LP - I never bought one. My dad supplied me with some old classical music and some other stuff that he couldn't stand (he was in the recording industry for a few years, so he had tons of free stuff). I got my dad's old Kenwood turntable, casette deck, and receiver unit. Both died after a few years, except the receiver, which lasted me about 12 years. It was so old, it had analog needles showing input and output volumes (with redlines!), and chrome toggle switches that made a noise when you turned them on and off. Naturally, this was nothing short of awesome.
Somehow that head unit lasted until 1997. I wanted to get parts, but nobody could find a supplier, and Kenwood discontinued support for it.
Cassette - Again, lots of old crap that I inherited. The first album I ever bought was
Weird Al Yanckovic's - Dare to be Stupid in December 1985. I stopped listening to it after 6 months and gave it away. I used to record a lot of junk off the radio at this time, I didn't start buying tapes for a few more years.
CD -
Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet. It was March 1990, and my dad had to take me to buy it, as it had an "Explicit Lyrics" warning. Mind you, this area of the country was suddenly policing the sales of music to minors because of the
2 Live Crew scandal of the late-1980s....(by the way, I bought
that album on cassette...actually illegal to own in Florida for a time!).
I still have this album, maybe I listen to it about twice a year. Still their finest and best-produced hour.
I had just inherited my dad's 1983-spec Sony CD player. This CD player weighed about 20 pounds, and had so many freakin' buttons and tiny lights on it that aren't on CD players anymore (mainly because they've been replaced by DVD players). how many CD players have an "index" button, or a fast forward
and a super-fast forward button on it? It gave way to an old portable CD player with headphones, as my parents weren't too keen on me blasting rap (or for that matter, any) music in their house.
That CD player is still working in my grandmother's apartment to this day. Whenever I visit, I check on that old box every so often, turn it on, to see if it still works!
First LP I bought in the States was a George Harrison's supposedly self titled album from 1979.
