Before the ascended to super-mega-stardom, Coldplay was once beloved in college rock circles.
The band behind hits like “Brick House” and “Just to Be Close to You” met in the late 1960s while studying at Alabama’s Tuskegee University.
The earliest incarnation of Pink Floyd formed in 1965, featuring Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason.
Before the Pixies immortalized their collegiate legacy in the song “U-Mass,” vocalist-guitarist Black Francis and guitarist Joey Santiago met while studying at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Chuck D and Flavor Flav met while studying at Long Island’s Adelphi University in the early 1980s.
They were called Smile at the time, but the founding members of Queen met in the late 1960s while studying at university.
R.E.M. is often credited with creating (or at least popularizing) the term “college rock,” so it’s appropriate they formed on campus — the University of Georgia.
The Strokes will be forever tied to New York University and the city’s rock scene in the early 2000s.
Talking Heads are often associated with the 1977 CBGBs scene in New York, but David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Tina Weymouth actually met years before that.
Vampire Weekend broke big with their self-titled 2008 debut, and challenged the the-popular notion that all the cool New York City bands were from Brooklyn.