A discussion about home audio systems in General Questions has drifted into Cafe Society territory. Rather than moving that one, I would suggest opening a new one here.
Back in the 1970s, it was a common practice for friends to get together to listen to music on the stereo. Generally, a whole album at a time. This apparently seems strange to younger people, who are used to music being much more of a solitary experience.
I was in high school in the early 90’s and we would do this with CD’s all the time.
I remember when the family of a friend of mine finally moved to a decent house on the outskirts of Minneapolis with a comfortable basement. We used to gather there in the evenings to sit in the dark, drink, smoke cigars, and listen to the Moody Blues, Gordon Lightfoot, et al. I think there was even a lava lamp set up by the stereo.
This was around 1974, when I was 19. I sometimes try to recreate the atmosphere with playlists on my computer, but it just ain’t the same. 
I did this back in the 1970’s like you said, into the early 80’s. But not in many years - most of my friends have moved beyond the album format. I haven’t, but I’m old ( well middle-aged, anyway ) :).
Is it just a matter of how singles oriented music has become?
Most of the albums we listened to in this way seemed to be “concept” albums that had a theme that would reward listening to the whole thing, then discussing it afterwards - Pink Floyd’s The Wall, etc. Seems like few artists are releasing concept albums anymore other than the Flaming Lips.
The second disc of Kate Bush’s Aerial definitely qualifies. She refused to make the individual songs of the suite available on iTunes.
I did this a lot back in the 80’s and early 90’s. Music’s changed a lot since then and there aren’t many albums out there worth listening to in their entirety.
I still listen to my Rush and Pink Floyd CD’s every so often and I still have my vintage Kenwood stereo amp which still sounds great.
It’s all circular. Modern technology has liberated singles from the album format, which makes for more single-oriented fare. It’s return to the pre-LP days when music was also singles-oriented because technology did not allow for whole albums.
The 1970’s was the heyday of the LP recording, so artists took advantage of the format forced on them to try and be adventurous. Now that the market has changed and downloading single copies of what you want has started replacing buying physical copies with a bunch of stuff you don’t, it’s riskier financially to invest in long concept formats.
Sure. Came of age in the 70s. One memory of many I can’t remember is when Back in Black - AC/DC came out circa 1980. Was invited over to a party at some friends that had scored this new album. That thing was the soundtrack for the whole evening. Played it over and over and over. Good times!
you could put a stack on the spindle of a record changer and have quite a bit of tunes. if you had dupes of albums (yours or friends bring theirs) then you could put both sides on sequentially.
it became unnatural to hear tunes not following another in that order.
groups did theme albums. songs could play one into the other with the track spacing minimal or nonexistent. some multiplatter albums would have side 1 and side 2 be on different platters so a changer could play sequentially without flipping.
Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, … lots of bands recorded albums meant to be played all the way through. We often got together to listen to new albums and it wasn’t a requirement to listen to all of it. One song might get played over and over until we move on to the next one. It was nice though to have an opera style album. Made recording so much easier. Hit record, walk away. Of course that meant cleaning and adjusting the cassette recorder to the type of magnetic tape used. And playing the song to adjust the input. And putting in the “good” needle to play the record. And cleaning the record to get any dust out of it. and re-timing the record player with a strobe light to get the right play speed. And making sure nobody stomped around the room which would be picked up by the needle.
Sure. We did it all the time (I was 20 in 1070). One big factor, in my tribe at least, was grass. Smoking boo was conducive to sitting back quietly for a half hour or more, getting really deep into the music, uttering the occasional “Oh wow…”
Heehee.. eggzackally! Werent we just too stoned to get up and change the record, which would require making a choice …
I think we have a new contender for eldest doper. 
Hell yes. I turned 14 in 1980, and I remember my older brother giving me the first two albums I ever owned (LP’s of The Rolling Stones: Made in the Shade and Bad Company: Run With the Pack). We shared a room back then, and it was a red-letter day when my parents gave us the “good” stereo from the living room (when Dad upgraded to 8-track!). My brother and I would sit and listen to albums all the time, and also record them to cassette tape for boom-box use.
When CD’s were first being released, my friends and I were all out of school, still living at home and (mostly) working, so we had cash to spend. We got nice new rack stereo systems and we’d anxiously follow the release schedule for catalogue titles and rush out to get the ones we wanted most. I still remember the first time we all heard Led Zeppelin II in pure digital glory and remarking to each other “Never heard that bit before . . .”
My friend’s finished basement became our gathering place, and we’d regularly put on full albums and listen all the way through. Usually there was also some drinking or poker games as well, but the music was often the focal point.
Oh wow you’re an old fart.
I did - in college in the mid-80s. Genesis, Dire Straits, etc.
Yes, throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, we would put an album or a CD and listen to it in its entirety. Even now, I have my iPod organized in such a way that it replicates playing an ‘album’ by a particular artist.
Sometimes, music was just the background to our conversation or our game. Sometimes, we just sat together and listened; mutually intuiting when something was worth our concentration was an interesting knack of our friendships.
We (my friends and I; later, my wife and I) did this with various genres of music - rock, jazz, classical. One of the things I like about the way I have my iPod set up - the classical pieces are set up so that it plays an entire work. Sometimes, this would translate to more than one side of an album or more than one CD (Picture a Mahler symphony here.); sometimes that translates to only a third of an album (Three tracks that are the three movements of a sonata; then silence to cleanse the palate).
But the biggest difference I notice now is the experience of listening socially; it’s rare that I get to hear whatever my friends have discovered recently. Going to a party with the music on shuffle isn’t the same thing at all - I used to notice after two or three songs ‘Hey, I really like this artist - who is it?’ Now, it seems it is more like ‘I really like whatever was playing about three tracks ago - who was it?’ ‘No idea, and there’s no way to find out.’
My best friend and I would sit in a low-lit room, put on The Moody Blues, stare at the album cover, and meditate in an attempt to reach nirvana (at least I believe that was the destination).
What makes this sound somewhat less cool is that it was…1975.
On the other hand, we were 10 years old. Which does explain the lack of pot involved.
Good grief! No wonder I can’t remember shit!!
We use to do the same thing… circa… 1985-87… we use to hang out at Mark and Matthews (they were twins… ) about six of us were into New Wave… so whatever new Cure album… Bauhaus… Sixousie and the Banshies… Early Smiths… Simple Minds… whatever was indie and we could get from Wax Trax records on the north side of Chicago…
What made us think of ourselves are really cool were that we were 1) Black… 2) on the southside… 3)absolutely none of our friends listened to any of this. until say like U2 hit mainstream… Running up and down a basketball court at Cole Park wearing a Echo and the Bunnymen t-shirt…
IE in retrospect we should have had more girls… yeah… that…def!!