It was thirty years ago today...

[matgb]

Well, actually, thirty years and two days ago, the first commercial CD was released^via.

Which got me thinking. I bought my first CD player, and my first 2 CDs, on holiday in France (I'd been saving up for ages to buy one but the holiday cottage Dad'd rented was so horribly remote we were dying of boredom in the evenings). They were:
The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Art of Noise The Best of The Art of Noise

I was approximately 16, so this was roughly 1990. I've still got both.

What was the first CD you bought, if any, why, and how old were you?

(yes, the title is inspired by the opening song on the first CD, for those that would otherwise insist on asking the obvious)

(And yes, it's been over a year since I last posted, no particular reason, but, y'know, this seemed like a good idea for a post so I'm posting it)

Comments

[83_tauri]

What was the first CD you bought, if any, why, and how old were you?

Do you know, I have no idea?

I've got a feeling it might have been a Beautiful South album, possibly Miaow, in which case it would have been about 96 or 97. Yes, it must've been Miaow. It was a birthday present for my Dad; he'd claimed to have liked some Beautiful South songs. I would've been 13 or 14 at the time, I think.

[matgb]

Ah, see, that's a gift. What was the first you bought, not owned ;-)

[83_tauri]

That was the first I bought; it was a gift for him, not to me.

(Sadly the gift went disastrously astray; I'd reckoned without the lyrics to one of the non-single-released songs. In hindsight, though, I can see why they never released Mini Correct as a single! *No way* would the BBC have given it airplay...)

[matgb]

Ah yeah, for your Dad. Reading is sucha useful skill these days.

I seem to recall buying my Mum something by them once and having a similar problem...

[missdiane]

How funny is it that I've had my CDs in storage for the last five years and upon moving, they've been sitting in my trunk for a week and just this afternoon I decided to lug them inside the house. I also found I had a discman that was in the storage unit and some portable speakers. I'd left batteries in the discman yet when I clicked buttons, it actually still worked.

Interestingly, I can't remember my first CD or even my first CD player, but I know the first 45 I owned which was Magic by Pilot (cast your mind into the wayback machine!)http://youtu.be/COWdLtGsUv4
I don't remember all the details and I had to look up the release date to see that I was five years old. I'm guessing we probably went to the Musicland store in the Marion Ohio mall

[matgb]

We finally got around to unpacking and sorting our CDs a few weeks back, bought some extra shelves and rearranged everything, it's nice to just grab something to listen to withouth having to go fidn the laptop or pick from the limited selection I've ripped to my phone.

and yeah, don't think I ever got into Pilot..

[etoile]

"Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" by Cuban Boys, because I didn't want Westlife to get the Christmas number 1. Alas, my mission failed :(

[matgb]

You're making me feel old again...

[andrewhickey.info]

You Can't Do That On Stage Any More Vol 1 by Frank Zappa, bought when I was 15, in 1994, about six months before I got my first CD player (I preferred vinyl as a teenager), because Zappa's stuff was no longer available on vinyl (I got someone to tape it for me til I got my own player).

[matgb]

I was still buying vinyl for awhile after I got the CD player, I still like both but the CD is more practical.

I never got into Zappa, I guess I ought to try at some point.

[andrewhickey.info]

I put together a Spotify introduction to Zappa's music a while back -- http://open.spotify.com/user/stealthmunchkin/playlist/2rmyXQ5A788pLIVmUWrGEi . It's a good mix of the different styles he does, without too much of the adolescent sniggering that marred his later rock work.

[matgb]

That's actually quite useful, I always forget I've got Spotify as an option.

My admissions tutor (watupman) at Exeter was a big Zappa fan, partially because he spent a lot of his career in E Europe and knew a lot of various democratic underground types but I suspect mostly because he's an aging hippy and just likes that sort of thing.

[marahmarie]

Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey. Probably 1990 or 1991. I have (or have had, at one time or another; I don't now) literally every CD she's ever put out (that is to say, some were gifts; most of them I bought for myself).

[uninvitedcat]

Blimey - it turns out I have absolutely no idea what the first CD I ever purchased was, but I still remember the first cassette I bought with all my own money! (It was Sleeping Wtih The Past by Elton John.) I was about 14 or 16, so that's back around 1990...

[andrewducker]

Guns N Roses: Appetite For Destruction

And it's still mine, albeit sitting in a large box with all of my other CDs, as I haven't used physical media for a few years now.

[matgb]

I'm still mostly on the have a physical version preference, partially as James has so much stuff I can watch pretty much what I want, but also because I've lost so many copies of MP3s and similar due to computer issues or obsolescence it's silly.

[cosmolinguist]

The first CD I bought was by the Dave Matthews Band, I think it's called Under the Table and Dreaming. I was 13 or 14. It was very important to me until I was in college -- mutual love for that band was one thing that helped me get along with my freshman-year roommate, and for a stoner jam band they had a pretty big influence on my ability to cope with teenage life even though mine was very different from theirs.

I don't still have the CD (I hardly have anything I had pre-emigrating) but my parents do still have that first CD player and still use it.

[hano]

I was given CD player when I first went to university in 1994 when I was just short of 21. Iirc the first CDs I bought were The Band of Susans The Word And The Flesh and Sebadoh's Bakesale. I still have both records and still love them to death. The 90s were a real golden age for US Indie.

[matgb]

I have a Sebadoh track, but I've no idea where I got it from, some compilation album or something, never really got into them or Dinosaur Jr. But lots of other stuff from about the same time-plus loads of stuff on NME or Meloday Maker tapes then CDs. Probably need to go through them sometime and see if there's anything worth ripping.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Mine was Common People by Pulp; my first album, a month or two later, was Elastica by, erm, Elastica. Both were 1995, making me 13 at the time.

[matgb]

You're making me feel old again! I was working when Common People came out, bought it day of release, almost certainly the best "Britpop" single of the lot. And I need to re-rip Elastica, I've only got a couple tracks on my phone.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

I recently listened to Elastica again, it holds up really well. That said, I think I listened to The Menace exactly once, so that's worth keeping in mind ;-)

[davegodfrey]

I think it was a "rock anthems" anthology. First album was, I think, Presidents of the USA's first album.

[theweaselking]

I'm not actually sure. I think it was Van Halen's 1984.

[daweaver]

Happy new year.

First CD I bought was the single of Vic Reeves' Dizzy, as a crimble prezzie for the sister, who was getting a CD boombox that year. First one I got for myself was the Pet Shop Boys' Go west, mostly for the ten-minute disco mix. That the b-side Shameless would be the Best PSB Track Ever was an unexpected and entirely welcome bonus.