I Remember Where I Was When… Huge Moments In Pop Culture

… I first heard Confessions

This may seem like a trivial way to start off this list. But let’s be honest, Confessions.changed.the.game! Everything lined up perfectly for this album. We were still buying CDs, there was a shortage of R&B singers and Usher was fresh off of a breakup with Chilli. We just assumed he was going to tell the messy story on his album. Who knows how much of that album was actually about Chilli. (Years later, J.D. came forward and said the title track was actually about his own indiscretions.) But once we heard the songs, it really didn’t matter who or what they were about. It was (and still is) hot fire. I remember I first got the album from a girl on my volleyball team. From there, I spent the next several weeks listening to the album in my sophomore journalism class. (Clearly, it was an unstructured environment.)