This is probably a boring question.

I always thought people mostly listened to vinyl in the 80's, but I've read that casettes are what most people were listening to. Then I think in 1988, CD sales surpassed both vinyl and casettes.

I think if I had lived (more than one year) in the 80's, I would have listened to casettes. I still listen to casettes now.

I believe they were cheaper than CDs, and they are portable as well. Plus you can easily record things on them.

How expensive were CDs, anyway?

My folks always listened to cassettes mostly because our car had a cassette deck

Back in the 80s, my collection was made from vinyl, back then I found cassettes to jam and never really brought them.

In the 80's I used 2 methods of listening to music, when I was home it was vinyl, I have a rather large collection of albums.
When I was in my car it was 8-tracks. I had an 8-track player in my car until I got rid of the car in 1992, I still have the 8-track
player but unfortunately not many 8-tracks.

I shied away from cassettes because of the inability to find particular songs, a problem in 8-tracks as well. I had cassette players
but I only owned a handful of cassettes. I didn't get a CD player until the late 90's so I guess I'm just old fashioned.

I listened to mostly cassettes in the 80's, because it was portable and I can listen to it just about anywhere. I also loved making my own mix tapes with songs recorded off the radio.

I did play a lot of vinyl records in the 80's too, usually at home or at a friend's house, but vinyl didn't have the portability cassettes had.

I listened to mostly cassettes in the 80's, because it was portable and I can listen to it just about anywhere. I also loved making my own mix tapes with songs recorded off the radio.

I did play a lot of vinyl records in the 80's too, usually at home or at a friend's house, but vinyl didn't have the portability cassettes had.


You mean you didn't have a Sony Recordman?  Like a Walkman and A Discman, but it isn't anti-skip proof ;D

Casettes

You mean you didn't have a Sony Recordman?  Like a Walkman and A Discman, but it isn't anti-skip proof ;D


;D ;D

That would be one heck of a thing to carry around!  :D

CDs pretty much overtook records in their direct line of fire, which is why cassettes co-existed with them for so long. In fact, although those became equal around, say 1993 (based both on my memories and what I've observed later), tapes still continuted to be quite popular even up into the early 2000s, just because of people's extensive collections by that time, as well as all the extras they had. Recording on them, buying an album for only a couple songs, listening in the car, etc. They probably would still be manufactured now if it weren't for burnable CDs and Ipods.

But yeah, I do think of tapes as belonging to the 1980s in their peak. My parents bought alot of them (and they, along with other relatives made alot of mix tapes) when I was growing up, so that was the main format with me personally too. That's why I'm bonded to them in alot of ways. We also bought a CD player and discs of about 40 albums in the late '80s too. CDs were more high tech in the early days. Like, you'd get them just to listen to at home, for albums you really liked. Maybe when the first players appeared in cars, is when they really started slowly making tapes become less popular (a gradual process from about 1993 to 2002).

There's some overlap of course, but here's how I see the popularity days of all three formats:


-Vinyl: old days-1985, although residually until the early '90s, and a niche market today even.

-Cassettes: Around earlier, but were the primary format from about the late 1970s to 1993. Remained popular in a secondary way up to about 2002, and are still around the teeniest bit now.

-CDs: 1986-present. Absolutely peaked around the late '90s, when tapes started fading more, yet prior to downloading becoming pervasive and also before iPods and MP3 players did.

I voted for 'vinyl'.  However, I wish I could change my vote now that I think about it to 'cassettes'.

One caveat, though - with my cassettes, I'd almost always 'roll my own'.

I had gotten the impression that studio cut cassettes were not good grade (longevity-wise), and I had obtained a good cassette deck (which I still have), so I'd buy the album on vinyl and cut it to cassette myself.  I listened to these cassettes a lot, since my cars had cassettes.

Overall I purchased very few studio cassettes.  But I made hundreds of my own cassettes, usually from vinyl.

In the late 80s I started getting CDs.  Those would go onto cassettes, too!  ;D

^ That's true. I think blank tapes are better quality than the prerecorded, storebought ones. For instance, I know some of the old ones I've bought secondhand (which were made in the actual '80s) don't always spin smoothly, or make that screeching noise when it plays. Yet, in thinking about it, I don't think that's ever happened with blank/recorded over cassettes. Even the really old ones.

