I remember everything about my first album. Blondie, Autoamerican. My mom still has it. It was 1980, so I had to be 8 years old. I was sick, sitting in bed doing nothing when my dad walked in and said he had a surprise for me. It was the Blondie album and I freaked out. My dad and I used to dance to The Tide is High and Rapture doing routines I choreographed. The zippers of my brown knee boots with the wavy gum soles would make a clicking noise every time I executed a high kick or hop. There were many high kicks and hops. Click! Click! Click!
Now that Mikey sits in the front seat with me when I drive, he takes control of the radio often. If it’s loud and pumps, he likes it. If it sounds like something that would play in Tony Stark’s garage, he likes it. If there are a lot of instruments and layers, he likes it. Queen, Billy Joel, Macklemore, Bruno Mars, and other artists I can’t remember the names of because I think I’ve reached the age where I believe the music of my generation was better. I remember when I was younger I knew the name and artist of every song, including the ones I didn’t like. I knew this information like there would be a pop quiz I needed to ace. Now if I don’t like the song I change the station.
Not Mikey. He is just getting into recognizing artists by sound and likes to know every artist and every song. He’ll reach over a thin arm and turn up the dial to blast his favorites. He’ll sing along (passionately), but only if the music is loud enough, which is a shame because he has a beautiful voice. He has no problem singing in front a 1000 strangers at church, but in a car with me he rolls his eyes and snaps, “No way. Seriously, mom, I’m not even kidding!”
Mikey first heard Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive on the History Channel last year, fell in love, and pumped up the TV every time it came on. (I think it was on a commercial for their upcoming season of…I don’t know. Something military?) Then we started hearing it on the radio. He got so into it when the song came on–all conversation stopped, music went up to deafening levels, head bopping, and an orchestra of air instruments playing–that I wanted to buy the album for him. But I wanted to really buy him the album. I’ve bought him songs before, but I wanted him to know that once upon a time, back in the 1900s when I was a kid, people went to stores and bought things called albums, a collection of songs compiled by one artist that could possibly contain songs you don’t even like right next to the one you love enough to play 300 times in a row.
We had to go to several Targets to find the album because it appears I’m the last person trapped in the 1900s. And I guess it’s not even called an album. It’s a “CD,” which I say is incorrect but I wasn’t going to get into an argument over semantics at Target. The point is, my boy is the proud owner of his first album. I wonder if he will remember everything about it the way I remember everything about Blondie?
It’s a good thing CDs don’t wear out! I know every song on that album. Every song. Some songs, like Radioactive, It’s Time, On Top of the World, and a few others I know really well because Mikey is not afraid to use the repeat button. Radioactive, with it’s kicking bass drum, is his favorite and there was one day that he listened to it so many times in a row that Nico had a nervous breakdown in the middle of a Chik-Fil-A drivethru line.
“Please! My ears! No more Radioactive. My brain is getting a headache from this song so many times! Number 3, Mikey. NUMBER 3!”
Don’t feel too sorry for Nico; he’s no innocent. If you ask him, Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Going to Take it Anymore sounds like a chorus of angels.
p.s. Don’t be alarmed by Mikey’s serious face. First, his eyes are shaped in a way that makes it always look like he’s contemplating something existential. Second, someone doesn’t like his new teeth–he won’t admit it, but a mama knows–and now smiles without showing his teeth for pictures. That, and I think he’s shooting for cool-dude.
Mine was Debbie Gibson. Electric Youth. My first CD was REM’s Automatic for the People.
Ah, you’re getting specific! I love it.
First record: Blondie | Autoamerican
First tape: Pet Shop Boys | Please
First CD: Boston | Boston and/or The Judds | The Judds Greatest Hits (I can’t remember for sure because I listened to both nonstop and, yes, I went through a classic country phase.)
The first music that I ever bought myself was Messages from The Boys by The Boys. It was on cassette. I would stop and rewind “Dial My Heart”, “Lucky Charm”, “Sunshine”, and “Happy”. All. The. Time. Because of this, the tape got caught in the cassette players’ mechanism. By the time I got it out there were miles of cassette guts all over my room. NO amount of twisting those circles in the middle would make it go back in. Sad panda……..
THE TWISTING. With a pencil set at the diagonal!
It’s been non stop Radioactive at our house too. Our ten year old has been using spotify to play songs on our sonos speaker all summer. It is fun to observe as he discovers different music, but there is a lot of listening to the same song over and over.
It’s awesome, right? I love it. I admit I still listen to the same song over and over, but Mikey takes it to new levels!
