PixlBit

Hello Pixlbit! Summer is here and it is hitting hard! A couple of days ago it hit 122 degrees in my little piece of SoCal, which means Mr. AC is my best friend, but anyways for this week I’ve decided to share with you, the good readers, my other hobby: my music library. I decided to split this up in parts because I want to talk a little about certain albums (nothing crazy) and it will take a while so I decided to start on my CD Library.

 

My first album was SWV’s It’s About Time back in like ’94. Before that, I was all about cassettes, and mixtapes (I LOVED my Sony Walkman. I kept Duracell in business in the early 90s) I love music because listening to particular songs can trigger memories, and send you back in time. Everytime I hear Kylie Minogue’s version of The Locomotion, I’m sitting on my aunt’s couch in Orange County, and my uncle is talking about the album, or when The Bangals Walk Like An Egyptian comes on, I can still feel the AC on my skin as my mom drives my brother and I to K-Mart because I had $10 bucks and I wanted to buy a GI Joe, and a Dinosaur poster. These little things is why I love listening to music.

At current count I have 1,084 Albums, and I think 6 or 7 of them are duplicates. I have 133 CD Singles (I miss this format). I think I would have had at least 1,500 at this point, if it wasn’t for that time in the late 90s-Mid 2000s when everyone made Metallica angry. I mean it was cool having a 50,000+ track iTunes library, but there was so much you couldn’t enjoy it. It became an arms race, rather than I love my library with some folks. I got fed up with it, and I wanted to enjoy the music I owned, from the artists I liked. I wanted to have a library that I could say that I owned everything in it. Currently in my iTunes library I have 16,579 tracks, with four mixtapes. I do buy some albums/singles in digital form, but my first love is the CD (I’ll show my Vinyl library soon).

 

I keep my CDs in books because when I was going away to college I wanted to bring my CDs with me, and it was crazy to bring 100 albums, and countless CD Singles in their cases. My usual setup is having the booklet on one side and the disc(s) on the other. As my collection grew instead of having my albums in alphabetical order, I decided to keep my books based on the following genres: Rock, Pop, Hip Hop/Rap, R&B/Soul/Funk/Raggae, Classical, Soundtrack, Jazz/Marching Band/Instrumental, Country, Hawaiian, Audiobooks, and Singles. I found this to be easier than alphabetical, and within the book I try to keep the artists albums together. I toss the plastic jewel cases unless it’s a special edition, has some sort of sticker on it, or is a paper case just in case I decide that I no longer want to keep my music in books (Amazon is going to make a TON of money off of me when I buy plastic jewel cases in bulk). Oh I keep the back inserts. I flatten them out and stick them in a box.

So to kick this off I decided to start with R&B/Soul/Funk/Raggae and Country

 

This is my R&B book.

 

Various Artists - Smooth Luv: I bought this at Tower Records while in college, and my college girlfriend thought it was silly because I called it “The Mood Music CD”. It is filled with some good 90s R&B, along with a track by Barry White.

Jasmine Guy – Self-Titled: Remember Whitley from A Different World? Well I found this at the .99 cent bin at Warehouse Records when I used to make the 15 minute walk from Campus. I didn’t care for the album other than for the song “Just Want To Hold You”

 

Wilson Pickett – The Very Best Of: I have the original on Vinyl, and I bought this because it saves me from ripping the Vinyl copy. Lots of good stuff here.

Jodeci: Jodeci is high school for me. I think I had one of these albums on tape when I copied my friend’s copy. Oh I miss dual tape decks.

 

En Vogue: This is middle school/high school for me. I taped a couple of songs off the radio, and now I have the album…twice (SMH). The Remix album is meh

Mariah Carey: I don’t know why but I’m slowly trying to collect her Discography. Each album is ok, but I do like songs from each. I also think she ripped off a beat from one of her non radio tracks from Emotions and used it on a later song. I think I'll probably collect her discography just for comple it.

 

Janet Jackson: Janet was one of my favorite albums in high school. My band teacher made me a tape copy from his CD (If he had anything new, he’d tell us, and if we wanted a copy, we just brought a tape) Design of a Decade was my favorite album my first year in college because it never left my portable CD player.

 

SWV – It’s About Time: My first album. I bought it at Circuit City for $15 bucks. I bought it for Weak, and I would listen to the whole album anyways because I spent $15 bucks.

Sade: What can you say about her other than Freaking Awesome! She's one artist that I would love to have her discography in my library, but it's hard finding her stuff around these parts.

 

 

Usher – Confessions: Cheat on your girlfriend, and make a killer album. Love this album.

