TYF Staff: The first albums we ever owned

Hannah Atkins

8 years ago

We’re taking a trip down musical memory lane and reminiscing on the first CDs — or heaven forbid, cassette tapes — that we ever owned. Feel free to share your own in the comments section below!

FanMail – TLC (1999)

As kid totally obsessed with “Waterfalls,” you can imagine my excitement to get TLC’s new album, FanMail. Rolling Stone put it best, FanMail is “equal parts steely bitch and sweet sister, superfreak and misty romantic, self-centered coffee achiever and spiritualized earth mama.” Ten-year-old me loved it, and while there were parts of album I couldn’t quite understand yet, I loved the themes of sisterhood and girl power intertwined throughout.

[Gabrielle Bondi]

New Miserable Experience – Gin Blossoms (1993)

Between gifts and hand-me-downs, it’s hard to really narrow down what my “first” album was. The best contender is Gin Blossoms New Miserable Experience, which I have owned no less than three copies of in my lifetime. New Miserable Experience is a top-notch collection of jangly guitar rock that probably set off my life-long love of power pop. I loved the single “Hey Jealousy” — near inescapable between 1993 and 1995 — before I knew it was written by their guitarist Doug Hopkins about his alcoholism. (Hopkins was out of the band before the album became a hit and tragically took his own life in late 1993.) The album has many songs just like it that mask darker lyrics with upbeat melodies and sweetened vocals of singer Robin Wilson. The fact that New Miserable Experience spun off at least four big radio singles (all of which I loved) kept it fresh in my mind throughout my childhood. I devoured this album as a kid, but it took me a while to come back to it. Once I did, after I became a huge power pop diehard, I recognized its influence towards my predilection for that genre later in life.

[Ryan Gibbs]

NSYNC – NSYNC (1997)

Oh, the ’90s. It was such a good time for music, now regrettable hairdos and of course, boy bands. I remember going to the music store and my cousin allowing me to pick one thing to buy. I took that buying power very seriously back then, I had to make my purchase count. So what did I pick? None other than NSYNC’s self titled album with the hit “Tearing Up My Heart.” I remember putting the CD in my stereo once I got home and my family and I having a mini dance party. Also, this was one of the rare memories I had with my uncle before his passing. So though it’s bittersweet, I’m happy to have gotten to share a great time in pop music with him and the rest of my family. It was definitely a simpler time back then, when technology didn’t play such a big role in our lives. Instead, you could just blast some music and dance like a dork with your family. Crazy to think that the album was released back in 1997 and I was only six at the time. My fangirling, boy band-loving heart still lives on to this day.

[Camille Espiritu]

Begin to Hope – Regina Spektor (2006)

As a mid-90s baby (1994 represent!), I was raised on glitter-pop girl groups and boy bands whose outfits were always coordinated and dance moves ever-synchronized. I had countless CDs from ’90s and ’00 icons like Britney Spears, the Spice Girls and, of course, Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. But I count my “first” CD as the one I bought with the cold, hard cash I’d earned as allowance my parents gave me essentially for just not being a totally terrible child. It was 2006 and I was an angsty seventh grader. Spektor’s voice was softly infectious, altogether unique, and I had that totally clichéd feeling that her words were “meant just for me.”

In retrospect, I can’t imagine what the cause of my anguish was, but I knew the power of her music. I was – and remain – grateful for Begin to Hope not only for what it did for me on a personal level as an adolescent, but for the artists that it introduced me to: Motion City Soundtrack, Ben Folds, Paramore and Ingrid Michaelson to name a few. Begin to Hope marked the beginning (how fitting) of a musical metamorphosis for me. I learned what it meant to have a taste for music, to feel connected to an art form. Since then, my music taste has gone through many an evolution, and can currently be described as “all over the map with push-pins in ’80s rock, ’70s funk and ’60s pop.” Though I may only listen to Spektor – and to the original wave of artists with whom I associated her – once every few years, it is always with a fond memory.

[Alana Jane Chase]

…Baby One More Time – Britney Spears (1999)

The first album I ever owned was …Baby One More Time by Britney Spears. I was around six years old at the time and I literally remember bragging to all of my friends that my mom ordered the CD for me (Why we didn’t buy it from the store I have no idea!) and that it was going to be the best day ever when it came. Like many other kids in the ’90s, I think that we were drawn to Britney because of her catchy songs, slick dance choreography and style. I even had a couple of Britney Spears Barbie dolls. Because of my age, of course I wasn’t fully aware of what her lyrics meant, but hey, they sounded good and I could dance to them. And that’s all I needed.

[Stephanie Jones]

Spice – Spice Girls (1996)

It was 1997, and Spice Girl-mania was reaching fever pitch. And so it was, one rainy day, when my mother took me to the music store and bought me my first album — on cassette tape, I might add — the debut offering from Sporty, Scary, Posh, Baby and Ginger. I went home, found my brightly coloured kiddie tape player, and proceeded to play and rewind for approximately the next year. I memorised such child-friendly lyrics such as, “Are you as good as I remember baby, get it on, get it on/’Cause tonight is the night when two become one” and “Do you think I’m really cool and sexy/And I know you wanna get with me.” I cringe now, but at the time, they were super fun, super catchy and all about that girl power.

[Hannah Atkins]