(no subject)

[moominmolly]

What was the first piece of recorded music you ever owned, and in what format?

Not counting all of my records as a kid, the first thing I bought as a 'grownup' music consumer (age ~12) was a cassette single of Kylie Minogue's "The Locomotion".

Comments

[yagagriswold.livejournal.com]

I think the first music I ever bought for myself was Corey Hart's "Boy in the Box."

[metagnat.livejournal.com]

I owned a lot of musicals as a kid. I especially remember listening to "Camelot" (which my dad had been in a community production of) and "Annie" a lot. Those were on cassette. I also remember listening to the Beach Boys on vinyl, but those were my dad's. And I had one of Steve Martin's stand-up routines on 8-track.

The first pop music I remember getting was when my Dad bought me Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and Madonna's "True Blue" for me. Those were on cassette. The Madonna, in particular, I played to death.

[jacflash.livejournal.com]

I had novelty singles, Sesame Street 45s, etc, when I was little. But real music picked by me? Cheap Trick, "Dream Police", cassette, I was 12 or 13.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

A cassette single of "We're not going to take it" by Twisted Sister. I split the cost with my brother.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I remember doing this! Usually with friends. We would go halfsies on a cassette/cassingle and then copy it to a blank tape and photocopy the cover. We had complicated systems of alternating who got the original.

[veek.livejournal.com]

Again not counting kid-themed records, my brother gifted me with two rock LPs over the course of a year or so, when I was... 9? 10?: Sekret and Mashina Vremeni (Time Machine). The two remain my favorite Russian rock bands, and I still listen to them.

The first one I bought myself was a Beatles LP. I *think* it was a single of Yellow Submarine. In any case, it had YS on it.

[dot_fennel]

I was a devoted top 40 listener for four or five years, and then in the middle of 8th grade, I suddenly started watching MTV's "alternative" program and buying tapes. I think for a few months, I was still listening on the Fisher-Price "My First Cassette Deck" that had lived in my room since I was 8. Which is causing me some cognitive dissonance when I picture it, considering how many of those early albums are still favorites of mine.

I still remember the first five in order:

1. Information Society - s/t
2. Erasure - The Innocents
3. New Order - Substance
3 (same day). They Might Be Giants - Lincoln
5. XTC - Oranges And Lemons

That summer I bought The Cure's singles compilation and something by Wire, and my course was set.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I bought several top-40 cassingles but I also didn't start buying albums until around the time I discovered 120 minutes. I suppose those are two separate phases!

These are the first three I remember:

Midnight Oil, "Blue Sky Mining"
R.E.M., "Green"
They Might be Giants, "Flood"
...and then it's all Jane's Addiction and Ministry and Fugazi for a little bit because I was 14 and I hadn't yet calmed down and discovered The Cure.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

My first non-kid music was a tape that had the Beach Boys song "Kokomo" on it, but I don't remember anything else about it!

[beah.livejournal.com]

I had that! My friends and I did a lip synch to it in an elementary school music class. Must've been 2nd grade.

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

This read-along small record of a story with the Muppets.  "Turn the page at the beep!"

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

Wait wait.  Sorry!  Haven't woken up yet.

Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, or Metallica's black album, can't remember which.

[ceo]

First LP that I remember buying with my own money was the Dr. Demento album Demento's Mementoes. Before that there were various classical albums (1812 Overture, that sort of thing) that I'd appropriated from my parents.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Dr Demento! I spent a lot of time staying up late listening to that on the radio, too.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Blondie, "The Tide Is High." 13-inch single.

The first albums that I bought -- I think on the same day -- were Nena and The Dream of the Blue Turtles.

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

The first one I have a distinct memory of purchasing is Billy Joel's Glass Houses on vinyl. But I have a few 45s that came out earlier which I know my parents didn't buy - either my siblings bought them, or I did. Most of them are ones that I think it was more likely that my siblings bought. I remember buying Paul Simon's "Slip Slidin' Away" for my younger brother, and I'm pretty sure I'd bought a 45 or two for myself by then, but if I did, either I don't still have them, or they are ones that my parents might have bought as well - Johnny Horton's "Battle of New Orleans" and the Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" (which, having just gone through my stacks of 45s, seems to be missing - good thing I've got it on MP3).

[khedron.livejournal.com]

Friends made me mix tapes, but the first thing I bought was by the Cure, "Boys Don't Cry".

