March 3rd 1986 we rode our bikes to the record store in town and waited in small line to buy Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” on cassette. I used money that I wasn’t supposed to have yet from my 8th birthday that came 6 days later.
I still have that cassette, but all the printing has rubbed off and it’s warped so that it does that odd muffled, loud, muffled, loud thing that worn out tapes are prone to doing.
That was the first record I recorded onto tape. Unlike today’s technology where you can make perfect digital copies, I took a cassette recorder, and hung the microphone in front of the speakers 
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I couldn’t begin to tell what the first analog music I ever bought with my own money was. The first CD I ever bought was one of two bought at the same time: Animals by Pink Floyd or Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. Still own both.
The first record I owned was Meet the Beatles, but the first one I bought with my own money was I Got You Babe.
Spring, 1965: In an enormous concession by a guy whose musical tastes ossified in 1930, to the disgust of his wife, who had been quite hep in her youth, my father allowed my younger brother and I a dime to play two songs on a jukebox. I chose “1-2-3” by Len Barry and my brother selected “The Birds And The Bees” by Jewel Akens. Little prude that I was, I was embarassed by my brother’s choice because I had some idea that my parents were listening and would realize what it was about.
That opened the floodgates and I have only the vaguest idea how many records (33 and 45), tapes (reel-reel, 8-track, and cassette), CDs, and MP3s I have.
I like Sweet Pea. My neighbor used to sing it while he worked in the yard.
Great question!
My first LP was from the stereo department of Montgomery Wards and was (I believe) a joint purchase with my brother. (We quickly learned as kids we could accumulate things twice as fast by pooling assets.) It was a K-tel or Ronco record called “Funny Bone Favorites” and featured such dreck as Ray Stephens singing “Ahab the Arab” and “Guitarzan” as well as doo-wop classics “Charlie Brown” etc.
My first 45, to the best of my knowledge (though this may have been a birthday gift) was Shaun Cassidy’s “Da Doo Run Run.” I pretty much bought it because all the other girls in my class were in love with Shaun Cassidy and I wanted the cover sleeve. The song is excruciating. I would love to put this guy in front of Simon Cowell and see him get ripped a new one.
I bought my first 45 when I was 9 years old.
Undercover Angel by Alan O day.
I don’t remember the first LP (probably Elvis) or tape or 8-track or CD but my first 45 was Only the Lonely by Roy Orbison.
My first 78 was a gift from grandma – Guy Mitchell’s Christopher Columbus. I insisted on playing it over and over whenever I went to visit. She got sick of hearing it and sent it home with me.
Candi Staton’s Young Hearts Run Free. Bought with my paper round money, and the one song always guaranteed to give me an ethereally brief flash of my time as a happy 14 year old.
I bought music for the first time when I got tapes of Nevermind by Nirvana and Blood Sugar Sex Magik by The Red Hot Chili Peppers during the fall of 1991.
First 45 rpm: Waterloo/Abba. 1972? Still a good tune.
First LP: Dreamboat Annie/Heart. It had a few meh tunes on it, but “Crazy on You” is enough justification to buy that album…pictures of Nancy Wilson inside didn’t hurt either.
Er… The Jungle Book soundtrack. Mostly for “(I Wanna) Be Like You”.
The first music I paid for with my own money was The Prodigy (as they then were) - Music For The Jilted Generation. Still rocks!
The first album I ever bought was Ice Cube - The Predator. I still listen to that album all the time.
When I purchased it, I was too young to get the version with the sticker. I thought for a long time that Cube just really enjoyed the sound of gunshots randomly strewn throughout the album.
Ahh, to be young again…
“The Longest Time” By Billy Joel on 45. 1983. I still like it.
The Dream Academy, “Life in a Northern Town.” 1985. I actually have this in my iTunes, so it was easy to go listen to. Beautiful song. An elegy to Nick Drake, long before I knew who Drake was. I still put this on mix CDs for friends as a change-up.
The first album I bought (well, picked out with my parents’ money) was Appetite for Destruction by Guns N Roses. I still listen to it on occasion, especially the non-singles.
Like a rhinestone Cowboy, by Glenn Campbell. Bought it as a forty-five with my allowance money. Would love to listen to it again but I’m sure my mom threw it out years ago
First 45 I remember buying with my own money was “Come Together” by the Beatles on Apple records.
I believe “Something” was on the B side, but I could be wrong