Before Streaming: How We Discovered New Music

Before algorithms, personalised playlists and instant downloads, discovering new music took effort. And that is exactly what made it special.

For Gen X, new music often arrived through the radio first. You would hear a track once and spend the rest of the week hoping it would be played again so you could hit record on your cassette deck at just the right moment. If you were lucky, the presenter kept quiet over the intro. If not, you lived with it.

TV played a huge part too. Thursday nights meant waiting for Top of the Pops to see your favourite artists perform. Music videos felt like events. If you missed it, you missed it. No rewinding live telly back then.

Then there were record shops. Standing in HMV or your local independent, scanning the racks, judging albums by their covers, taking a chance on something new because you liked the look of the band. Saving up for that CD, unwrapping it carefully, reading every lyric in the booklet on the bus home.

Word of mouth mattered. A mate would press a tape into your hand and say, “You have to listen to this.” That is how many of us first heard bands like Nirvana or discovered the rise of Britpop with Oasis. It felt personal. It felt earned.

Even the charts were an event. Sunday evenings meant tuning in to find out who had climbed, who had dropped and who had grabbed the number one spot.

Today, we have everything instantly. It is convenient, yes. But there was something about the anticipation, the waiting and the effort that made the music stick.

How did you discover your favourite band? Radio, TV, record shop or a mate with great taste?

However you found it back then, you can rediscover it now on Atom Radio. Listen live on the free Atom Radio app for music you want to hear.