[coraline]

madonna "like a prayer", paula abdul "forever your girl". on cassette. (i owned a bunch of LPs before that, but they were all bought for me.)

followed by several years of "oh my god, recent music is all terrible and i won't listen to anything after 1970" (meaning i got to listen to all my parents' collection).

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

I can't remember the first thing I bought myself, but I got the soundtrack to The Little Mermaid on cassette when I was 8 or so and listened to it all the time. I also absconded with my mom's copy of Les Mis and her Best of Cat Stevens tape at around the same age.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

The first grown-up music that I owned was a present -- an LP, Platinum Blonde (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum_Blonde_%28band%29)'s Alien Shores. The first music I bought for myself was a cassette of the Top Gun soundtrack. Another memorable early purchase was Glass Tiger's The Thin Red Line, because the cassette was made of a transparent red plastic.

[eirias.livejournal.com]

The soundtrack to Stand By Me. I think I got it when I was nine or ten.

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

Ha—Smash Mouth's Astro Lounge, age twelve.

My mom would like to contribute hers as well—Hooray for Hollywood by Doris Day.

[oonh.livejournal.com]

I was late to the recorded music party. I'm fairly certain that the first piece of recorded music that I owned was the Enya cd single of Oiche Chiun.

[catling.livejournal.com]

a-ha, Hunting High & Low, on cassette. I loved that band so much. Morten Harkett's blue eyes smiled down at me from every wall in my room. I played that tape over and over in Junior High through High School. First musical obsession.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

The soundtrack to "Into the Woods" on cassette. I wanted to buy it at the theater, but my uncle (who took me) convinced me to go to a local record store instead.

It came with a full record-sized insert.

I was 14.

[dcart.livejournal.com]

The first full album type thing I ever bought for myself was Duran Duran's Rio on cassette tape. The first thing I ever considered mine was my parent's vinyl copy of Abbey Road. I "borrowed" it from them when they bought me a record player and didn't give it back for months. The first full vinyl album I remember buying was Men At Work's "Overkill". Cassettes were so much cheaper than vinyl back then that I rarely bought vinyl. I had some singles before that, though. I think my first vinyl 45 might have been Leo Sayer's "More Than I Can Say".

[whynotkay.livejournal.com]

The first album I bought might have been the soundtrack to Sweeney Todd. Earlier than that, my friends gifted me with other things that I enjoyed listening to. I believe there was a lot of Billy Joel in my pre-buying "collection" (also a lot of Monty Python, again a gift), but I can't remember what else right now.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Chicago 17 and Madonna's "Like A Virgin," both at once, on cassette. Roughly at the same time my aunt bought me a vinyl copy of Cyndi Lauper's "She's So Unusual."

I clearly remember having a cassette "collection" that I could hold in one hand, because I remember buying one of those 10 or 12-cassette plastic holders that came in a zipper case, and planning what would go in the remaining slots.

This, of course, is all long after I had memorized the entirety of "Paultalk" on the Peter, Paul, and Mary live album that belonged to my parents.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

Well, it would have been on a kind of toy record which played on my toy record player, which I barely remember. I also remember having the Cinderella album (Bibbity Bobbity Boo!) and another album of children's music -- it had a song about an inchworm measuring the marigolds.

My first non-children's recording was either a record single of "Luka", or a tape of "Like a Virgin". Couldn't tell you which I had first.

[starphire.livejournal.com]

I had to think about this for a minute. I distinctly remember the first time I went to the music store with my best friend and some summer lawnmowing earnings in my pocket, ready to buy some Music of my very own. When I got there I realized I had absolutely *no* idea what I wanted. I was terrible at band name recognition, and only knew songs by sound - from hearing on the radio. I ended up buying some Bill Cosby, so that doesn't count as music. Then I realized it was the kind of thing that got old pretty quickly, and somehow concluded that spending money on recordings was a waste of my limited funds. cue long interlude in music-buying. Also, making tapes.

The first music I ever bought was one of those newish CDs, and it was Talking Heads, Remain In Light. I was so psyched about the sonic clarity of CDs that I kind of went nuts building a digital music library after that. It was a gamble at the time - paying a premium for a format that might or might not become widely adopted! Especially those imports at the CD boutique in Harvard Square at $20 apiece (there was a ton of classic music that wasn't released on CD in the US for years, and people actually made a profit by flying to Germany and Japan to bring back a suitcase full of CDs to resell).

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I ended up buying some Bill Cosby, so that doesn't count as music.

But it was quite possibly the best choice you could have made.