Has it really been a quarter-century since the first compact disc was pressed, finally freeing us from the infernal routine of rewinding our mix tapes? Well sure enough, Philips was kind enough to inform us that its very first CD rolled off the production lines on August 17th, 1982, which history will forever remember -- perhaps unfortunately -- as a copy of ABBA's The Visitors. Nonetheless, this first widely-produced optical disc format would end up changing our lives forever, ushering in the era of lossless copies, easy music sharing, and an unwanted little friend we've come to know as DRM. Now with some 200 billion discs having been sold worldwide -- and probably twice as many distributed gratis by AOL in its dial-up heyday -- it would seem that the original shiny little platter is unquestionably in its golden years, with more convenient or capacious formats replacing it on almost every front. So Philips, the readers and editors of Engadget are proud to join you in saluting the revolutionary product you helped pioneer -- and also offer our condolences that things, um,
haven't worked out quite so well for you in the transition to MP3. If you want to learn some of our (mostly embarrassing) first albums on disc, keep reading after the break...
Peter - Joy Division, "Substance"
Ryan - Beatles, "Help"
Evan - Billy Joel, "Greatest Hits Volumes 1 and 2"
Chris - Peter Gabriel, "So"
Paul - The O.C. Supertones, "Chase the Sun"
Don - Metallica, "Metallica"
Thomas - Mötley Crüe, "Theatre of Pain"
Joshua - The Dickies, "Killer Klowns From Outer Space"
Nilay - New Order, "Substance"
posted Aug 16th 2007 11:55AM
My First one. Eddy Brickell. What i am is what i am...great now that's in my head all day.
My first audio disc was Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits. I love the song Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology), which at the time was played on a Sony commercial. I will keep that disc forever... or until the media degrades. ;)
Oshean, same cd, same reason. Wonder how many they sold based on that commercial? :D
My first CD was Destiny Child's Survivor. Sadly I lost it on the plain to France.
AKBlade13
Destiny Child's [sic] Survivor, and plain to France (sadly also [sic])... Young people and spelling...
AOL is celebrating.
In AOL's dial up hayday, they used to give out free (reusable) floppies instead of CDs. Those were the days, we used to go snactch up dozens of "AOL Dial Kits" Just so we didn't have to pay for our portable storage. Just makes me wish AOL put all their software on DVD-RWs...
DRM in the form of Macrovision has been available for much longer than that, more than twenty years in fact.
But was there Digital Rights Management before the media were digital?
Finding out this information is kind of depressing for me, knowing that I am older that CDs...
I'm older than floppies. Although, not older than punch cards. Floppy and Hard (insert Nerd LOL)disk drives those were the days.
I bought my first CD player in Oct. '87 when they hit $200. Man, was that thing a POS. It didn't FFWD, and instead of a display it had LEDs to tell you which track you were one. Of course, it only went up to 10.
My first disc was "Communiqué" by Dire Straits.
Dopey me! It was 1985.
And all the old people around me still don't know what they are...
Sometimes funny, but true. If one doesn't keep up with new technologies, one can remain in such a state indefinitely.
To people here, it sounds strange, but there are people who simply don't ever use computers, and therefore couldn't identify if something is a CD or a 3.5" floppy. Of course there are "obvious" things probably most people on there don't know either. :)
Oh, and I think my first CDs were a classical music collection given to me by my parents in the early 90s.
Don't laugh. My first cd was the Lion King Soundtrack. :x
wow i thought i was the only one.
i got it for christmas
Haha that was my first CD too!
Friend of mine said the same thing. Wierd huh?
Same here. They must have had a huge marketing budget for that CD.
Ditto...That was such an awesome CD.
I can't believe my first CD was the GoldenEye soundtrack...
wow... i'm pretty sure that was my first one too.
My first CD was Milli Vanilli...(hangs head in shame)
I was only 7, so cut me some slack.
My first CD was Milli Vanilli - Girl You Know It's True. Given as a gift. And I still have it.
I bet it was a copy and not the original. In fact everything from Milli Vanilli was not original
Whatever, h8rs at Engadget - Abba RULES.
Ditto. I like ABBA... never heard of "The Visitors", though. (And, it hardly bothers me what someone who wasn't even alive in the 70's thinks about anything that was goin' on then, as I expect is the case with most/all 'Engadget-ers'.) :D
(First CD: U2, "The Joshua Tree")
Agreed. And The Visitors was a good album, too. In fact...I'm glad Engadget mentioned this; I wasn't aware that it was the first, but that brightens my afternoon. Ha.
Agnostic Front. I think I owned the disc for at least 6 months before I even got a player!
guns n' roses - "appetite for destruction"!!
my first was the soundtrack to Men in Black
Me too. I believe that has shaped me into the well rounded, gadget freak, obsessive compulsive person I am today.
Ahah, me too :)
I thought it was 1979
First CD was Michael Jackson's Bad cause it had a bonus track on it..."Leave Me Alone"
From what I remember, that was the first CD to be released "day and date" with the cassette and LP. At that time, there were only a handful of pressing plants in the world, and you usually had to wait 6-9 months for the CD to be released.
