33 years ago, during my sophomore year of high school, I put together the first of what would eventually become a nearly 20 volume collection of mix tapes, containing my favorite songs that I had gathered either from the radio, a cassette tape, or (eventually) CD. Today, we revisit those mix tapes for the fourth time and see how, or if, the soundtrack of my youth still resonates in today’s digital world and how much has changed over the past four years.
Back in the day, the acquisition of music was a much more tactile experience than it is today. Going out to a store, physically touching the racks of CDs or cassettes while looking for the right one… it could create a memory just as vivid as those tied to the music itself.
I remember clear as day, just over thirty years later, going to the record store after my last final of first semester and coming out of JL Records with both Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I and AC/DC’s Live. Something to celebrate the end of that first go-around in school before heading home for winter break. I remember going to Orland Square Mall and coming home with Toad The Wet Sprocket’s Fear and TLC’s Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip. I remember picking up a used copy of Tesla’s Five Man Acoustical Jam at Discount Den and then trading it for LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out at the record store in Purdue West whose name is escaping me at the moment.
Compare that to today. Do I have any particular memory of downloading, say, Taylor Swift’s 1984 on MP3? Or buying Strange Little Birds by Garbage off of Amazon? Of course not. It’s even worse for streaming. So, while music is more available and ubiquitous than it ever has been before, we do lose a little something in the trade.
Volume 7, containing songs from those long-remembered CDs, covers the fall of 1992 and the end of the first semester of my freshman year of college. We are treated to the last gasps of hair metal and pop, with a little dance, alternative and hip-hop thrown in for good measure.
Side A
Guns N’ Roses – November Rain
iTunes stats: 18 plays, most recently on 11/11/2021
The longest song ever to crack the top 10 on the Billboard charts, peaking at #3, the opus, which checks in at 3 seconds shy of 9 minutes, picked up just six new plays in the last four years.
Def Leppard – Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 11/10/2022
The 86th biggest hit of 1992 managed to double its plays since 2019.
Toad The Wet Sprocket – All I Want
iTunes stats: 25 plays, most recently on 11/20/2021
Topping out at #15 on the Billboard charts, the first hit from Toad the Wet Sprocket only picked up four new listens over the past four years.
Tesla – Signs
iTunes stats: 13 plays, most recently on 9/27/2021
Reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, the live track, recorded in 1990, has gained a mere nine listens since 2012.
Soup Dragons – Divine Thing
iTunes stats: 22 plays, most recently on 6/14/2021
The alternative dance single that became a moderate alternative hit in the US gained just two additional listens, with the latest coming over two and a half years ago.
Ugly Kid Joe – Neighbor
iTunes stats: 15 plays, most recently on 12/8/2022
The lead single from Ugly Kid Joe’s major label debut, this track added five plays since 2019.
The Heights – How Do You Talk To An Angel
iTunes stats: 20 plays, most recently on 11/29/2021
The theme song from the short-lived FOX show The Heights, nominated for the 1993 Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics Emmy, picked up six new plays.
