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Sam
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FIRST: The first CD I ever bought myself was Michael Jackson’s HIStory: Past, Present and Future. It was actually two CDs so I thought I was getting extra value. I would listen to them over and over on my little boom box, while jumping on my bed to “Billie Jean”. I think I was 7.
LAST: Last year I bought The Cliks‘ Dirty King. I bought it shortly before they played at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Love Gun is my favorite song of the record and it sounds fantastic live.
Riese
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FIRST: For starters I grew up listening to actual records, FYI. First self-purchase was a cassette tape motherfuckers. Maybe 1990? Madonna, Like a Virgin. I got it at Recordtown in the Briarwood Fucking Mall in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I’d first discovered Madonna on a flight from the U.S. to Australia on one of those 12-song-repeat ‘radio stations’ airplanes used to offer as your sole option for personalized entertainment. Then I heard “Material Girl” and had to have it — Like A Virgin seemed dangerous and necessary. First CD was Boyz II Men’s Cooleyhighharmony.
Once I got grown I clearly left the mall behind for local spots like Encore Records & now-defunct Schoolkids Records & Neptune (in nearby Royal Oak) and always went on serious record-shopping sprees when I’d visit or temporarily reside in New York City — Other Music, Kims, Sounds, Rebel Rebel. Ann Arbor’s Tower Records outpost (now out of business) also sold ‘zines.
LAST: This can’t possibly be true but yet I fear it is — March 2008. OMG I have become a digital-download person!! Handel’s Messiah and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Virgin Records in Union Square NYC. I like to listen to opera or classical when i write and I was planning for a month away from home writing my novel (which turned out to be a hoax)
Laneia
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FIRST: I went to the mall when I was 13 and bought Liz Phair‘s Whip-Smart and NIN‘s The Downward Spiral. My entire music collection up to that point consisted of Top 40 CDs and tapes that had been given to me as gifts. Hearing Liz Phair sing “you fuck like a volcano” changed my life completely.
LAST: Just a few weeks ago I picked up a limited edition re-release of The Old Crow Medicine Show‘s Greetings From Wawa, and Joni Mitchell’s Blue and Carole King’s Tapestry, both previously-owned and on vinyl. There are only like, two things I’d rather do on a Saturday afternoon than hang out at the record store. (jump in a bounce house or eat sushi)
Elizabeth
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FIRST: In the spring of 1994 (I was 12) I bought myself a pile of cassette tapes and, luckily for me, I found most of them in a box in my parents basement a few months ago. These are real gems, people: the Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit soundtrack, Disney’s The Lion King, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation, En Vogue’s Funky Divas, Snoop Doggy Dogg’s Doggystyle, Mariah Carey’s Music Box, Ini Kamoze’s Here Comes The Hotstepper (single), Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday, Tevin Campbell’s I’m Ready (it’s busted so I can no longer listen to “Hall’s Of Desire”!) and Color Me Badd’s Time And Chance. There were probably others, but these are the ones that survived.
LAST:The other day I bought Howie Day‘s Australia for 90 cents because I saw it and I remembered that I once owned a personally signed copy (that was lost in the Great Car-Content Thievery of 2004.) It’s rare that I buy physical music anymore, unless it’s an actual vinyl record. I made an exception for Sainthood in October though, because I will buy anything Tegan & Sara put out.
Emily
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FIRST: I can’t remember which CD I bought myself first. People used to buy me CDs as gifts, like my aunt bought me The Spice Girls first record, Spice, and changed my life. It’s a toss up between a Britney Spears album, ‘N Sync’s No Strings Attached, Christina Aguilera’s album where she sang that Genie song, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. You didn’t know she had an album? Well, she did.
LAST: Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago on vinyl because I thought it would make me cool even though I already have the CD. If we’re talking real CDs though, it was An Horse’s Rearrange Beds. Both were money well spent, and I even got Kate and Damon’s autograph. I also like to think that makes me cool.
Nicole
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FIRST: My first record store visit was when I was around 7 or 8. I remember having earned my own money somehow and we went to a local record store with the intentions of me buying my first CD. It was Billy Joel’s River of Dreams. I only listened to the title track on that album.
LAST: Prior to two weeks ago I had not been to a record store in a very long time. However, while on vacation in L.A my friend made us go to Amoeba Music, which apparently is a music lovers mecca. I love it there, but only walked away with one album, Michael Jackson’s Dangerous. We ended up there again before the trip was over, but lack of money kept me from purchasing anything else.
Daphne
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FIRST: My grandma has this awesome, really old record player. I was fascinated by this machine when I was little. I think I was 11 or 12 years old when I bought the record Abbey Road by The Beatles. Initially it was a birthday present for my grandma, but she let me keep it and play it on her cool record player.
LAST: There was a record store closing, so a couple of weeks ago I decided to go and have a look at the remaining CDs and LPs. I found the opera Euridice by Jacopo Peri on vinyl for a couple of Euros. I love classical music.
