from cassette to jump drive

So, I'll be dating myself a little bit here, but that's ok. Since when have I ever been shy? (ok, one time when I was four meeting some of my parents friends for approximately 5 minutes.)

The first tape I ever bought--with my allowance money--was Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. Yep. There it is.

So, while I remember those little record things, I was still young enough that they mostly belonged to my brother, and I never called them anything other than little record thingies. We had one with the Big Mac song on it, and I had a few that came with books, like maybe the Care Bears?

Anyway, I had a Fisher Price tape recorder when I was 8 or so, and I remember putting my NKOTB tape in, sneaking in to sleep in my brother's water bed (while he & Dad were off in TX, Mom & I stayed in CA to wait for the house to sell) and put the thing under my pillow and listen until I fell asleep.
I don't know the first cd I bough, but I think it was Ace of Base... because that's just how classy I am. I do, however, remember when Dad bought our first cd player. He bought this awesome cd collection thingy of all the best songs from the 60s--15 discs full. Numbers 1, 4, 7 & 14 were the best.

But cds and tapes lived in glorious harmony for a long time.
I made mix tapes for my friends, and with my friends, and for people on the Internet. We shared music, and learned about new stuff that we never would have heard if we didn't have friends who listened to other radio stations and stuff.

I remember hearing about Napster in college, and using it to make even more mix tapes (and I think, even one mix cd, because we finally had one of those cool burner thingies). It was useful to be able to buy just a song by an artist that maybe that's all of their stuff that I liked. I remember thinking--I won't stop buying real cds though--I want the cover art & the booklet & all that good stuff.

I said that.
I meant it.
I can't remember the last real album I bought. Maybe Decemberunderground by AFI? And that was an anomaly.

I resisted getting an iPod because I thought I'd never listen to it. I had a car, with a tape deck, and that was enough for me. If I wanted to listen to a cd in the car, I put in on a tape... or used this weird adapter thingy. Worked just fine. Then my husband got me an iPod, and I found I could use that same adapter thingy for it, and then it was all over. Playlists galore. Except iTunes is mostly stupid and occasionally eats my music in some weird "re-organization" thing that happens when you don't actually read the window that pops up, but skim it and decide that having all your music in one place sounds like a good idea, so it moves them all, then can't find them when you want to play the songs, because somehow in moving them it neglected to mention/make clear that not all of your music would fit on your hard drive (scary, innit?) and so whatever didn't fit it just deleted... It was a black day.

That point aside, once mix cds became all the rage (even though I still called them mix tapes, but then again, I was still calling cds albums, because I'm dumb like that), I made those for my friends instead.

And then, when my friend Andrew moved to Utah, after sending me quite a few cds, because he loves me, he had a BRILLIANT idea! He send me this tiny jump drive full of many albums! Less fragile to mail than a cd, and more music to boot! It was brilliant! That was 5 years ago. Why is it that only this year did I realize what a good idea that was and start doing it with my local friends? Honestly... I'm slow on the uptake sometimes.

So now, I buy mp3s and put them on little thumb drives, or jump drives, because I honestly don't know what the difference is, and pass them out to people I like. (My car still has a tape deck though, so that's ok)