Several times a year, I take a mini-roadtrip to visit my family in Dallas. Three hours of driving alone through central Texas is abominably boring and opting for the same upbeat music to stave off naptime can render even Missy Elliot mind-numbing. (I’m fairly sure this commits some blasphemy to the hip-hop gods.) Luckily before embarking on my most recent visit, I happened to unearth my long-forgotten CD case from high school. Even more ancient was Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, in which I triumphantly mimicked pulling the sword from the stone upon finding it.

This was the first CD I bought with my hard-earned babysitter Benjamins (okay, Lincolns and some puny dimes). Once I hit play on that summery day in 1995, I became obsessed with Alanis’ off-key shrills and biting odes to flawed romance. Now I’m all grown up and popping that CD back in my car caused no recoil on embarrassment of my younger self that old favorite bands usually did. (No, I don’t know what jumbo Sugar Ray poster you’re talking about. Quit staring at me, alright?)  I recited and screamed all the words from her first track and my lungs were near collapse towards the last. I can’t remember the last time I arrived in Dallas in such an amazing mood.

Even if your first CD was a lame one, the memories attached to it and the thought of your innocent musical taste can produce a cozy smirk, filling you with humility as you look back on your adolescence.

What was your first CD, record or downloaded album? Do you still listen to it? Has your musical taste changed since then?

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