Monmouth Times

Throw back Thursday from the #MonmouthCountyArchives Division: Teens Examining Vinyl Record Albums at Jack’s Music Shop, Red Bank

Teens visit a music store at the end of the vinyl era, which began in 1948, when Columbia introduced the 33 1/3 rpm LP. By the end of the 1950s, it had almost completely superseded the 45 and 78 rpm formats for albums, although 45s for singles continued as a standard. By 1980, the LP’s heyday was about to terminate. The Compact Disc (CD) had already been demonstrated but would not be available until October 1, 1982, when Billy Joel’s 52nd Street was released on CD in Japan along with Sony’s CD player. CD sales far outpaced LPs by 1990, although LPs continue to be popular today with audiophiles and those who prefer the larger packaging of records. In Carl Forino’s photo, Andrea Kaplan, 16, and Karen Rabin, 15, of Rumson peruse record albums at Jack’s in Red Bank, where the largest selling titles were by Tom Petty, Neil Young, Styx, Led Zeppelin, and Fleetwood Mac, with some of these appealing to older buyers. An article in the Red Bank Register, January 27, 1980, noted that, with rising inflation, 14- to 18-year-olds were being more cautious in their purchases; music, clothes, and movies accounted for most of their expenditures.

Source: The Monmouth County Archives “Red Bank Register: Forty Photographs, 1976-1985” Catalog:

https://www.monmouthcountyclerk.com/.../exhibit-catalogs.../

Original source can be found here.