Dude (or dudette), you missed the Boombox era.

It. Was. Awesome.

But the portability was hit or miss. And the boom part could be a problem in certain situations.

Thus the need for a much smaller (more portable), and more personal (headphones) device.

(edit) This is how awesome it was (though I'm experiencing youtube errors atm):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xcrLbic1_o