what were you listening to at 15?

All very typical really

Cocteau Twins
Depeche Mode
Diamanda Galas
Neubauten
PTV
Current 93
Chris and Cosey
pretty much anything on 4AD
Prince
my mum raised me on disco, so that never went far away from me...
New Order
Siouxsie
Erasure
A-Ha
Nocturnal Emissions
Severed Heads
Jesus and Mary Chain
Sheila E.
other things that I can't remember as I am at work.

Sisters of Mercy
Joy Division
Nirvana
Bauhaus
New Order
March Violets
Alien Sex Fiend
Siouxsie & the Banshees
Fields of the Nephilim
Sex Gang Children
Throbbing Gristle"

Blimey, with the possible exceptions of The Nephs, that could have been '83-'84.

I remember the one and only time I heard the Dolls on WNEW. The album had just come in to the studio and they decided to play side one track one. Afterward the DJ (I forget who, Pete Fornatale or someone like that) came on and said "I can guarantee that you'll never hear that again on this station." Haha, the Dolls have outlasted WNEW.

Uh, yeah, I had a bit of a thing for the goth rock...

(forgot the X-mal Deutschland, Virgin Prunes & UK Decay, too!)

1982
I was just getting into psychedelia, so The Seeds Raw & Alive lp, Standells, Chocolate Watchband, Move, The Byrds, some Hendrix, The High Tide (80s indie folk-psych), The Playn Jayn (live, they had nothing released yet).
Misunderstood, Small Faces Darlings Of Whapping Wharf Launderette, Creation, The Who, Yardbirds, Purple Hearts (UK mod band), A Splash of Colour compi, ? & The Mysterions 96 Tears single, The Chords, The Hunger, Love (Masters the Elektra compi)
James Brown, Club Ska '67, Prince Buster,
Jumping Jacques
plus X-Ray Spex, Sex Pistols, Echo & The Bunnymen's Porcupine.
& John Peel's show.

In 1984m Van Halen was nice enough to name their album 1984:

http://sleevage.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/vam_halen_1984.jpg

I didn't buy my first tape until the next year so I mainly listened to the classic rock and commercial metal at the time. The usual suspects: Zep, AC/DC, Ratt, Quiet Riot, Billy Squier.

1975/ 76

Moved to Dublin, and semi-decent record shops, had first summer and weekend job, and no friends or bad habits, so all cash went on records. Velvets 1st, Raw Power, Blood on the Tracks, Little Feat, Steely Dan, Wailers, Burning Spear, Forever Changes, Feelgoods......

1989

Mike Oldfield, Jean Michel Jarre, Pet Shop Boys, Tin Machine

Don't know why i missed the Velvets 1st, was walking around school singing bits of that when I was 14.
Also Herman's Hermits' Blaze, Lovin' Spoonful, The Nice Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack.
The Associates Sulk
Beatles Red compi & maybe Revolver
13th Floor Elevators Psychedelic Sounds.

Various bits of Motown especially Revue live in Paris '67
bits of Stax. Possibly Pretty Things too

94-95

Led Zeppelin, REM, new U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Beatles, Doors, Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Yes, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Nirvana, Tori Amos, Pink Floyd, John Cage, Rush, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Ed Bickert, Lenny Breau, various blues and jazz programmes on the radio, the Carleton University station

Radiohead, MBV, Slowdive, Sigur Ros, maybe Aphex's RDJ album? Can't remember.

Also the Sex Pistols. A lot of regular rock music on the radio too.

'97 was an exciting year for me. my new high school friends were getting me into a lot of older stuff by Television, A Tribe Called Quest, Fugazi, Velvet Underground, etc. my brother and I were delving into current hip hop like Jay-Z, Missy & Timbaland, etc. I was really hyped about albums released that year by Skeleton Key, the Geraldine Fibbers, Superchunk, Pavement and Spiritualized and exploring those bands' back catalogs, and I was still heavily into bands I had started listening to in the 2-3 years before that like Sonic Youth, They Might Be Giants, Soul Coughing and Ben Folds Five.

I was 15 in 1987. I think the two records I played most that year were Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction and Metallica's The $5.98 EP. Also Anthrax, Motörhead, Black Flag, the Cramps, Fear, Accept and a whole bunch of other stuff I'm still listening to at 39.

David Bowie, Babybird, Belle & Sebastian, Manic Street Preachers, Blur, The Cure, Elvis Costello, Grass-Show, Beck, Joy Division, New Order, Super Furry Animals, Symposium, Silver Sun, The Fall, The Boo Radleys, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, They Might Be Giants, Frank Black. It was 1996.

oh man, Elvis Costello, pretty sure i was 15 when i started getting heavy into My Aim Is True too, that was a big one

1996

Transitioning from:

Bush, Everclear, Foo Fighters, Ash, Beck, Pixies

to:

Pavement, Guided By Voices, Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground, Television, My Bloody Valentine, Super Furry Animals

mostly through borrowing tapes from a friend at school.

