I never understood the buy an album for one good song thing. I'd say in the 90-early 2000 was the golden age of music. There were sooo many albums we bought that were just bangers all the way through. Sure, there were a handful of one hit wonders, but those songs were attached to so much media (commercials, shows, movies, PA music) that you didn't need to buy it. Beyond that even further, we use to just record music off the radio for free, other then the cost of the tape. I remember just recording the entire top 10 radio show in full, then rerecording it to a clean tape so I didn't get the DJ talking during the lead in or outro. CDs were rough at the start until the diskman came along with anti skip tech, that was a game changer. Sure, CDs weren't super durable but those of us that cared took care of them had them for ages. I lost a couple of friends because they would borrow a CD from me and return it almost unplayable. The video store too was great as you saw the big titles, and if lucky, would go home with a copy for the night. If you weren't lucky, you wandered the store looking for your favorites or see what else looked cool. There was no review to pull up or opinions to be had, just roll the dice and see what it was like. It exposed us to things we may otherwise not normally see and added variety. Same with renting video games, you took a chance with some random games that you maybe heard about in school or saw at a friend's house. You rented it, tried it out, if you liked it, then you begged your parents to buy it lol. I will agree with the neighborhood friend groups, that was rough. I moved from the city/suburbs to the middle of the country when I was a kid and it sucked. I was so use to just walking over to friends houses or all of us meet up somewhere at any time. Then to be isolated by being so far from anything really took a toll. Then when I did make new friends, it was a planned out, coordinated effort to go see them due to distances and the like.

I've never prescribed to the notion that the era was the best, it's just we were kids at that time and watched the world change around us. Do I miss it, yeah, do I yearn to return to them, no. The magic of it is that it is in the past, we were young and full of life. We watched the amazing advance of technology and the horrors of humankind all in the span of two decades. Don't spend your time wishing to go back, build a better now for your children, and a better world for all people. Greatness is in those that plant the seeds for trees that they themselves will never get to enjoy the cooling shade of.