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We’re feeling a little musical this week so I thought we could have some fun with a little Tape Release Trivia…you’ve never played tape release trivia before?!  Well, it’s about time you did!  Here at Towson Transfers, we help people like Jim from Towson, Susan from Baltimore, and Sharon from Timonium transfer a variety of media to digital (and sometimes DVD).

Depending on the time your children or grandchildren were young, there were a variety of dominant tape formats that could have been hot at the time.  You would pop over to Kmart or Circuit City to buy the “latest and greatest” camera of the time. Depending on the year, you may have bought a camera that used MiniDV, VHS-C, 8MM, or VHS tape.

Although you could certainly find “older” format cameras at any time, people mostly went with the newest technology…promising better quality and a smaller footprint. 

Trying to remember when you bought your camera may be difficult, but I’m hoping that discovering what was the most popular album or songs at the time of each format release could help jog your memory a bit.  So let’s play along…I’ll put the format and the year…can you guess what was the most popular album or songs of that time?  

  • MiniDV was released in 1995…what was the best-selling album of ’95?
  • 8MM was released in 1984, can you remember the top album of ’84?
  • VHS-C was released in 1982, can you name one of the two chart-toppers of ’82 (there were two that landed as the top song for 7 weeks each)
  • VHS was released in the US in 1977, what was the top album in ’77?  Hint, it was neither Saturday Night Fever or Rumours!

Answers are below…and thanks for playing!

The best-selling album released in 1995 is JAGGED LITTLE PILL by ALANIS MORISSETTE with 33,000,000 copies sold.
 
Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which finished 1983 at number one, stayed an additional fifteen weeks at the top in 1984 and was the best-selling album of the year.
 
“I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and “Ebony and Ivory” by McCartney and Wonder, stayed at the top for seven weeks.
 

The winner in 1977…BAT OUT OF HELL by Meat Loaf with Sales of 43,000,000

What was your favorite song growing up?