Summary

Issa explores her musical exposure and the development of her own musicality. She describes being prohibited from buying CDs with Explicit Content labels as a child and being forced to take piano lessons by her mother. Reflectively, she confides that she almost missed out on the rich musical culture of her generation because of her mother’s prohibitions. Through ingenuity Issa is able to attain some forbidden CDs and participate with her peers in the musical excitements of their youth. She narrates an instance of pretending to have a large roster of CDs that she can bring to a pizza party her friend is throwing. The excitement this generates is intoxicating, if fraudulent. In the end, Issa laments her lack of access to the coveted music, seeing it as the social barrier that defines...