 

Prince – The Very Best Of: He is one hell of a performer, and nothing screams 80s/90s like Prince.

 

 

R. Kelly – 12 Play: I think this was my second CD I ever owned. I bought this from the local mom & pop (same spot where I still buy CDs). I enjoyed this album much more than SWV.

 

 

 

Norah Jones: She doesn’t get as much credit as she deserves. I love her voice. It reminds me waking up late on a cloudy Sunday, and just being lazy. I haven't listened to her recent album yet, but at some point I'll pick it up.

Whitney Houston: This is a Greatest Hits that was released I think a week after her death. I wouldn’t call myself a big Whitney fan, but this is an album I could listen to from beginning to end. It is a shame The Star Spangled Banner isn’t it on it. (Thanks iTunes)

 

Hall & Oates: This is one of my favorite groups because their music seemed to be always playing in my house when I was growing up. Remember when I said music can trigger memories? “I Can’t Go For That” reminds me of sitting in a Carl’s Jr. (Hardees for you East Coast folks) after a trip to the local K-Mart for a GI Joe, and eating their version of a Happy Meal with the folks.

Aaliyah: This could have been my second CD (I can’t remember if I bought R.Kelly or this album first). I bought it for one of her ballads, yet my favorite song on the album is “Down With My Clique.”

Earth, Wind & Fire: I have their official Greatest Hits on Vinyl, and this album was picked up so I didn’t have to rip it. Love the big sound of EWF.

Lionel Richie: He is one hell of an artist, plus he plays the Saxophone.

Musiq: I actually found out about him through my brother. He has a very chill vibe, and he would be an improvement over local radio.

Bob Marley: I think everyone owns a version of this album. I lost my cassette way back when.

 

 

This is my Country Music book. It’s not a big a collection and I’m not a big Country Music fan, but I do like some artists

 

Sara Evans: I like her voice, but I’m really a fan of her version of Edwin McCain’s “Could Not Ask For More.”

Dixie Chicks: I only really like a handful of songs from them, but I will probably finish off their discography soon. The Top Of The World Tour Live Album is my favorite because of the crowd interaction during “Wide Open Spaces”

Jessica Andrews – Heart Shaped World: This was my first country music album. When I used to work 12am-4am front desk in my dorm, I would play CMT before I go to sleep because it was the only channel that played music at that time. They would always play one of her videos and I ended up buying the album. It was a pretty good album, and I thought it was more Pop than Country (like a lot of Country today).

 

 

 

Faith Hill: I’m not really a fan, but during my CD Sunday’s I found a couple of her albums at Goodwill. I did have a burned copy of Breathe in college, so I took a chance, and ended up completing her discography by finding the rest of her music at 15 CDs for $20 wall at the mom & pop. I'm slowly getting into listening to her stuff, and so far I've found some songs I really like

Alison Krauss: Love her voice. “When You Say Nothing At All” was my gateway song. I think I stumbled upon it either from one of my residents in college, or from late night CMT watching.

Toby Keith: The only song I really liked other than “How Do You Like Me Now” (another CMT song) is “I Wanna Talk About Me” because Adam Carolla talked about it during one of his podcasts a couple of years ago. It’s a catchy fun song.

 

 

Alecia Elliott’s - I’m Diggin’ It: I think came out around the same time as Jessica Andrews, and I bought that album around the same time. I wish she did make more albums but after her Saturday Morning TV Show on NBC, she seemed to disappear.

 

Lady Antebellum: I LOVE Lady A! I played the hell out of the Need You Now album, and I went looking for their other stuff as well. I actually own two copies of Own The Night, with one of them being a download from Google Play Store. They had a hell of a promotion where everyday for a week they offered an album for a quarter. Great way to discover new music.

 

Kenny Chesney: Another CMT artist (Country Music Television did their job and sold me on four artists I wouldn’t normally listen to). I got hooked on “Doesn’t Happen Twice” and I played it so much, my friends started getting into it. This was my morning song to start my shift at Disneyland during the summer, and one of the songs I would always listen to on the way to class.

Patsy Cline: Actually this could have been my first Country CD because I remember buying it at a Marshall’s of all places after seeing an AT&T commercial where two teens end their date, and then message each other over the awesomeness of 56k…with the sounds of “Walking After Midnight”. I don’t think I ever listened to the rest of this CD because I liked that one song. I treated it more as a single, than a compilation of Patsy’s music.

It's amazing how some of these random things end up on Youtube! I found the commercial.

Well that’s the end of Part 1. Thanks for reading my randoms about these albums. That’s all for now, more later!

 

-Chris