Although I think the clear-cased ones (which slowly replaced the whiteish ones in 1990/1991 - I'm such a dork I remember actually noting that to myself at the time, lol) tend to hold up better. After all the oldest of those are like 16 years now, and they've rarely been in the beat up shape some of the Eighties ones are. Even in the '90s, some of those looked pretty worn out already. Then again, they got much more heavy use at the time too.

I pretty much only bought cassettes thru the 80s - buying my first cd in 88.  But I also bought record singles because I loved collecting B sides.

So I had (and still have and use) one of these which I carried round on a shoulder strap.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/kj68/Spare%20stuff/misc005.jpg

It was handy as it played all sized records plus cassettes and you could record them over to cassette. It had head phones as well as teeny box speakers.

I pretty much only bought cassettes thru the 80s - buying my first cd in 88.  But I also bought record singles because I loved collecting B sides.

So I had (and still have and use) one of these which I carried round on a shoulder strap.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/kj68/Spare%20stuff/misc005.jpg

It was handy as it played all sized records plus cassettes and you could record them over to cassette. It had head phones as well as teeny box speakers.



That's pretty cool man!
I remember the last record album I bought was Coda in '82
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h154/Brigitte_B/album%20covers/album82.jpg
All the stores were slowly changing over to CD's and then Wham! - you couldn't find a record album anywhere!
I don't think I bought my first CD until 1989 because That's when I bought a CD player.


 

For some reason I just remembered what that record walkman cost me !  I bought it in 1984 for AU$69 at KMart. When you consider I was earning AU$89 a week - that was a big percentage of my weekly wage !

I pretty much only bought cassettes thru the 80s - buying my first cd in 88.  But I also bought record singles because I loved collecting B sides.

So I had (and still have and use) one of these which I carried round on a shoulder strap.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/kj68/Spare%20stuff/misc005.jpg

It was handy as it played all sized records plus cassettes and you could record them over to cassette. It had head phones as well as teeny box speakers.



That's really neat! I've never seen one of those before!  :)

You know its just occured to me I could probably hook it up to my computer and record all my old stuff onto disc ! 

We mainly listened to cassettes. Both my mom and Dad had cassette decks in their cars. (the car she stopped using in 1988 actually had an 8 track deck, prior to her getting a newer car that was made in 1985). We did listen on occasion select records, but something had happened to our stereo system's record player and we weren't able to use it, so I think it made us use cassettes more and more. I actually had never even known of compact discs until 9 or 10 years old (1991-1992). We were so concerned with our cassette collections, I guess we just didn't pay attention to the rise of CD's because they were still so new and I suppose more expensive (as were the players).

I remember that CD's were quite expensive in the late 80's. Also, as someone mentioned earlier, our first CD player was a large, expensive box and you only listened to CD's at home when you wanted better sound quality (if they had car CD players then they must have been very expensive because we never had one). CD players were a novelty item for audiophiles or people with money to blow who want the latest technology. Even when I bought my first car CD player in 1994 it skipped constantly so I still preferred to listen to tapes. Also - in the late 80;s CD's were still sold in large boxes (the size of two CD jewel boxes put side-by-side with protective padding on one side of the box). What a HUGE waste of resources!

I pretty much only bought cassettes thru the 80s - buying my first cd in 88.  But I also bought record singles because I loved collecting B sides.

So I had (and still have and use) one of these which I carried round on a shoulder strap.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/kj68/Spare%20stuff/misc005.jpg

It was handy as it played all sized records plus cassettes and you could record them over to cassette. It had head phones as well as teeny box speakers.



That thing looks awesome.  I don't even remember those
I guess portable Recordplayers did exist LOL

Early 80's I was buying Vinyl, but by like 86 or so I switched to cassettes, Until I switch to CDs in like 89, and would record them on cassette for in the car.