MC Hammer - Too Legit To Quit
Ditto man. I bought MC Hammer and Boyz 2 Men 'II' at the same time from Zia Records. Oh...those were the days.
I think I bought my first discman (an actual Discman, as it was a Sony product) in 1999, around the time I got my first CD writer. Before that I stuck mainly to cassettes. I think I had a boombox-style CD player a year or so before that.
Oh, I think we all know the Discman. The real question is, How many seconds of skip protection did it have? Mine rocked out with 40 seconds. Almost enough to run 20 feet before it skipped!
Mine had only a measly 3 seconds of skip protection... it sucked balls.
My first cd: Def Leppard's Hysteria
Amazing !!!
My first cd was Windows 95. :3 and i still remember installing Windows3.11 ... 9 to 11 diskettes,and you can pray that any disk don't fail.
First CD was "HALO - JESUS MUSIC" from 1990... I was a hold out. I was young, had a large record and tape collection, and I was broke (read cheapskate). I could buy 3 tapes for the price of 2 discs! I shake my head now, but at the time, it made sense in my frugal teenage head! LOL! Man... more music... less quality... what was I thinking?!?! Money for the girlfriend, I guess! LOL!
Wow, I stopped buying & listening to CDs a couple of years ago. Now I just listen to mp3s. It'll probably be just like when I transitioned from tape to CD. I never touched my tape collection again, even though I kept it thinking I might go back to it someday.
My first CD = Naive Art (Red Flag), 1989. I was a 'po college kid at the time.
im not totally sure what the first CD i bought was but i just bought some the other day.... Underoath - Define the Great Line
I think my first CD was Chumbawamba's Tubthumper.
"I get knocked down but I get up again
You're never going to keep me down."
My First CD: Nirvana - Incesticide
I no longer have the CD-ROM but I have the MP3's from it. :-)
Happy B-Day CD!!! I remember the days we used handle U with so much care. Griping at the slightest smudge. Making sure u went back in ur case. Now we throw u around. Touch ur shiny parts without a care. But just know that we love you and u have changed our lives for ever.
First CD Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle (1993)
my first cd was Prodigy - The Experience
My first CD was Kid Rock's Devil Without a Cause
Heart - Bad Animals (won on the radio)
Crowded House - Life from the Big Chair
My first CD, Saga, Heads or Tales, bought in late 1983 or early 1984
My first CD player was the Sony Discman D50. Got it as a high school graduation present from my Aunt.
My first two CDs:
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5, Herbert von Karajan, and Berliner Philharmoniker
Some Great Reward, Depeche Mode.
Man, I'm old
Good call Peter.
Mine was Weird Al Yankovic - Off the Deep End o_O
My very first CD (yes I still have it) is the Beverly Hills Cop 2 soundtrack. It's funny were talking about cd's today like they are old.. I found a cassette tape in the garbage at work yesterday thinking.. Wow an ancient artifact! I've also teased our line coordinator who still has an old turntable reocord player. When I saw she had one of those, I said 'Wow! That's one of those CD players the cavemen used to play!' :P~
First CD was No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom, was a gift from a friend and thankfully not so embarrassing to reveal here!
Our Lady Peace - Clumsy
Got my drum head signed too by Jeremy Taggart with the JT7. BOOJYEAH =).
First CD, purchased in 1987, was Joe Jackson's Night and Day (replacing the warped vinyl version which had been left in the sun).
My first CD was some long lost "Demonstration Disc". I think it came from Radio Shack. Had Arthur Fieldler on it! ;-)
What ever became of "disc rot"? Weren't all my CDs suppose to die a horrible death by now (well, maybe they have... as all my music from my CDs is now on a HDD and controlled by iTunes). ;-)
I cant remember what my first cd was, but i still use my dad's first cd player. It's a Magnavox from '86 and is the best sounding cd player i have ever heard. I think one of my dads first cds was Bckbusters. (still have and and it is one of my favorite cds.)
I remember buying my first CD (Rush-Power Windows)and a Sony portable CD player that had this big ol' hunkin' battery pack that held 6 C batteries. Man did that thing eat batteries!
I think I'll stick to my iPod and MP3s thank you very much!
I'm not sure but I'm guessing it's Toto IV. I also remember how long it took for stuff to be released on CD. Sometimes I had to buy imports, which coast more! My first player was a JVC compoenet unit. Looked nice with the amber display and an IR remote. First song I ever heard on CD had to be Frida's "There's Something Going On" at a high end audio store, Shefield Audio. I'm getting old.
First CD: François Couperin's Pieces for Harpsichord, Book XI and XIII, by Huguette Dreyfus, just to test the clarity of reproduction on my then brand new Yamaha CD player (in 1983, if my memory is correct).
Last CD: Justice's Cross, just because...
I will keep buying CDs until after downloadables are all in the highest quality (e.g. Apple Lossless or better) with all artwork and lyrics included, and feature a protection that does not penalize legitimate users.
White Zombie - La Sexorcisto
This is fun. My first CD player was the mid-90's iconic Discman that everyone in middle school had. I got it in the Christmas of 1993, and I vividly remember programming playlists on the little LCD screen. How quaint now.