It is wonderful! Growing up so nicely right before my eyes! I told him about your post, and remarked that boys on the west coast are just as obsessed with that song as he and his friends are on the east coast. And now he is checking out the rest of the album on spotify.
My first album (I am o-o-old) was Herman’s Hermits but as a mom, I know every song by Green Day. My grown up sons still like Green Day and I imagine that will be their “good memory” music.
This, I love. LOVE. I wonder if Mikey will feel the same about Imagine Dragons?
My first memory of popular music was whatever my big brothers played on their stereo. Early Beatles, primarily. Until then, I had only what my mother listened to in the car which was mostly 1940s-1950s big bands and it all sounded like elevator music to me. Once big brother took a reel-to-reel tape recorder, hung it high on the wall and made an endless loop of the Hair album play for days. I can’t imagine what our parents thought of that!
Herman’s Hermits are playing here in Las Vegas tomorrow, at some sort of rodeo. My husband was planning to take us to the rodeo, but maybe he’s going for the music?
I like Herman’s Hermits, and that lead singer had Justin Bieber’s haircut. I’m not sure Justin Bieber knew he was paying homage to a 1960s pop band! :)
LOVE THIS!!!
First 45 was Karma Chameleon by Culture Club. First full album was Thriller, on TAPE! I can remember being so thrilled with both.
That is one beautiful boy there – just don’t tell him anyone said that! ;)
Oh….I don’t think I know what my first 45 was! I am stumped!
Shannon, your secret is safe with me. ;) It’s the eyes–they’re a strange gray color. If I was a teenager and had a set of eyes like that trained on me I’d be a puddle of goo.
Mine was Boyz II Men. MAN I loved that album! I bought it on tape and just about wore out the thing fast-forwarding and rewinding.
I did that with my ABBA tape!
My first album was- are you ready for this?- THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY. Yeah. Showing my age here.
My 12 year old daughter loves dragons, so because of the name of the group, I let her watch the video you posted last week. Now she wants the song on her iPod.
Welcome to the new age.
Welcome to the new age, indeed.
My first album was Thriller – bought at a yard sale somewhere around 1985. My first cassette was Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet. My first CD was Pearl Jam’s Ten. I have no idea what my first music download was, which is sort of sad (I’m sure it was something from Napster and probably, thus, illegal).
I was the kid (and am now the adult) who knew every song, artist and all the lyrics to whatever song came on the radio. I feel compelled to sing along even if I don’t like the song and despite my terrible singing voice.
I have no idea what my music download was, either! I wonder if that is something I can look up in my computer? I’m older than you and wasn’t as computer savvy when napster was going on so I bought my stuff.
Gen Y/Millennial(ish?) over here. Born mid-80’s, so whatever that technically makes me.
I remember my younger sister (late 80’s) and I got Pure Moods as one of our first CD’s (I can’t remember if we bought it ourselves or got it as a gift). That thing was advertised constantly and we just HAD to have it.
Around that same time, we got NOW. The original one. The first of 47(!) in the series. After that, she got *NSYNC and I got Backstreet Boys: Backstreet’s Back and we shared them. :)
A couple of weeks ago on Twitter I was trying to think if we had any super popular boy bands in my generation. Maybe New Edition or Menudo?
Okay, so that kid of yours is gonna be a heartbreaker. Prepare yourself for the girls to start calling sooner than later. ; )
My first album was Pat Benatar In the Heat of the Night quickly followed by her Crimes of Passion album and then Loverboy’s Everybody’s Working For The Weekend (that was my least favorite song on that album). 1980-1981. I remember buying them as a treat because I’d been home with the worst case of chicken pox. I then moved on to Tom Petty Hard Promises (still love that one, too) just days later.
I’m pretty sure my first CD was Beastie Boys, Licensed To Ill (which I also have still and know Every Single Word) which was followed by Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet. (Bon Jovi is not on my playlist these days. When I hear it, I cringe.)
After those first few, I cannot remember my first tape or 45 because I was a music junkie, fueled by parents that were music junkies, and I literally had hundreds of tapes & vinyl and moved into CDs in the same way. If you name a genre, it was likely that in the years 1980-1990, I had something in my collection to represent (again, my parents influence. We listened to everything from classical, country, jazz, blues, bluegrass, southern rock, arena rock, hair bands, metal, heavy metal, pop, disco, rap, r &b,, techno, alternative, grunge…). My brother has the same disease and continues to be far more progressive these days. I’ve gotten to the same stage as you, Jules. If I hear something & it doesn’t click right away, change the channel.
