What's the first music you bought with your own money?
Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money? Of course you do! It's like the first person you kissed or the first one who broke your heart -- it's a monumental, life-changing moment in your life that's unforgettable. Well, that is, of course, unless the first record you forked over your cash for is one that you'd just as soon forget. Read about the first records we purchased, then feel free to share the story about the first record you bought. 
Can you guess which member of Team Backbeat bought this record?
Comment Contest: Best story, as determined by the number of "likes" your comment garners below, wins a $25 gift certificate to a local music store -- to buy more records, of course.
Various Artists - Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) (CD)
"My own money" plays a key role in this. The first album I purchased with my own money was the soundtrack to Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. I wasn't allowed to watch Beavis and Butt-Head on TV, so purchasing the album was a side-step way of rebelling. With "Love Rollercoaster" by Red Hot Chili Peppers blasting sexual animated imagery all over MTV at the time, and my eleven-year-old eye balls soaking up every second of it, I had found what I was looking for without even seeing the movie. I don't medically suffer from ADD, but it's been argued that I have it running through every vein. This album shows that I can't pay attention to shit, I don't like congruency, I'm open to anything, and it taught me one thing with one very important life-changing line: "Pimp'n Ain't Ez." -- Britt Chester
Deee-Lite - World Clique (1990) CD
Of course, eleven-year-old me bought it for "Groove Is in the Heart," but the rest of the record stuck, and continues to resonate with me twenty years later. It is probably in my top ten favorite albums of all time. I generally like songs first by beat, then by lyrics, then comes everything else -- but this record is all about beats. The message is pretty sweet, too -- before I dove into rave culture as a teen in the mid-'90s and all that PLUR business, there was Deee-Lite's idea of the "world clique," a dance planet where music was the universal language. Basically, I just love to fucking dance, and I can all the way through this record. From "ESP" to "What Is Love?" Deee-Lite's best record is a lot bigger than "Groove Is in the Heart" ever let on.-- Bree Davies
Kiss - Love Gun (1977) (vinyl)
In the months, weeks and days leading up to my seventh birthday, I had a bit of a ritual. As I wandered the North Valley Mall, where my parents owned a clothing store, I always ended up at the record store on the other end of the shopping center, where I spent countless afternoons marveling at this album. As much as I'd like to have you think I was a precocious kid with musical tastes well beyond my age, the truth is, I had no earthly idea who the hell Kiss was -- and clearly, neither did my folks, who unwittingly bankrolled my purchase. Had they heard songs like "Plaster Caster" and "Shock Me," I'm pretty sure they would've given me the gas face. As it was, I was mesmerized by the cover art. And while that's what drew me in, once I heard the music and later bought the trading cards with Gene Simmons spewing blood and breathing fire -- well, let's just say I was a card-carrying member of the Kiss Army. -- Dave Herrera
Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die (1994) (CD)
The first album I bought with my own money was Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die. I was in the third or fourth grade, and I remember hearing Biggie's voice so much throughout that summer that when the album dropped, I just had to have it. Who was this husky Brooklyn boy with the street-styled flow? I listened to that album back-to-back-to-back. Ignoring my parents' protests and qualms over the violence in the lyrics, I related to Biggie at epic levels, and I still do. To this day, Christopher Wallace is one of my most important teachers. -- Ru Johnson
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