Just a little thought experiment. What if the world of Equestria Girls was set in the 1980s? Who would the members of the Rainbooms have been listening to? This is by no means a complete and exhaustive list. I just surrounded each Rainboom with eight albums that would be representative of the kind of music I felt they would have been influenced by. If you don’t recognize the album covers, I’ve listed them below. I’d love to hear your thoughts on them, and who you think they might have listened to.
 
Applejack (cowpunk)  
Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison  
The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo  
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Will the Circle Be Unbroken  
Waylon Jennings - Lonesome, On’ry & Mean  
X - Los Angeles  
Rockpile - Seconds of Pleasure  
Stray Cats - Stray Cats  
The Blasters - The Blasters
 
Fluttershy (goth)  
The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico  
Alice Cooper - Love It to Death  
Nick Drake - Pink Moon  
The Cure - Boys Don’t Cry  
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Join Hands  
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures  
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field  
Toyah - The Blue Meaning
 
Pinkie Pie (party)  
Frank Zappa - Apostrophe (‘)  
Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick  
Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!  
The B-52’s - The B-52’s  
The Go-Go’s - Beauty and the Beat  
The Tubes - The Completion Backwards Principle  
Madness - One Step Beyond…  
The Jam - In the City
 
Rainbow Dash (punk)  
Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power  
Ramones - Ramones  
Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols  
The Clash - The Clash  
The Runaways - The Runaways  
X-Ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents  
Poison Girls - Hex  
The Slits - Cut
 
Rarity (fashion and style)  
New York Dolls - New York Dolls  
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane  
Blondie - Parallel Lines  
Duran Duran - Duran Duran  
A Flock Of Seagulls - A Flock Of Seagulls  
Culture Club - Kissing to be Clever  
Joe Jackson - Night and Day  
Roxy Music - Avalon
 
Sunset Shimmer (power pop)  
Big Star - #1 Record  
The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers  
Television - Marquee Moon  
Elvis Costello and the Attraction - My Aim is True  
Squeeze - Argybargy  
XTC - English Settlement  
R.E.M. - Murmur  
The Replacements - Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash
 
Twilight Sparkle (electronic)  
Wendy Carlos - Switched-On Bach  
Kraftwerk - Autobahn  
Tubeway Army - Tubeway Army  
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Yellow Magic Orchestra  
The Alan Parsons Project - I Robot  
Cabaret Voltaire - Red Mecca  
Be-Bop Deluxe - Drastic Plastic  
Ultravox - Vienna