*boy bands of our generation: New Kids on the Block. sigh. I’m so glad I was already past ‘boy bands’ by the time they were popular. You know, being a far cooler rocker chick in my heart (and looking like a preppy girl on the outside).
He’s good looking, right? Sometimes I wonder because of course as a mom you’re going to think your child is handsome. I think it’s the gray puppy dog eyes. They are the kind of eyes that say “Fix me, girls! I can be redeemed!”
You had/have some seriously cool taste in music. That’s the benefit of having parents that are into music.
My first was The Monkees. I was OBSESSED with them when I was around the girl’s/Nico’s age. My first REAL like “oh hey this is cool I gotta have it please please please” album was Debbie Gibson’s ‘Out of the Blue’.
The way you felt about The Monkees was how I felt about ABBA. Same age, too. I played that tape until it broke!
The first LP I bought was Lesley Gore’s first, too, the one with “It’s My Party” and “Judy’s Turn to Cry” on it. I was 12. (And then the Beatles happened, and the rest.)
Funnily enough, the LAST CD I bought was also Lesley Gore’s, her most recent, because the song “Better Angels” is, well, perfection.
1. I loved Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party” as a kid.
2. I had no idea she was still singing.
3. Her voice sounds so different now! Crazy.
” I knew this information like there would be a pop quiz I needed to ace.”
That was totally me too!
First 45 was Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper.
First cassette was the soundtrack to Cocktail (this actually might not be true, but it is the first one I remember getting– and I wasn’t even old enough to watch the movie, but I wanted it for the Beach Boys ‘Kokomo’.)
First CD was Black’s Magic by Salt’N’Pepa. In the long cardboard box, of course.
I can’t remember my first MP3! Lol
Kokomo! I loved that song. I completely forgot about the long cardboard box!! Memories…
The picture with the peace sign, priceless. :) My first CD was definitely Britney Spears. Snicker. Oh the 90’s ;)
I have so many pictures of Mikey doing the peace sign. I don’t know what his deal is!
He will remember it for sure! My dad bought me my first “album” (cassette). Hanson’s Mmmmbop. Classy and timeless! ;)
I liked that song, and I was way too old to like that song when it came out. ;)
I can’t remember my first tape (it’s a toss up between Amy Grant and New Kids on the Block) but my first CD was Sarah McLachlan’s Fumbling Toward Ecstasy.
Does anyone else remember the Lilith Fair? That was huge when I was in college.
My first tape was, weirdly, an Elton John album -someone must have given it to me as a gift? and this was pre-internet, so I couldn’t google him or anything. And he obviously wasn’t a teen heartthrob in the tiger-beat (not that I had it, but one of my girlfriends did) so anyway I was left to my own devices to imagine what he looked/was like and I just knew in my little girl heart that he was a major hunk. Hahah
My dad had an Elton John record and the cover art was crazy. There was some teacup that was cracked and had a butt and was pooping seeds? That’s how I remember it.
sheesh, I didn’t mean to post my whole comment up there in the reply area. DOH. I’m recovering from a migraine. Please forgive my brain. BTW, Blondie is still totally awesome! I listen to that album now, as well.
My first album, and it was a real album on vinyl and everything, was Shawn Cassidy! “Da do run run run, da do run run” – well, that how I sang it anyway. I just looked it up and it’s actually ” Da do Ron Ron”.
I remember my father taking me to the mall to buy it. He was barely able to hide his bafflement at my taste in music. I think it was later that day or weekend that I went to my best friend’s birthday party in my rust colored culottes!
A good first album choice – I’ve been listening to them a lot lately!
I couldn’t tell you what my first “album” was…since it was a cassette and I was probably under the age of 5. I do, however, remember my first CD – Paula Abdul’s “Forever Your Girl.” My dad was a total tech-junkie when I was a kid, so we were one of the first adopters of CDs. So even I, at 30 years old, never had an “album” in the traditional sense. :-)
My nephew, who is about Mikey’s age, is really into Justin Timberlake’s new album – might be a fun one to check out. I didn’t think he’d like it, but I was playing it in the car a few weeks ago and he was instantly hooked on it.
Also does not surprise me in the least that Nico’s a Twisted Sister fan. It suits him, I think.
As it was explained to me by a really annoying guy in a band once, an album is the collection of recordings. Record, tape, CD, MP3, etc is the format. But! Now that I think about it, the people at Target weren’t wrong to call it CD because that’s all they sell. It’s just been so long that I’ve bought something in store versus itunes (shame face!) that I forgot you can’t walk in there and get various formats.
p.s. This guy was also quite upset when I said I liked “a little of everything” when it came to music. WRONG ANSWER.
