If you're making health decisions based on what's hip and what's not, you need to reevaluate your priorities.
Many earplugs can be very unobtrusive in appearance unless people are looking directly at your ear canal. Not to mention that many, in clubs, are already going to be drunk or otherwise inebriated. Unless you wear bulky hearing protection like the guys on a flight line crew, few will notice, and those that do won't remember.
