Mourning the Death of the Walkman

It was confirmed today that the iconic cassette players, which had the same impact on global society and pop culture in the ‘80s as iPods have had in the last decade, will no longer be manufactured.  The news was announced by Sony spokesman Hiroko Nakamura, who said the company ceased production of the once ground-breaking portable music player in April. Sales are set to end once the last batch disappears from stores.

Of course, thirty years ago, the idea of being able to carry your entire collection in your pocket would have been ridiculous.  But now we can do that.

Anyhow, I would like to say my own tearful goodbye to the walkman.  I did own one till about 1993, since I had to use it to record my interviews, till of course, that really smaller version came.  However, a lot of my favorite music came with the Walkman - Michael Jackson's 'Thriller', Men At Work's 'Who Can It Be Now', Billy Joel's 'An Innocent Man' and Culture Club's 'Karma Chameleon' are just some that come to mind.  And of course, the summers of my youth were not complete without me carrying my Walkman while walking along the beach or around that track field where we used to run.

But, I guess, it's was just part of the advancement of our music technology and it was undisputably a part of that era.  Life has to go on and we can't be stuck in the past.  I'm just wondering how we'll carry our music in 2040.