Cool thing on cassettes in the 90's they came out with music search. The deck would fast forward til it found a silent spot on the tap and stop, which usually was in between songs, but occasionally it was just a break in a song. I think I got a CD player for the car around 94 or so. Now I have Sirius, and a deck that takes CD and SDCard, I seldom ever listen to a CD, I have 500+ songs on the SDCard.

I remember that CD's were quite expensive in the late 80's. Also, as someone mentioned earlier, our first CD player was a large, expensive box and you only listened to CD's at home when you wanted better sound quality (if they had car CD players then they must have been very expensive because we never had one). CD players were a novelty item for audiophiles or people with money to blow who want the latest technology. Even when I bought my first car CD player in 1994 it skipped constantly so I still preferred to listen to tapes. Also - in the late 80;s CD's were still sold in large boxes (the size of two CD jewel boxes put side-by-side with protective padding on one side of the box). What a HUGE waste of resources!


When we started buying more CDs in the early '90s, they mostly came in those long boxes, too. I believe that stopped at least in the mid-90s. I still have my Magnavox CD player/tape deck at home. I've had it since 1992 (a birthday gift).

I started out with cassettes but quickly switched to vinyl when I discovered 12" Singles.  I probably had a couple hundred by the end of the 80's compared to about 50 pre-recorded cassettes.  I bought blank tapes all the time to make mixes; usually the High Bias Chrome quality.

I rarely knew anyone with CDs until about 1990.  I didn't own my first CD player until the end of '91.

Vinyl  and Casette

Having been born in the last six months of the 60s, I built my music collection arund vinyl and recorded many of them on to audio cassette in the 80s. I also remember getting very excited about music being recorded on VHS tapes and LAZER DISC wich later merged together to become the DVD as we know it.
P.S. VINYL IS THE KING when true sound is reqiured.

When we started buying more CDs in the early '90s, they mostly came in those long boxes, too. I believe that stopped at least in the mid-90s. I still have my Magnavox CD player/tape deck at home. I've had it since 1992 (a birthday gift).


In retrospect I wish I'd saved some of those longboxes if I'd known they'd be future collectors' items, lol. While I don't know the exact timeframe those stopped being made, I can narrow it down pretty close. I have a few pictures of Chrismas 1992 where one of my presents is a CD copy of Weird Al's In 3-D. It was packaged in a longbox. I'm pretty positive there weren't any left by 1994, because I looked around in record stores a bit deeper on my own by then.

I consider the disappearence of longboxes to be the end of the "early CD era", where vinyl was still kinda in its waning stages too.

Cool thing on cassettes in the 90's they came out with music search. The deck would fast forward til it found a silent spot on the tap and stop, which usually was in between songs, but occasionally it was just a break in a song.


In the 90s ??  Our cassette player in our car had that function in the 70s !

i barely lived in the 80's, since i was born in '89, but in the 90's, i was buying casettes all the way up to 1999. i bought Britney Spears's debut on casette when it first came out. i just didn't understand why people would pay so much more for CD's. i was content with casettes.

In retrospect I wish I'd saved some of those longboxes if I'd known they'd be future collectors' items, lol. While I don't know the exact timeframe those stopped being made, I can narrow it down pretty close. I have a few pictures of Chrismas 1992 where one of my presents is a CD copy of Weird Al's In 3-D. It was packaged in a longbox. I'm pretty positive there weren't any left by 1994, because I looked around in record stores a bit deeper on my own by then.

I consider the disappearence of longboxes to be the end of the "early CD era", where vinyl was still kinda in its waning stages too.


Yeah, I have a strange feeling 1992 was kinda the peak for those longboxes. I remember going to the Wherehouse and that's all I'd see in the CD music aisles. I also received a few Christmas CD's in the longbox, one in particular was the "Aladdin" soundtrack. I still have the CD case and all, and I know I kept the longbox, but after 3-4 moves, I am not sure where the longbox portion of it is :0(  :(

Yes, vinyl was still in - I could find an aisle or two devoted to vinyls. Yet, cassettes were the predominant one still. I'd say up until about 1994 did the cassette aisles start to get cut in half. This is when you could actually find CD's for generally cheaper prices. Mostly new releases are what took up your money.