There's actually a biological reason for this, believe it or not. Language and music "time share" many characteristics of both hemispheres of the brain. Language and music are processed in different hemispheres.
Read pages 20-26 of the book "How Music Really Works" by Wayne Chase. It breaks it down in detail.
I'd be perfectly fine if everything was just mixed mono. I see little value in stereo. I'm weird like that.
like @zaphod said, its mostly to make it sound wider. in mono, everything sounds like its in the center of your skull. in stereo, some stuff it a few inches from my ear (wherever the drivers are), some stuff can be in my head, some can even be in my throat if that makes sense
Things like Spotify or your phone/earbuds themselves usually have a mono setting. I use it all the time when only wearing one earbud. Beatles songs are notorious for splitting vocals to one ear only.
The solution is already right there. But let me guess, "No, I want to use my old wired earbuds from 1995 and they should accommodate me in my archaic niche use case instead of me upgrading my earbuds to enjoy the new features developed like forced mono"?
Beatles songs are notorious for splitting vocals to one ear only.
FYI, you're listening to the wrong mix then. Beatles albums (particularly those before The White Album, or maybe Sgt. Pepper/Magical Mystery Tour, I forget exactly) were never recorded with stereo in mind. The tech was pretty new, and the stereo mixes of those songs/albums were more of a novelty.
If you're listening to the 2009 Remasters, make sure you're listening to the mono versions if it's an album prior to 1967-1968 or so, otherwise you're gonna get this "fake stereo", panning a mono signal between L and R, bullshit.
karaoke moment
They *just* got stereo back then , right?
Think this is more an artifact of the way vinyl records worked - since audio can be encoded in two channels via the way the needle moves in certain orientations
