Happy Birthday Compact Disc! Our Staff Shares Their First CD Purchases

The compact disc is 30 years old, and to celebrate this slowly dying format's birthday, the employees of AOL Music have submitted their often-embarrassing first CD purchases. Check out our amazing list below and tweet @Spinner to tell us about your first CD buy.

Carlos Ramirez, Noisecreep Editor
The first compact disc I ever bought was Depeche Mode's Music for the Masses. I got it at Numbers Records and Tapes in Jackson Heights, Queens, N.Y. It was 1988 and my parents had just bought me a little stereo with a CD player in it. I remember being so paranoid about the actual disc and not scratching it every time I would handle it. I also remember keeping the long box that it came in for a few years.




Cameron Matthews, AOL Music Associate Editor
The first compact disc to be purchased with mine own cash was the soundtrack to Pokemon: The First Movie. From the moment I saw Pikachu beat the bejesus out of Team Rocket in the series' first episode, I was enamored with the violent creatures, their associated cards and Nintendo games and of course -- the music. What fine gems will you find on said soundtrack? How about Britney Spears' effervescent "Soda Pop," or Aaron Carter's classic cut "Have Some Fun With the Funk." I even performed the "Pokemon Theme Song" in my fifth grade music class. Then, no one talked to me ever again.


Ken Partridge, AOL Music Weekend Editor
The year was 1990, and "Ice Ice Baby" was all over the radio. Using money I somehow scraped together in my pre-paper-route days, I plunked down $15 for Vanilla Ice's debut album, To the Extreme. The rapper, born Robert Matthew Van Winkle, gets a lot of crap these days, and while I won't make some contrarian argument about how this album is actually a secret classic, I must point out two things. (1) I'm still pretty much sporting his hairstyle, minus the shaved lines and rat tail. (2) I was at a wedding this past weekend, and "Ice Ice Baby" had the bride's father doing a furious running man, looking like a wounded Usain Bolt. Word to ya mutha.


Adam Horne, Label Relations
I'm ashamed to say that the first CD I bought (with my own money!) was the "Mortal Kombat" movie soundtrack, though apparently it went platinum so I guess it's not the strangest pick. My 10-year-old self loved the movie's so-bad-it's-bad techno theme song enough to plunk down 15 hard-earned dollars, or whatever it cost to not pirate music back in 1996. Given how big the EDM craze has gotten in the last couple of years, I'm going to pretend this somehow gives me early-adopter cred.



Caitlin White, Editorial Assistant
Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World. I used to think I was really bad ass and listened to a lot of wannabe punk rock. I really loved this album and I still think it is pretty good, it's just funny to think of my 13-year-old self loving this album and thinking that listening to it made me really hardcore. I also bought it at Wal-Mart which is just the icing on this suburbia flavored cake.






Sarah Chazan, AOL Music Editor
In middle school, nothing epitomized the agony and ecstasy of love more than Richard Marx's video for his hit "Hazard." Boy moves to town, boy is considered a social outcast, boy meets girl who can "look through the rumors and the lies," girl gets murdered. High drama for a seventh grader! So when I finally saved enough babysitting money to buy a stereo with a compact disc player in it, the next purchase was my very first CD -- Richard's Rush Street. I don't really remember many of the songs on the album, except for "Hazard." Thinking back on it now, my mom was probably worried by the frequency of which I listened to a song about a woman getting killed by a river. Years later, I still have that CD somewhere in the depths of my closet. Perhaps it's time to dig it out and revisit. Who knows, I might actually like the other 12 tracks as much as "Hazard" ... but probably not!


Beville Darden, Editor of The Boot
Madonna's self-titled debut album was not only my first CD purchase but also the catalyst of my first bite by the entertainment bug. My childhood bestie and I filmed ourselves mouthing the words to our favorite song from the album, "Borderline," and submitted it to a terrible TV competition show called "Puttin' on the Hits." The syndicated program featured contestants lip-synching popular songs, and our parents tried to explain to us that lip-synching wasn't a talent. (They must've felt really stupid after seeing the success of Britney Spears!) We didn't make it on the show, but I still know every word to "Borderline" -- as well as a few other tracks from Madonna, including the infectious "Lucky Star" and "Holiday" -- and maybe a few steps to the dance we choreographed for our failed audition, as well, as we tried to emulate the woman who will forever be on our playlists.


Gino DePinto, Photographer
Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill. One of my all-time favorites. I remember playing the intro riff on my guitar to "No Sleep til Brooklyn." I can hear it now as I type, classic.










Maggie Malach, Intern
My first CD was Spice by the Spice Girls. While most of the lyrics were above my 9-year-old head, I'm pretty sure it instilled a deep sense of "Girl Power" in me. When I unearthed it for my '90s-themed twenty-first birthday, I still knew every lyric.








Contessa Gayles, AOL Music Associate Editor
Rainbow by Mariah Carey. While my mom and I bonded over regular sing-alongs to Mariah's self-titled debut through Butterfly on cassette while driving around in her car, Rainbow was my first CD to call my own. Yes, I did attempt to hit all the high notes while locked in my bedroom. Jams for days.






Theo Bark, Spinner RPM Editor
My first tape was the Beastie Boys' License to Ill. I was six, and I convinced my dad to buy it for me at a liquor store during a family trip, because I told him I was really into airplanes. Any points I scored then were negated by my first CD purchase, which was Kriss Kross' Totally Krossed Out. It was almost $20, and it came in that long plastic box that was supposed to deter us from stealing, but didn't. I quickly realized that the album was trash, but at least I wasn't one of those kids in school wearing backwards pants.


Dan Reilly, Spinner Editor
I'm a little hazy on my first-ever CD purchase. I know the first rock album I ever owned was Def Leppard's Hysteria, which I had on cassette and destroyed within two days due to an ill-fated attempt to make a copy of it. I think the first CD I owned was Pearl Jam's Vs., though I remember that was a gift that my mom gave me at the end of religion class. If I had to guess, I'd say the first compact disc I ever put my own money down for was Jimi Hendrix's Ultimate Experience, a greatest-hits compilation that subsequently led me to pick up the guitar. I also once asked for Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle for Christmas, but my parents wouldn't go for it.

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