On October 1, 1982, the first commercial compact disc, Billy Joel’s “52nd Street,” was released in Japan.
When the first CD player was released that same day, it was described as a “new digital record player, using laser beams” by United Press International.
According to Wikipedia, which knows all, the compact disc was actually invented several years earlier. The first test CD was Richard Strauss’s “Eine Alpensinfonie,” and the first CD actually pressed at a factory was ABBA’s “The Visitors,” but that disc wasn’t released commercially until later.
Mass adoption didn’t happen immediately — CDs wouldn’t overtake cassette tapes until the late 1980s. The first album to sell 1 million copies in the CD format and outsell its vinyl version was Dire Straits’ “Brothers in Arms,” released in 1985.
So the question is – what was the first CD that you bought?
I can’t believe it’s been 30 years since the release of the first compact disc! To think we’ve come this far in the world of technology. Look at how much we’ve advanced in three decades! I don’t even remember what a cassette tape looks like, or even sounds like for that matter.