Long lost CDs

I got a new Ipod for Christmas last year, and I’m just now getting around to putting more music on it that I’d been missing for quite some time. I finally had to put my foot down today when I was excited to listen to an old album I hadn’t heard for a while, and discovered it wasn’t on my Ipod after all. So I pulled my old CD cases out of retirement, and got a little sad.

These CD cases have been sitting in a box at the top of my closet, untouched since I moved into this house. They are dusty and forgotten, shoved away and out of place in an age of digital music. I started loading the ones I didn’t have on my Ipod onto my computer, and got to reminisce as I listened to songs I haven’t even given thought to in years.



I used to be all about CDs. I would hoard them. And then when I couldn’t buy my favorite albums or I just wanted one song off of them, I made mix CDs. Tons of mix CDs. The picture above shows the collection I had, or what I could find of it. The case on the left is full at 64 CDs, the smaller two held 24 each, then there’s a bunch sprawled out and probably getting scratched all to hell without the protection of plastic sleeves. Almost all of them are burned CDs. And the mixes would be so random, too; I found an old Destiny’s Child song mixed in with a Sum 41 track, all together with the Macarena just thrown on there for fun.



I gave them all names too, that way I knew roughly what songs were on each one. This one was labeled “Flippin’ Sweet Mix.” Gosh I thought I was so cool back then…I probably still do.



Then I stumbled upon this one, labeled “Megan’s B-Day Mix!!” This was given to me as a present by my friend Kelsea in eighth grade. Remember when giving mix CDs was such a cool thing to do for someone’s birthday? I think that should make a comeback. I don’t give a crap if you don’t have a CD player, when your birthday rolls around, I’m burning you a CD. I hope someday, someone gives me a mix CD for my birthday again.

I loaded my CDs on my computer, all while downloading a couple other CDs while they imported to Itunes. What a crazy juxtaposition. It’s so weird to think that I’ve lived during both the rise and fall of CDs. So now, my cases will return to the box in my closet, and await a day when my Ipod gives out and I need all that music to be digitalized once again. Oh, the life of a compact disc.

Who still buys CDs? Do you miss them at all? Do you still have a collection from a time when a portable CD player was all the rage?