When you were a sophomore...What were you rocking on cassette, 8-track, CD, or *gasp* iPod?*

This would be 1980 for me.
What was rocking my world? The list is WAY too long to post here!

But I always thought 8-Tracks sounded ;lousy, so it was ALL vinyl for me, excepting the "best of" comps I made when I discovered new music! Old and new!

 

1968-69. Mostly listening to AM radio (CHUM and CKOC), but starting to notice a decline in the number of songs I really like a lot. Mid-1969, started listening to CHUM-FM much more.

 

That was the '66-'67 school year. I had a single speaker/mono record player. Listening to:
The Yardbirds
Rolling Stones
Ventures
Lovin' Spoonful
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton
Beatles
Fresh Cream
The Blues Project
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
The Byrds
That's off the top of my head, plus I bought a lot of 45s, whatever struck my fancy at the time - my singles were more eclectic than my LPs.
I tended to buy 45s for the songs and LPs for the guitar players. I started playing in 1965.
Also, the radio was turned on as soon as I got up in the morning for listening while I got ready for school. Probably WNEW-FM, or one of the local NYC AM stations.

 

First thing that came to mind was college, not high school lol my college list is a lot longer than my high school list. In fact I don't really remember a whole lot of what I listened to other than the Beatles because I sure as heck know I wasn't listening to anything current in 2010-'11.

I'll just fill in with the bands I got into during sophomore year of college (fall 2014 thru summer 2015), roughly in chronological order:

Genesis (prog era)
Jethro Tull
Rolling Stones
Pearl Jam
Budgie
ELP
New York Dolls (Got into thru SHtv)
Santana
Alice in Chains
Styx

 

2013-2014 here.

NEW by Paul McCartney
Live At The BBC, Vol. 2 - The Beatles
A lot of 45 singles.

 

Whatever was on the radio. Top 40. Once I got into college my musical eyes were opened.

 

1988. Cassettes of things on the road and CD at home, though my collection was probably mostly informed of Colmbia Record Club selections.

Yes, Foreigner, Genesis, Rush, REM, U2 and INXS. I was possibly starting to get into more heavy stuff at the time, heavy in terms of VH, Def Lep, Aerosmith and Zeppelin.

 

1979 - 1980

I had moved on from the previous years' Alice Cooper obsession to a more general hard rock/60's rock direction. My favorite artists were:

Rainbow (Dio era)
Black Sabbath
Deep Purple
Mountain
Pink Floyd
Janis Joplin
The Doors
Led Zeppelin
The Who (Who's Next and Quadrophenia)
Uriah Heep
Jefferson Airplane (Surrealistic Pillow)
Last album I remember hearing on the last day of my sophomore year was Rush's Permanent Waves.

On the radio I remember hearing The Police, Bruce Springsteen, The Knack, Queen, Styx, Triumph, Rush, Saga, Cheap Trick, and Streetheart.

I kinda miss those years. After sophomore year things changed considerably but up until then I was basically woodshedding, going to school and having few friends and spending hours every night playing records and practicing the bass and doing pencil and pen and ink drawings and reading books. I had no band and no real direction. I was doing everything I could to learn about 60's rock and find out where the various styles from that era ended up. I did very little socially, socially, my entire world was my room and my only company was a handful of friends. I watched virtually no television during all four years of high school. It was an interesting time.

 

That would be 9/71 to 6/72. I think I bought Exile On Main St. in early June 72 right after school was out so I always called it the summer of Exile. A few more favorites all on vinyl...

ABB-At Filmore East
CSNY-4 Way Street
America's debut
George Harrison-All Things Must Pass and all other things Beatles
Layla
Rod Stewart-Every Picture
Faces-Nod
the whole Dylan catalogue up to that point
Rolling Stones-Beggars,Let It Bleed,Ya-Ya's,SF
Van Morrison-Tupelo Honey
....and many more

 

Hey Little Girl - Dee Clark
Say Man - Bo Diddley
Living Doll - Cliff Richard

 

As a sophomore, CD's had only barely just become a "thing" and a lot of the early releases that I recall were Jazz and Classical, although there were a few modern releases (i.e. Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms) that were popular. I had to make do with recording The Beatles, Solo Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Simon & Garfunkel, Pink Floyd, etc. onto cassettes, in most cases from the original vinyl that my parents and friends' parents owned. I just used the cheapest cassettes - I did not understand that there were varying qualities of cassettes at that time and thought "any cassette is as good as any other." I was only like 14 though. I'd mostly play vinyl at home and use the cassettes in my Walkman or in (other peoples) cars.

