What was the first album/tape/CD you bought?
I'll kick us off with an absolute banger...
Boyzone - Love Me For A Reason
I was like 6. I wanted it desperately. Listening back to it now, as a 36 year old man I can admit that it's an absolutely horrible bit of music....but it still takes me back to being a young kid.
First two CDs I bought were Bon Jovi - New Jersey, and Guns n Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Appetite for Destruction was my first CD. I was in Hong Kong, bought a portable CD player and the G’n’R CD. As I was walking the street in Kowloon, first notes of Welcome to the Jungle hit me with a force. I was hooked immediately. Will see Slash in couple of weeks.
That's awesome. I was just a kid and was gifted a stereo with a CD player for my birthday by my uncle. He gave me a CD along with it: Fine Young Cannibals - The Raw & the Cooked. I don't remember much but I know my collection was quickly followed up by Def Leppard - Hysteria
Kraftwerk - Computerwelt
On cassette tape, no less. Still have it somewhere in my basement, probably.
New Order—Blue Monday. Broke my first hifi listening to it too loud.
Mine was the Nirvana 'best of' album, closely followed by "The Back Room" by The Editors after seeing them at my first gig! :)
I'm not sure which was first, Rainbow Rising or Metallica …And Justice for All. Both vinyls were played a lot.
The proclaimers - sunshine on Leith.
I was a pre teen, I saved up my pocket money, it still has a special place in my life, and is objectively a reasonable album.
When I was a kid, I would get in trouble getting those Columbia House offers where they advertise like 12 CDs for one cent; but then charge a subscription fee every month. So I'm not 100% sure what my first one was, because I got 12 of 'em at once.
I know that's how I discovered Silverchair though. I just picked out their album Frogstomp because I liked the picture of the frog. 🤣
I still like every track on that album. Especially given the shit today where Suicidal Dream is basically my anthem...
With my own money, it was "Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth" by Joan Jett. Killer fucking album. Well, tape, because that was back when cassettes were still the only really portable music option. 8 tracks still existed, but they weren't really portable. Have you ever seen one of the supposedly portable players? Way too big and bulky to casually carry around.
Anyway, yes, I'm old as fuck.
However! The day I bought it, we were at the mall. I had to choose between that and Alabama's Mountain Music. In a rare event, my dad asked if I had any money left, and when I said only a little, he handed me enough to go back and get the Alabama tape too.
Listened to the Alabama with him on the way home :)
Right. So. I'm and old fart, and the first 7 inch single I bought was "I Wanna Be A Winner" by Brown Sauce when I was 8 or 9. A pile of crap written by B.A. Robertson and performed by a fake group of Noel Edmonds, Keith Chegwin and Maggie Philbin. The B-Side had the theme from Swap Shop, for it was some sort of Swap Shop tie-in. Unfortunately it wasn't the good theme for Swap Shop, it was a crappy one they used for the last season. The second single I bought was "Dead Ringer for Love" by Meat Loaf. Which was somewhat better.
The first record I chose was Ma Na Ma Na by the Muppets. The first record bought with my own money was Never for Ever by Kate Bush
Also, old.
Brothers in Arms.
Styx - Pieces of Eight.
Paradise Theater here.
"True" by Avicii when I was about 7.
You can view my Librefm here to see how different my music taste is now.
The first record I remember going to the store and picking out was Michael Jackson's Thriller.
I don't remember my first tape, but I do remember listening to the Beach Boys a lot when I got a walkman, so that's a good guess.
My first CD was the Wayne's World soundtrack.
Similar tastes, but you always one step ahead of me in media technology.
Because of when I was born, and restricting myself from watching CiTV or any of the other ads-for-toys-I-wouldn't-get-having channels, it was obviously Busted's A Present for Everyone thanks to CBBC probably violating the BBC's anti-advertising rules about it.
I was 11 or 12 before becoming interested in music independently of whatever other people put on, but my best friend thought I'd like The Darkness so I bought Permission to Land with my birthday money.
Still a fantastic album, Black Shuck and Love on the Rocks still make regular appearances in my listening.
I bought Hybrid Theory and Blizzard of Ozz both on CD on the same day I bought my Walkman CD player. 10/10 purchase, made riding my Razor scooter to school hard core.
The first full album I bought was on cassette tape. Pink Floyd dark side of the Moon
I basically jumped right into music on the heavier side of things, First album I bought was Disturbed - Believe.
The Chicken Song by Spitting Image, about 1986 I think. I expect the finer points of the parody were likely lost on me, but I guess I enjoyed the silly words and puppets.
The first CD I bought was Very - Pet Shop Boys. I liked the single go west quite a bit and the CD was very different from all the other albums in the record store.
I do not remember my first tape, but I do remember that being the first CD I spent my own money on.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Emerson, Lake & Palmer, November 1970.
Cherry Bomb by Tyler, the Creator
I think the first tapes I remember buying were the stories with books. You know, Back to the Future condensed into 20 odd minutes of audio and a 24-page book.
My first album (cassette) I think was the Top Gun soundtrack. The first vinyl was Batman by Prince, which I bought on a school day trip to France.
Finally, one Christmas, my parents told me they were buying me a CD/Tape deck and gave me money to buy some CDs. I bought Stranger in a Strange Land by Iron Maiden, and the Soundtrack to Alien.