THE OFFICIAL CHARTS are now taking streaming into consideration. STREAMING, if you like.

We remember when all this was fields etc. Life before streaming and iTunes was so hard. Here’s just a few reasons why.

1. Vinyl, in general

It would always be scratched during your favourite song, and you had to guess where the song you wanted started.

It looked nice though, in fairness.

2. If you wanted a song for free, you had to wait for it on the radio and hit record

None of your fancy on-demand streaming here. The DJ would always talk over the end. ALWAYS.

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3. Then there was the wait for the name of a song you liked to be announced

Turn that radio up during the links, lean in or you’ll miss it. Shazam was but a futuristic hope.

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4. When your walkman would skip when running

Dammit. You spent AGES picking out that one CD to listen to over and over again.

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5. Picking a song on your Walkman was just a lot of guess work

Yep, that’s about the right amount of time to fast forward.

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6. Rewinding the tape was a pain in the hoop

Especially if it got all caught and started spilling out.

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7. Not to mention having to take it out to turn it around for the B side

SO MUCH EFFORT.

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The sound was deeply satisfying though.

8. Minidiscs were the height of innovation, but never caught on

You invested so much into this technology. So much.

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9. To watch a music video, you had to wait for it to be shown on MTV

YouTube has reduced the struggle considerably. We couldn’t even vote on TRL in Ireland so had to leave the choice in American hands.

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10. Sharing music involved a mixtape and splitting earphones

Soundcloud links and Dropbox transfers were but a dream.

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QUIZ: Can you name the 1990s songs from these video stills?>

13 reasons things were easier in the eighties>