Gen Z music fans are now shunning night clubs for quieter pursuits. In a world drowning in noise, 20-somethings are swapping dance venues for listening bars. In these mini museums to music, patrons serenely sip coffee or cocktails while the owner curates the soundtrack from their own collection of vinyl.

The first listening bars, or ongaku kissa, were created 100 years ago in Japan. Customers drank coffee while European classical music played through high-fidelity speakers. During the 1970s, listening cafés, which now included jazz and rock ’n’ roll, seemed to have reached their peak. But in recent years, the phenomenon has gone global.

A welcome respite from the chaos of the world today, these chill spaces can be found in teahouses and vegan cafés or even squeezed into off-the-grid campers, from Tokyo to Berlin to New York. Luxury brands have also embraced them. In 2025, Italian fashion design brand Valentino opened a pop-up listening bar during the summer at its Madison Avenue store and Virgin Hotels London-Shoreditch launched its new vinyl-lined listening room, Hidden Grooves. Even the Smithsonian is on board. Visitors to the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City can experience a listening room custom-built by Brooklyn-based audio engineer Devon Turnball, known creatively as OJAS, through mid-July.

Listening cafés have become the perfect way to socialize in a post-pandemic world. “This kind of shared listening offers something increasingly rare: low-demand social connection,” says clinical psychologist Gurpreet Kaur, who has a degree in music. “You are with others, but without the pressure to converse, entertain or manage social cues. That drop in demand allows the nervous system to soften rather than brace.”