News Blog
The official blog from the team at Google News
Looking Backward: Happy anniversary, Walkman!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Posted by Ryan Sands, Google News Online Team
Thirty years ago this week, Sony introduced the first Walkman to consumers in Japan. Released on July 1, 1979, the model TPS-L2 was the first in a long history of portable stereo devices. The shape, size, and data format of portable music players continues to evolve, but for many people my age the
Sony Walkman
was their first music device.
As a kid growing up in the 80s and 90s, my Sony Walkman cassette player was my most prized possession, and an important part of my identity. My first tapes were Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream and MC Hammer's Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em. While my little iPod shuffle can easily hold dozens of cassettes' worth of songs, it's hard to imagine developing the same degree of affection that I held for my first Walkman.
On this 30th anniversary of it's release, I took a look back using News archive search's Timeline view for the term [
walkman
], focusing on articles from the United States in the 1980s. These materials were made browsable via our
News Archive Partner Program
. You can easily click the navigation toolbar to zoom in and out on an article, or fit the entire newspaper page in your browsing window.
Click on each image or link to view an article in its original context:
The Milwaukee Sentinel - Jun 24, 1983
The Spokesman-Review - Aug 15, 1982
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Jul 16, 1982
The Age - Dec 3, 1981
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Aug 1, 2004
For folks looking for more information from the early days of the Walkman, I found some the following magazine articles in Google Books, including
a review
in the September 1981 issue of Popular Science and
this ad
in the February 1984 issue.
Labels
announcements
30
currently in the news
13
features
43
Google News Blog
153
help for publishers
21
languages and editions
13
looking backward
7
Archive
2016
Sep
May
Apr
2015
Aug
2014
Aug
Feb
2013
Dec
Jun
Mar
2012
Dec
Oct
Sep
May
Mar
Jan
2011
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Feb
2010
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
Feed
Google
on
Follow @google
Follow
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
Follow