If you frequent used music stores like many crate and bin trollers like myself you’ve seen these grab bags. Ultimately we all know what is in there; crap. It was posed to me that I should find out and analyze what was in the bag by writing about it. Like the guy on the gameshow that can take the free washer and dryer or opt for the mystery box, I just couldn’t resist. So I trotted into St. Joseph, Missouri’s Entertainmart and plopped down $14.99 for a bag of hope in the form or orphan compact discs.

Before I delve into this bag of (likely not so) goodies I thought I’d guess a little bit at what I might find in it. The most obvious statement is that it is largely cds that nobody wants to buy anymore. With the cd market scraping lower than a gopher’s belly anyway this could get brutal. One thing is for certain, I’ve probably heard of many of the items in this bag, not so much because they are good but because they sold a lot of copies and their lasting power was lacking. I’m thinking of one-hit wonders and one-album wonders here, let’s just throw out OMC, Lou Bega and Chumbawamba. I’m going to focus primarily on the 1990s for the music in here because that is when people where buy cds like bread and milk before a snow storm.

Another area I think I’ll find a lot of is soundtracks. City of Angels, Titanic and Godzilla are all likely candidates here because people bought them for that song they really liked but grew weary of the hodgepodge of other music on the disc. I feel confident there will be at least 5 or 6 soundtracks here. Next I’ll look out of my comfort genre-wise, there is going to be some pop country and some classical stuff I would guess. It just seems like these things really populate the discount cd bins and I really struggle to begin to guess the specific titles. Maybe something by Trace Adkins or The Tractors on the country side and some interpretations of Mozart on the other. Some 90s R&B may be included, KC & Jo Jo type stuff.

The remainder will likely be music I’ve never heard of. There were tons of bands that had a push in the 90s when labels were searching for the next Metallica or U2. These could be interesting to listen to, hopefully I’ll have time to dig into the band a bit and might find some interesting connections.

The only thing that is left now is solving the mystery. Wish me luck in finding something cool and pray for strength in me fighting through listening to the garbage that I am sure to come across. (real garbage music, not the band Garbage because that would be AWESOME.)

Here are 5 official guesses for what I think I’m going to find:

• OMC – How Bizarre
• Chumbawumba – Tubthumper
• Godzilla soundtrack
• Savage Garden – Savage Garden
• Blindside – Silence