I still like everything on the second list; there's not much on the first list that I've listened to since I was 15. The next year I got my own stereo, started reading music mags and it became inevitable that I would one day turn up on ILM.

was 15 in 88... was huge into Anthrax, Metallica, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, King Diamond, S.O.D., Slayer, and then somewhat into Butthole Surfers, Beastie Boys, Dead Milkmen, 2 Live Crew, and random stuff I listened to on top 40 radio. I was way too poor for cassettes, so pretty much everything i liked was recorded from friends or off the radio.

concerts i saw in 1994 pretty much sum up my listening around then - pavement, frank black, breeders, beck, john cale, robyn hitchcock, they might be giants, grant lee buffalo. my older brother would've just gone off to college and i remember he (for some reason) got heavily into british folk rock like fairport and steeleye span, so i listened to a lot of that. could probably throw in a bunch of other stuff like guided by voices, neil young, tom waits, velvet underground, etc. haha, my listening habits have not changed all that much, really.

1976...Rocks, Machine Head, Frampton Comes Alive, Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine, Hendrix's Smash Hits, and Worst of the Jefferson Airplane; still listening to Toronto's two Top-40 stations, crazy about "Bohemian Rhapsody"; just starting to branch out into older-brother music like Neil Young, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. The Ramones don't exist, and won't for another three years. I've read about the Velvet Underground in Lillian Roxon's book, but haven't heard them yet; I do remember looking at a cutout copy of White Light/White Heat in Sam the Record Man. Disco exists, but I'm pretty sure I don't think of it as disco yet; I love "Get Down Tonight" and "Right Back Where We Started From."

Man is the Bastard, Wu-Tang

1993

pavement
black sabbath
sebadoh
blues explosion
nirvana
beastie boys
sonic youth
the boo radleys
smashing pumpkins
my bloody valentine
husker du/sugar
cypress hill
the fall
dinosaur jr
flipper
teenage fanclub
babes in toyland
rollins band
soundgarden
mudhoney

1982
elvis costello
the specials, madness, english beat
talking heads
gang of four
psychdelic furs
x
human switchboard
the stooges
ramones
patti smith group
velvet underground
LOTS of zappa
Lou - the blue mask
new york dolls
the rolling stones
eno

1998

Mansun
Gorkys Zygotic Mynci
Ultrasound
Jeff Buckley
The Boo Radleys
Suede
Pulp
New Order
The Divine Comedy
Strangelove
Super Furry Animals
Supergrass
The Bluetones
Duran Duran

95-96

Yo La Tengo
Unwound
Pavement
Sleater-Kinney
Nation Of Ulysses
Oval
Tortoise
Mixtape after mixtape of songs I'd impulsively recorded off college radio after hearing about five seconds.
LOTSA OTHER STUFF

It was at age 15 when I first started going to the indie record stores located in nearby towns on a regular basis. I was actually making decent money at the time, mowing lawns, and I spent pretty much all of it on records and shows.

I could make a list here, but really, if it was any kind of shoegaze or space-rock that was popular in those circles at the time (the more obscure the better), chances are I was ordering it from Parasol mail order or at least had it on a mixtape from one of my shoegaze friends on Prodigy.

92/93 btw

96/97

beck
beastie boys
beatles
de la soul
wu-tang
pavement
belle and sebastian
jeff mills
elastica
blur
daft punk
aphex twin

i thought i was soooo cool compared to all the moshers and casuals.

15 was an awesome year actually, my dad started making good money so i got some nice clothes and a pc, had my first proper girlfriend, school was actually kinda fun, first time going to gigs, getting drunk, high, etc.

*sigh* good times.

1991

Public Enemy, Metallica, Megadeth, Suicidal Tendencies, Anthrax, N.W.A., Ice T, 2 Live Crew, Jodeci, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana

it would be next year that I really got into like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and stuff like that

1985:
New Order
The Cure
The Chameleons
The Sound
Echo & the Bunnymen
Siouxsie & the Banshees
Sisters of Mercy
Bauhaus
Joy Division
Killing Joke
Depeche Mode

Was going through a bit of a gothy phase and moving away from listening to Big Country and the Alarm and U2 and other horrific shite like that. The year after this was when I discovered Husker Du, and then I started getting much more into a lot of US indie instead.

Still baffled at how obsessed I was with the Alarm at 15. I mean ffs why didn't I just get into the Clash or something, what was the matter with me.

BTW NickB, 15-16 year old me would totally have had a big crush on 15 year old you with that set of bands!!!

Could never afford much music - became an expert at anticipating a good song within 1-2 seconds of it's playing on the radio.

Don't feel much nostalgia for those times beyond my moments by the radio, doing homework or somthing, listening to the college radio stationsc - I still have those few hundred cassettes with me, should I find myself in some odd music emergency or something. I played them so often that they became their own narratives, the false starts and cut-offs thoroughly integrated with the music. I'm always astonished whenever I hear the intro bit to New Order's "Regret" - that's not supposed to be there!

Yeah Trayce, I could have sold you my old Alarm records too. Where were you?!?

I was on the other side of the planet! ;_;

I still have a copy of "Declaration" on vinyl. Cringe.

yeah, taping radio was essential in the pre-mp3 era. i would sit through dross for ages listening to the evening session or john peel in the hopes of finding something cool to tape.

x-post to r baez

The Cure, Public Enemy, De La Soul, EPMD, PWEI, LL Cool J, NWA, The KLF, Happy Mondays, Awesome Dre & The Hardcore Committee

Max -

I'm American, so my own specific John Peel experiences all involved me staying up til 4AM on a Friday night listening to the BBC World Service, waiting for the one hour of Peel we got a week.

'And in the subways I can hear them whisper "Trayce has still got Declaration on vinyl"'

1991 - Ride, The Stone Roses, Pixies, Happy Mondays, The Charlatans, Slowdive, Lush.