 

1970-71. Stuff released while I was in school, September-May

Aqualung
Ram
Sticky Fingers
Tumbleweed Connection
Chicago III
L.A. Woman
Tapestry
Tea for the Tillerman
All Things Must Pass
etc.

Records only. I lost my iPod charger.

 

1995

hmmm that was close to the transition from 90's rock to classic rock. It happened the first time I heard Pink floyd. it was either 95 or 96. Not sure. I think i was a junior when I discovered classic rock with pink floyd.
So, in 1995 was stone temple pilots,soundgarden,alice in chains,guns n roses,metallica, nirvana(still)
oh..1995 was the year i discovered Radiohead with the Bends. They became my favourite band after nirvana and before pink floyd.

 

I got my first CD player for Christmas 1985. I was a sophomore. That said, I was still mainly buying vinyl. Never got into cassettes for pre-recorded music.

 

1978-79 The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who. I always felt I should have been born earlier.

 

1964-Beach Boys, Beatles, Motown, Stones among others at the time.

 

1977 - 78

Kansas - Point of No Return
Styx - Grand Illusion
Billy Joel - The Stranger
Queen - News of the World
Foreigner - Double Vision
Boston - Don't Look Back *
Cheap Trick - In Color and Heaven Tonight *

* Still have the 8-tracks

 

Sophomore? 1988-1989
Everything that Neil Young had released up until then - cass, CD, vinyl
The Doors - vinyl and CD
Any and all Beatles...Cds, vinyl, cassette dubs of their CDs (super-high quality)
Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - cass & CD
Metallica (Especially Puppets, Garage Days & Justice) - CD
The Cure ~ Disintegration - CD
Crue ~ Dr. Feelgood - CD
Buffalo Springfield - Retrospective vinyl
The Byrds ~ Younger Than Yesterday - vinyl (stereo)
U2 ~ All albums up until that point - cass & CD
All Simon & Garfunkel albums - CD & Bookends, Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m. vinyl
A few dumb heavy metal albums
GnR ~ Appetite - CD
Random other stuff...great memories associated with all of the above.

 

The Kinks
The Raspberries
Supertramp
King Crimson
Linda Ronstandt
Rosy Music
Peter Gabriel

 

Back when I was a sophomore in 2006, while my contemporaries were off listening to Brittany Spears, Ashley Simpson and a couple of fellows known as Little John and Little Wayne, I had one guy whose music I was hungry for:





Sure, the other kids laughed at me, but looking back on it now, I'm not sorry for not conforming to that garbage being passed off as "music". I still love his music to this day.

 

1987 - cassettes

Rush
Kiss
Van Halen
Genesis
Asia
Yes
Who

 

Ay yi yi. I was all over the place at that point but moving swiftly towards prog(and then towards college radio in tandem in another year or so).

Styx Paradise Theater
Rush -all of it!
Reo Speedwagon-Hi Infidelity
Yes-Close to the Edge/Fragile
Asia-Asia
Alan Parsons Project-Eye In the Sky, Turn of a Friendly Card
Journey-Escape

 

2008-2009

Back to Black - Amy Winehouse
Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
Greatest Hits - Queen

 

That was the year when I truly "discovered " the Beatles for me...

1. Revolver
2. Sgt Peppers
3. Abbey Road
4. Help!
5. Live at the BBC
6. Lennon box set (which my parents awarded me for a straight A's report card...

Others
7. Nevermind
8. Tommy (The Who)
9. Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane
10. The Doors GH 2 disc set
11. Ten by Pearl Jam
12. Dirt by AIC
13. Rush - Chronicles
14. The Bends - Radiohead

I'm certain a ton of grunge related bands that is can't recall

I know by JR YR I was a huge AIC/Rush/Pumpkins/Mudhoney/nirvana (who I was already a big fan of) fan but Soph yr was the year I got my CD player and I was obsessed

 

1967-68, mostly AM radio and a precious few LPs, mainly Beatles, Monkees, Cream, Hendrix.