The first CD I ever purchased for myself was Flood by They Might Be Giants. I was 13 years old, and I think that's pretty cool.
I think I can beat all of you at the shame game. My first disc was the soundtrack to Phantom of the Opera. God my first girlfriend held way too much sway over me.
HA! I'll join in your shame. That is one of my CDs too.
Lot 666 then, a chandelier in pieces. Some of you may recall the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained. We are told, ladies and gentlemen, that this is the very chandelier which figures in the famous disaster. Our workshops have repaired it and wired parts of it for the new electric light. Perhaps we can frighten away the ghost of so many years ago with a little illumination. Gentlemen!
/cue phantom organ music
First CD: The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
"Making Movies" by Dire Straits. I still have the CD and it still sounds great. (Although it's since been ripped and rarely sees the light of day.)
Think about how far ahead of its time the CD actually was. In 1982, the amount of storage that they held was well beyond the sizes that people considered large at the time.
Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms" was the first album recorded specifically to take advantage of the compact disc's playing time of 74 minutes. LPs were limited to 45-50 minutes, and the LP version had edited songs. The CD clocked in at 60 minutes.
mine was like some weird Metallica CD called the black album, But every time i look up the CD online or in stores, its ALWAYS a different version, Ive never seen another copy other than mine of this strange version. Its not like some pirate disc either i remember i bought it at best buy. Its got a paper sleeve thing for around the plastic case too :D
as much as I hate to admit it, but my first CD was... Tiffany. Yup, Tiffany. Though to half redeam myself, I got 2 at the same time, though Tiffany was the first one in the package. The other at the same time was Van Halen 5150.
You must cleans your self in the waters of Lake Winatonka or be thrust into traffic.
QUEEN - A Kind Of Magic - This was a [DDD] - Digital Recording, Digital Mixing and Digital Mastering.
Most CDs were [AAD] - Analog recording and mixing.
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Rod Stewart - Down Town Train was the first CD I ever bought myself, it was a gift for my mom
First - Stone Temple Pilots -- Core
First - Stone Temple Pilots -- Core
Yup my first "real" CD was STP Core too. I got Nirvana Nevermind the same day. Before that i was a good christian boy listening to my Petra, Newsboys and stuff like that. My first CD player was one of those great Sony Boombox style ones that I bought with money from mowing lawns back in 1992.
First Tape: MC Hammer - Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em
First CD: Green Day - Dookie
I was pretty late to the party.. it was either Tragic Kingdom or Jagged Little Pill.
Soundtrack to Boyz in the Hood.
My first CD was one of the Billboard Best of albums, the most recent CD purchased was Fuel's "Angels & Devils".
For some reason I'm just happier buying the actual CD, I think mostly because of the artwork and lyrics. Not to mention there are times when those special editions come out, and have a Bonus DVD included. Box Sets are also nice, my first CD Box Set was AC/DC's Bonfire.
First CD: Run DMC - Raising Hell (1986)
I like your answer best, so I'm going to post mine in response, even though my first CD wasn't Raising Hell. That's such a great album!
Anyhoo, mine was AC/DC's '74 Jailbreak.
The first ever CD I've bought, was Slipknot's self-titled album.
my first cd is still kicking around and i still play it, it was Get Ready by 2 unlimited
my first was nirvana - nevermind, man i cant believe how long ago that was :(
The Marshall Mather's LP burned copy edition. I got it from my friend in the 7th grade for a roll of nickels. It was the best CD I've ever heard.
First CD: Soul Asylum - Grave Dancers Union...Thats not a bad CD if it wasn't at my parents house I'd probably think about slapping a few of those tunes on my Ipod.
The Joshua Tree
I remember the Popular Science issue that had CD & DATs on the cover (Disc and Dat)
I am pretty sure they thought both technologies were headed to be music formats back then. It seemed so advanced at the time, like i was reading about some serious George Jetson stuff.
Now, several hundred CDs later, many which are scratched & unusable, I think what an old, fallible technology it is.
first CD:
Anthrax - Among the Living
Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust (1989). that disc still plays as good as the day i bought it. I remember having to sign some sort of hazardous materials form at Target when we bought our first CD player. Had something to do with the fact that there was a laser involved.
The Cars - Heartbeat City & The Beatles - The White Album... one classic and the other pop
My first CD was Nirvana's In Utero. The funny part is that my first CD player was not a dedicated CD player - it was SEGA CD video game console. I got it when I was 12 and only had the game that came it (Sewer Shark). I could navigate all of the menus to play/skip/ffw a CD without turning on the TV :D I think it is still in my parent's basement...
Amazing how far technology has come in not a very long time. Vinyl to tape to CD and to the downloads we use today.
First CD(s) I purchased were Black Sabbath's Master Of Reality & Paranoid along with IV and Rage Against The Machine. Good times :)
The first CD I can remember owning was Weezer (blue album).
The Beatles - Past Masters Vol 1 & Vol 2
Er, it was Philips and SONY! As everyone knows.
You really do hate those Japs, don't you iEngadget?