What's your first Walkman memory?
The Sony Walkman is 35 today
Today, the Sony Walkman turns 35 years old. The Walkman is, therefore just a year younger than I am, and I certainly feel like we've grown up together...
If you weren't there, it's hard to explain just how much those of us who were lusted after the Walkman.
From Sony's first models, through to that yellow one you could take in the shower, the Walkman range was THE gadget of the 80s and 90s, and we all wanted one like the kids want smartphones today. More, even....
It was a very cool gadget though, and you have to remember that the combination of a ghetto blaster at home, and a Walkman for going out, meant that you could now record your favourite songs off the radio and take them with you. This was life changing for youngsters of the day.
We were the first generation to be able to do this, and it's not overstating the issue to say it changed music, and how people listened to it.
It also scared the willies out of the music industry, which for the first time was facing a threat to revenues from kids with dual-deck home systems making bootleg copies of albums while also recording the Top 40 off the radio to avoid having to buy singles.
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