CD: What Was Your First?
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Exactly 25 years ago tomorrow, on August 17, 1982, Royal Philips Electronics manufactured the world’s first compact disc at a Philips factory in Langenhagen, just outside of Hanover, Germany. The invention of the CD ushered in a technological revolution in the music industry as CDs — with their superior sound quality and scratch free durability — marked the beginning of the shift from analog to digital music technology. The CD became a catalyst for further innovation in digital entertainment, helping pave the way for the launch of DVD and the current introduction of Blu-ray optical media.
Yes, I’m a little late in posting the story, but it does raise an interesting question: What was your first CD?
I can remember when my sister — who’s four years older than I am — got her first CD player for Christmas and there was a warning in the instructions that you had to call some governmental agency to register the laser in it. As I recall, the phone number was called and the person on the other end said not to worry about it. Can anyone remember something similar? This must have been in the early 90s or so.
I didn’t own my first CD until I got to college. It was the summer of 1995, and that disc was — the VR.5 Soundtrack. I knew it was a niche show with a limited audience, and a CD that wouldn’t be out in the world for long. So I snapped it up while I could. Computers back then didn’t come with CD players standard, so I couldn’t listen to it until that Christmas, when I got a CD-playing stereo (or was it a flat out boom box?) to play it in. I can also remember my mother enrolling me in Columbia House music club, just so she could give me ten CDs with it as part of the present. She’s nothing if not economical! ;-)
I don’t remember what I bought after that. My car barely had a tape deck — I had bought one to put in it after high school graduation. I was a hard core tape listener for a long time. I didn’t own a car with a CD player in it until 1999, as I recall.
Now, I’d kill for a car with a cassette deck in it, just to have something easy to plug the iPod into. ::sigh::So, which CD was your first purchase?
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:03 pm
I remember this as if it were yesterday. Bought my first CD player in Dec 1990 and I bought 2 discs at the CD shop across the street that same day – “The White Album” from the Beatles and “Ride the Lightning” from Metallica.
And for the fun of it, do you remember the first cassettes that you bought? I seem to buy in twos as my first tapes were “Sports” from Huey Lewis and the News and “Out of the Cellar” from Ratt!
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Hmmm…guess I’m a little older. It was the fall of 1986 when I bought Graceland, still easily one of the best albums of the 1980s.
As for cassette, it was Synchronicity in 1983, which I think shows admirable taste for a 10 year old.
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:46 pm
The first CD I ever received as a gift (before I even had a Sony Discman or anything to play it with) was En Vogue – Funky Divas.
I don’t think I can remember the first one I actually purchased for myself. I wanna say R. Kelly’s 12 Play but I’m not too sure.
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Didn’t get my CD player until sophomore year of college, X-mas, 1992. First CDs (got a gift certificate) were Velvet Underground & Nico, the Beavis & Butt-head Experience, and I think a Pearl Jam single. Pretty sure I still have all of them, too (not sure about the single).
August 22nd, 2007 at 2:00 pm
First cd I ever bought was Whitesnake, all because of Here I go Again and Tawny Kitaen. Enough said!
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:38 pm
My first CD was a gift — Van Halen’s FOR UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE. Got it for Christmas as part of a new stereo system my parents gave me as a combined Christmas/High School graduation gift.
Don’t remember the first one I purchased myself.
“Now, I’d kill for a car with a cassette deck in it, just to have something easy to plug the iPod into.”
I hear ya, man…
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and Yes, I know that dates me a bit (and the second one was Sgt Pepper)
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:14 pm
I was given the first four Beatles CDs in 1987. This was very annoying, because I didn’t own a CD player.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:34 pm
1989 got the Danny Elfman Batman soundtrack. Played it on my brother’s portable stereo until I got my own. The CD was on sale, that’s why the cart was before the horse.
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:48 pm
I got my first CD player my freshman year of high school – so that would be 1989 or 1990. And my first CD was Bad English’s self-titled release.
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:20 am
The first CD my family ever owned was the soundtrack to “Beverly Hills Cop II,” which my brother won from a radio station. We had that thing for months before we finally got a CD player as the big family gift in Christmas 1988.
For some reason, my parents got me cassette tapes the same Christmas that they got my brother and me a CD player, so I took those tapes back to the store and paid the extra money to trade them up for CDs. So the first CD I ever got was Kylie Minogue’s “Kylie.” The first CD I ever bought outright of my own volition was “Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1.”
BONUS: The first cassette tape that I bought was “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “In 3-D.” The first 45 single, “Holiday” by The Other Ones. The first cassette single, “Sowing The Seeds Of Love” by Tears For Fears. Not, you know, that anyone asked.
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:16 am
I remember the first CD I received as a gift was the Ghostbusters II soundtrack back in 89. And shortly after that the first CD I ever bought was the Batman soundtrack. Good times. I need to pull them both out and give them a spin sometime.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:08 pm
In 1984, the dawn of digital music, I bought a copy of Phil Collins’ “Hello I Must Be Going” at the Strawberries in Boston’s Kenmore Square. It was in a longbox and cost $15.
One of my fraternity roomates had a first or second-gen CD player, and I wanted in on the action. I ended up (foolishly) buying a $500 CD player with my student loan money and had to get a job to get through the semester. Not the first or last time being a gadget freak bit me on the backside.
I remember the record insustry saying that CD prices would come down once we eliminated the longbox, and once disc production ramped up, and once LPs and cassettes were eliminated as cheaper alternatives. More than 20 years later, CDs still cost $15 MSRP or more.
August 23rd, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Wow, I must be the young one. Mine was the first Weezer album which came out the spring of 94, freshman year of high school. The only way that I could play that cd was on my dad’s external cd-rom attached to his bad ass home made pc. He was and is a computer programer. I used to sit in the living room reading comics and rocking out while he was trying to write code. Looking back, he must have liked the music or he would have never tolerated that setup.
First tape was the Footloose soundtrack. I used to rock out on my fisher price tape player!
August 23rd, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I got a CD player and a CD copy of Guns ‘N Roses’ “Spaghetti Incident?” the same Christmas that I got the cassette version of the Police box set, all from my then girlfriend, which was either 1992 or 1993. (whatever year those albums came out.)
Still using that player, actually. It still handles most things I give it, even burned discs. The girlfriend, however, is long gone.
I’ve no idea what was the first CD I bought myself.
The first cassette I ever bought was “H 2 O” by Hall & Oates, and even tho I’m a fan and all of my cassettes are as gone as that girlfriend I still haven’t gotten around to picking up the CD version of it.
August 24th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
My first CD gft was DC Talk’s Jesus Freak single…. I think.
The first self-bought was also a single…. I think… Newsboys Entertaining Angels. Unless it was a garage sale thing earlier than that and in that case I cannot recall.
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