I used to think the year 2000 wasn’t that long ago… until I saw this ad for MP3 players… [April 2000]
We all love them. Looking through old magazines and coming across ads for Sony Walkmans, Nintendo Gameboys and the like – pure retro chic.
But nostalgia has the history to surprise, and 909originals almost choked on its cornflakes earlier when it came across this advertorial in Mixmag, detailing the latest MP3 players available to music aficionados. It dates from April 2000, which (to us anyway) doesn’t seem that long ago…
We all know that Steve Jobs didn’t create the MP3 player, he just perfected it (with the iPod), and perhaps we are somewhat spoilt in an era when 128gb seems like ‘just enough’ storage to get by. But kids – as this editorial shows, your big brothers and sisters used to get by on a paltry 32mb (“This can be upgraded to 64mb with additional smart cards!”).
That we were willing to pay around £200 for the privilege says a lot about the mindset at the start of the new millennium as well, seeing as the world had collectively managed to negotiate the Y2K bug (ask your dad).
In this era – when vinyl, polaroids and 80s-influenced TV shows are all the rage – something tells me that this is one period of tech history that is unlikely to see a resurgence.
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