Seasons of Your Life: Fifteen Albums

Do they even call them albums anymore? The CD's that you buy, or don't buy actually. I haven't bought a disk of music in a few years, I subscribe to Napster and my family downloads tracks to their MP3 players.











Once upon a time, a long time ago, people listened to their music on round, flat things that were called records. They came in different diameters, and were called 45's, 33's, and 78's depending on what speed they had to be played at on a record player. They were kind of a precursor to the CD/DVD, except they used a needle (or a industrial diamond) to transfer the music from the record to the speaker instead of a laser.










Record Albums were a group of songs put together on one album, usually by the same artist, and were given names like "The Christmas Album."







Soon after that technology came out with the 8 track tape. The 8 track tape looked a lot like the games for the NES Nintendo game console. It was plaid on a tape deck and was still called an album.







Not too long after that came the cassette tape. It was smaller and thinner than the 8 track tape, and was a little sturdier than it too. Soon it replaced the 8 track tape and was a staple in most cars until the CD player replaced it.







Then the Internet became widely and wildly available, and people learned how to share tracks, illegally. Very few people were buying albums anymore. Along came the MP3 player which allowed people to store their music on the computer hard drive and transfer files to their MP3 player at will. Sites like Napster became wildly popular for people who liked a single song or track from an artist, but not necessarily any other of their songs.







I can not name a single new album, which is pretty sad considering I know so many old albums.







So, here is a list of 15 albums that colored my life. See how they compare to your list.







1. Let It Be by the Beatles







2. Sesame Street (I was about ten with 3 younger brothers. Besides, this album had cool songs on it like Kermit the Frog singing "It's Not Easy Being Green."







3. Gypsies Tramps and Thieves - Cher







3. Calypso - John Denver







4. Photographs and Memories - Jim Croce







5. Best of Bread - Bread







6. The Best of America - America







7. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - David Bowie







8 Young Americans - David Bowie







9. The Man Who Sold the World - David Bowie







10. Out of the Blue - Electric Light Orchestra







11. Led Zeppelin (can't remember what album)







12. Appetite for Destruction - Guns and Roses







13. Black Rain - Ozzy Osbourne







That last CD actually was given to my son. I liked some of the tracks, and listen to them on Napster, so the last album I ever bought was over 20 years ago. Yes, Appetite is from 1988/89 and still Welcome to the Jungle is played sometime at every baseball/football game.







What are the albums of your life?

About the Record Player:
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Phonograph manufactured in Romania, by "Unitra" company The aparatus below is an radio/amplifier manufactured by Electromures.

date/time username edit summary
07:37, 14 August 2005 en:User:Paulnasca (further explanations about the picture)
07:29, 14 August 2005 en:User:Paulnasca ({{cc-by-2.0}} Phonograph manufactured in Romania, by "Unitra" company)