Ohhh… the first album. My grandmother used to take me to Goodwill and Salvation Army (before Thrift Shopping was cool) and I bought Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell and White Wedding Vinyls from SA for 25 cents each. This is when cassette’s were already on the scene, probably in 1990. I adored them, and eventually recorded them to tape. I can’t remember the last time I purchased an album – I just pay the premium membership to Spotify. But you can tell Mikey that he inspired me to give Imagine Dragon’s a closer listen.
My boys are only 4 & 2, but already they give excited shouts of “THAT’S MY JAM!” whenever something comes on that they enjoy :)
Love this post!
I don’t get spotify. How does it work? Is it like Pandora?
Spotify is amazing, and FREE! I pay for the premium service because I want the ability to listen on mobile devices, and ad free. But otherwise, it is kind of like TV on demand, except it is music. You can listen to millions of songs, on demand, whenever you want, build whatever playlists you want, and there are even apps within the Spotify program that are super rad! My favorite is one called Soundrop – basically these are music rooms where you can jump in and build playlists with other users, and then you vote on the suggested songs, and the songs are played in order of the highest votes. Do you remember calling into radio stations to request songs in the 90’s??? Do people still do that? Well, it is like that, minus the phone. There are Soundrop rooms for almost every genre.
I listen to Spotify on my PC while I work (you download a program to your desktop and it runs off of that, but you can login with facebook and “share” songs with your friends, or on your FB feed. This also gives you the ability to listen to music offline (as opposed to Rhapsody or Slacker, which are both browser based). I listen to Spotify on my phone in the kitchen while i’m cooking (if I’m not listening to the Frank Sinatra channel on Pandora). I listen to Spotify on my phone in my car when I’m dropping the kids off at daycare. I listen. all. the. time. $9 a month for on demand, ad free, mobile capable music is pretty much my dream come true.
Best thing of all? They have a “private session” option, so when I feel like listening to ridiculous music I’m ashamed that I love, no one on facebook has to know. Because my husband giggles like a girl when “Kerith just listened to ‘I Touch Myself’ on Spotify.”
You will be amazed at the amount of your FB pals using Spotify. And if they have good taste in music, you can “follow” them to see what they are listening to.
And I swear Spotify isn’t paying me – but they probably should be, lol!
We still buy CDs, even though I’m generally averse to clutter. Buying audio files feels so intangible. What if they disappear?!
But D just bought his little brother (15, so older than Mikey) an Rdio subscription so he can listen to full albums on his phone and explore different music. I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t already have a kid that’s glued to electronics, but for a teenager it’s a fun gift.
Rachel – I had never heard of Rdio until your comment – just checked it out, and it is pretty sweet! My husband is forever logging into my spotify account and keeping me from using it – I just made him sign up at Rdio and told him to leave my Spotify alone (although I’m a little jealous of the slick layout Rdio has going on).
okay so I vividly remember perching in front of my dads twin tape deck, listening for my favorite songs first notes so I could hit record REALLYFASTSOYOUDONTMISSANYTHING!!
ahhh mix tapes.
but my first albums? yup. you never forget your first: u2’s achtung baby, and Mariah Carey’s emotions. one I’d still enjoy, one…not so much. guess which is which ;P both used CDs from the local hole in the wall used record store.
and radioactive? yeah little dude. I rock out when I hear it too. have you ever seen the video? it’s a good laugh
thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Hi! I am new to your blog and have been loving following along. #I love Albums and we still prefer to buy these v.s. mp3s and #2 Where do you live that you guys are such big 66ers fans? We live in Redlands and have been to a couple games ourselves. God bless!
I first heard Radioactive in a snowmobile video, of all things, and bought the CD for the same reason. Mikey has the same music taste as a 30 year old, or I have the same music taste as a young dude – either way, the CD is excellent.
I grew up listening to my parents music – Otis Redding, Queen, Beach Boys, Big Band – so my first CDs were heavily influenced by what my friends suggested I should be listening too. I still have those Ace of Base, TLC, and Mariah Carey CDs from a Christmas ages ago.
We have ONE spotty radio station in town and my car doesn’t have Sirius. I recently went to the store in search of a few albums and ran into the same issue as you! I guess we’re the only people still buying actual CDs.
My first album was the Spice Girls….and proud of it!
Also, I know I’m like a bajillion days late but just had to comment because I SEE OUTLANDER SERIES ON YOUR BOOKSHELF.
And that makes me happy. :D
<3 from the loser who is just now going through her Feedly queue from a bajillion days ago….