My Favorite Albums of All Time (When I Was 11)

I started getting really into music roughly in the summer of 2003. I had been surrounded by loads of current pop and R&B thanks to my sister and loads of older rock, jazz, and some more experimental stuff thanks to my father (who shares my passion and, for the most part, my taste), but I had never really cared much about music. I liked it, sure, but it never really occurred to me that I could go out and find stuff that I liked, rather than just listen to whatever my sister or dad was listening to. So I started reading some things and listening to the radio--mainly Chicago's Q101--to find some cool music. I was at first drawn towards hard rock, popular alternative rock, and pop-punk. Mostly new stuff, but some older stuff, too. This was what played on Q101, and it seemed edgy, hip, and angsty. At age eleven, I was in the height of this wannabe edgy, hip, and angsty phase, and I was listening to a lot of hard rock and the like.

Now, I realize that most of the albums on this list are pretty terrible, but they were part of my first notable musical encounters. (And a decent amount are still good.) They led me away from *NSYNC, and, eventually, to Can. So, as bad as they are, they represent childhood for me (and I'm guessing for you, too.) Here are My Favorite Albums of All Time as I think I would have listed them in the spring of 2004. (Because that summer was when I got Funeral and Good News For People Who Love Bad News, thus altering my taste forever.)

1. Nirvana--Nevermind

2. Red Hot Chili Peppers--Californication

3. Green Day--Dookie

4. The White Stripes--Elephant

5. Weezer--Weezer

6. Nirvana--In Utero

7. Red Hot Chili Peppers--By The Way

8. P.O.D.--Satellite

9. System Of A Down--Toxicity

10. The White Stripes--White Blood Cells

11. The Offspring--Splinter

12. Sublime--Sublime

13. Rage Against The Machine--Battle For Los Angeles

14. Sum 41--All Killer No Filler

15. Hoobastank--The Reason

16. The Strokes--Is This It

17. Guns N' Roses--Greatest Hits

18. Foo Fighters--One By One

19. Linkin Park--Hybrid Theory

20. Various Artists--Spiderman 1 Soundtrack

21. Red Hot Chili Peppers--Blood Sugar Sex Magik

22. Yeah Yeah Yeahs--Fever To Tell

23. Blink-182--Take Off Your Pants And Jacket

24. Jimmy Eat World--Bleed American

25. Queens Of The Stone Age--Songs For The Deaf

26. Puddle Of Mudd--Come Clean

27. The Offspring--Americana

28. Smashing Pumpkins--Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

29. Linkin Park--Meteora

30. Incubus--A Crow Left Of The Murder

That's what I thought. And you can't really criticize an eleven year-old's music taste.