The Ancient Art of Buying CDs

Fanmail—my first "explicit" CD

Remember when you had to actually go to the store and physically purchase a CD? I actually remember buying cassette tapes, too, but this post is about CDs! I remember my very first CD, it was the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack; I was about 8 years old and you could not tell me that Whitney Huston wasn't the best singer in the world. Since that album features her songs heavily, my parents bought it and put it in my Christmas stocking. It's strange how music and memories blur together...

For instance, yesterday, I found the Dr. Dolittle soundtrack in my car—another movie I never actually watched, but love the soundtrack. As soon as the music began to play, I was back in my bedroom dancing around and singing at the top of my lungs. Then I recall the first time I ever called into a radio station to request a song ("Are you that Somebody" by Aaliyah) during the request hour. They never played the song, so my mom agreed to buy the CD. 

With my CDs I see them, I hear them, and I remember specific events and even whole time periods of my life. I can identify when the CD came out based on whether they're edited or not, because the store actually checked if you were 17 or not. Conversely, I can't remember a thing about my iTunes and Google Play purchases.  I thought about this riding in my car and felt immensely sad that one day, people probably won't know what CDs are—they'll be in the pile with Vinyl, Cassettes, Floppy Disk... 

It makes me wonder what small joys existed 500 years ago that we've long forgotten?