliest use of the other reaction image can be traced to September 1st, 2017. On that day, Instagram^[4] user @kilogramlincoln combined the cropped version of another photograph of a man pretending to listen to a trash container with the caption "What's he listening to?", tagging rapper Lil Yachty in the post.

In the following years, both images saw use as a way to critisize musical artists and dismiss opinions, with examples available on Twitter^[5], Reddit^[6], Instagram^[7] and other platforms.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References