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Nicole Travis has been listening to Harry Styles since his One Direction days. Ever since, she’s been “obsessed.”

So, when she heard The Sound Garden Syracuse was hosting a listening party for Styles’ new album, she knew she had to be there.

“I’ve always been like, ‘Harry’s the best looking, the best singer,’” Travis, a Syracuse University Ph.D. student, said. “I’ve always been Harry.”

In honor of Harry Styles’ new album — “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.” — roughly two dozen fans packed The Sound Garden to celebrate the release. On Friday, the record store’s speakers played the 43-minute album from start to finish.

Inside the record store, exclusive Harry Styles stickers, pins and posters were handed out to fans. Fans searched through boxes of vinyl, CDs and posters on Friday, and many grabbed physical copies of other records even after purchasing Styles’ new album. Some fans danced along to the music as they shopped through The Sound Garden’s other vinyl offerings.

Attendees donned Styles-themed accessories and merchandise — like disco ball earrings, concert tour-themed tote bags and hats.

Some attendees, like SUNY ESF graduate student Greyson Flynn, wore two Styles merch pieces to the listening party: a black “Love On Tour” hoodie and a hat that read “Harry is my friend.”

Travis wore a tote bag with a printed photo of Styles and a pink “Love on Tour” sweatshirt. As longtime fans, Travis and Flynn went to the listening party together.

Jennifer Houser visited The Sound Garden Syracuse to listen to Harry Styles’ new album with her two daughters and husband. During the listening party, Houser participated in a raffle. Dana Kim | Staff Photographer

“The artists that I can listen to, you can tell they put in the love,” Flynn said.

SU graduate student Danique Schuurman is also an avid Styles listener. She has seen three Styles’ concerts and plans to go to her fourth in June.

Although Schuurman had already listened to the album before coming to the listening party, she wanted to connect with others.

“I just want to see the other reactions and experience it,” Schuurman said.

But this wasn’t the record store’s first celebration for a new album; they began hosting listening parties when Paramore released “This Is Why” in 2023. After the positive response from customers, The Sound Garden began hosting more listening parties to promote their independent record store and connect with fans, said Casey Keefe, manager of The Sound Garden Syracuse.

“You feel a bit more engaged and you get to connect to other people who also have the same love in the artist as you do,” Keefe said.

Keefe also sees these listening parties as a way to reconnect with physical media. Since so many people are exhausted with the digital age, he said, vinyl and CDs can help people reconnect with artists and the pieces of art themselves. By holding a physical copy of the album, fans can better understand and connect with it, Keefe said.

That’s what the aim of the listening parties is, he said.

Attendees of different ages gathered together to listen to the former One Direction star’s music.

Jennifer Houser, who participated in the event with her two daughters and husband, went home with the new album in a vinyl box set. Her daughters especially appreciated the copy, she said.

Like Travis, Houser has been listening to Styles since he was in One Direction. Now, her daughters have become fans.

Keefe hopes that listening parties like these can allow record stores to grow a culture with their customers.

“It’s all about the vibes and being able to share the space with people who are like-minded,” Keefe said. “It’s still a love for the artist or the music itself.”

Published on March 7, 2026 at 12:41 pm