this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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Memes

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[–] [email protected] 146 points 1 year ago (7 children)

in 1999 you had the ability to get into a music shop, load the cd and test listen to it. Or just go through the music charts. Or wish for a specific song on radio.

Also 1999 already had Napster, Morpheus and others.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago

A lot of people still bought whole cd's because it had that one song from the radio on it.

[–] schmidtster 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

You buy the CD because they had a charting single on radio, you’re than disappointed that the rest of the album is a different sound.

Not everyone had internet in the 90s-00s either mate…..

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Then you keep listening to it anyways, and it slowly becomes one of your favourite albums of all time.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] captainlezbian 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

They get up again

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We call that justifying your purchase. You forced yourself into liking it so you didn't "waste" the money.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Haha, definitely a possibility!

I think there's also an element of the hit tracks often being a bit more formulaic. There's a big component of familiarity in music that makes it appealing, so people might not appreciate the more experimental tracks on an album until they've heard them a few times.

[–] errer 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did you miss the whole “you could test listen to the CD in the shop” part?

[–] schmidtster 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Nope, not every place had the money to burn on a cd in a jukebox from every artist. Also standing there for 45 minutes to listen to the entire thing? Who actually does that?

[–] TropicalDingdong 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also standing there for 45 minutes to listen to the entire thing? Who actually does that?

Me. It was me. I was 14. I listened to the whole thing. I think the name of the store was "The Warehouse" and maybe another was called "Good Guys"? But yeah. Both. I'd take the bus to the mall and sit on that raggedy ass carpet that smelled like a movie theater floor and listened to the whole damn album. All of them actually (usually like 6-8 per station?) until the manager told me to leave. A couple times clerks would hook me up with burned demos.

But yeah. It was me.

[–] schmidtster 3 points 1 year ago

I guess as an escape, was thinking purely consumerism. My bad.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're not wrong, but there were definitely people who spent tons of time listening to music at the record store.

[–] schmidtster 2 points 1 year ago

I guess, I was thinking of strictly purchasing. Yeah some people do just go and hang out and chill instead.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

There were actual listening stations with headphones here in Germany at certain media chains. Some people spent whole afternoons in there.

But yeah, the opposite did exist. I remember, when I was a teenager friends got a dozen or more CDs for their birthday. Good old 1998.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sugar Ray surprised many people by being a punk band that had a pop song or two.

[–] teamevil 2 points 1 year ago

I bought 3 Monster Magnet albums looking for Mean Machine

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

In the 2000s, some electronics stores where I lived had "jukeboxes" with headphones and a barcode scanner, so you could listen to 30-second snippets of the songs on an album before buying it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm old enough to know the pencil trick to fix a cassette that got eaten by the stereo....

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I still keep a pencil in my car. I know there's no cassette to play, but my car feels naked with a pencil rolling around the center console or in the little tray on the dash.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I also learned how to do this as a child but I am probably a bit younger than you at 18yo.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It was less that we were poor and more that my parents had a lot of music and radio dramas on different media. My father still has more than two hundred vinyl disks that he plays semiregularly and I have an old audio tape player/recorder sitting around in my bedroom although I don't really use that one.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Just having a joke, glad to hear people committed to the old media

[–] grue 6 points 1 year ago

Also 1999 already had Napster

Only half of it, apparently! I just looked it up to check, and it turns out it launched on June 1 of that year.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

God, I miss test listens. My favorite record store was very easy going in this, they'd happily let me stand there listening to most of the CD. The unspoken rule was that if you spend that much time listening, you're going to buy it anyway.
One of the few shops where I always felt welcome.

[–] SpaceNoodle 3 points 1 year ago

Never saw a music shop with a communal CD player that allowed you to remove the CD shrink wrap.