Before the Internet allowed us to download our favorite songs onto magical music machines from the comfort of our homes, K-pop fans used have to run to their local Morning Glory / Korean music / book / Sanrio products store and peruse the latest offerings from their favorite groups. With so many choices and without being able to actually hear the songs (yeah... "teasers" didn't exist), very often the final decision on what to buy came down to whoever had the cooler album cover.

Today's Way Back Wednesday is going to pay homage to 10 old school CD covers that K-pop fans will remember from back in the day. Not many of us buy or collect CD's anymore but there's still a romantic quality to physically buying a CD, loading it into your player, taking out the lyrics booklet, and following along to your favorite songs. 

Seo Taiji and Boys 1st album

This was the first K-pop CD I ever owned. Honestly, the first few times I listened to it, I really didn't understand it all that well (I was in elementary school when the album was released) but as I grew older, I began to appreciate the style and sophistication of what Seo Taiji and Boys were doing. This is the most important album in the history of K-pop.

Cool 3.5 album - 'Summer Story'

This album was home to one of Cool's most successful songs "Women of the Beach". This album cover is still one of the first images I think of when the weather starts warming up and you start blasting music with the windows down.

Fin.K.L 1st album - 'Blue Rain'

This cover had it all. Mystery, allure, Hyori... I mean, this picture was like the visual equivalent of the siren's call and it lured me in for the kill. I admit it, I bought the CD because the girls were pretty. I think it was the strategically placed strands of hair.

Bonus: The other thing that guys stared at for hours was the image on the inside of the cover. This was the introduction to the unstoppable force that would become the queen, Lee Hyori.

Solid 2nd album

Solid is still one of my favorite groups ever and one of the reasons is because of this album. The cover was an image of an 8 ball cane that member Lee Joon would use during performances. The cane and the 8 ball itself came to be the trademark of the group but Lee Joon confessed in an interview that he doesn't know where it went after the group left the K-pop scene. By the way, that white haze isn't an out of focus image; it's this translucent paper that was over top of the actual picture. 

g.o.d 3rd album - 'Chapter 3 Lies'

When I think of g.o.d and all of their hits, this is the first cover that comes to mind. This was when the group went from popular to superstar. Their careers took off mainly because of the success of the title track "Lies". I distinctly remember reading along with the lyrics trying to memorize the Danny Ahn's rap so I could bust that out 

YG Family 1st album - 'Famillenium'

Even back in 1999, YG just had this aura of cool and swagger. This cover was a little over the top with the guns, but it still portrayed the image that the company is still trying to project to this day. The album cover features 1TYM, Jinusean, Perry, Lexy, and Yang Hyun Suk sitting in the middle. I think it's interesting to look at how small YG Entertainment was during the early stages and how much it's grown over the past 14 years.

Turbo 3rd album - 'Born Again'

Turbo's first two albums were massive successes to the point where members Kim Jong Kook and Kim Jeong Nam actually disappeared to avoid the scrutiny and the limelight. Following some time off, new rapper Mikey entered the group replacing Kim Jeong Nam and Turbo returned with their 3rd album. The cover featured the group's trademark turbo gauge along with a Terminator T-800 metallic arm. At the time, it was very cool.

J.Y. Park 3rd album - 'Summer Jingle Bells'

I think I've written before that before this album I wasn't really a fan of J.Y. Park. That all changed with his 3rd album and the song "That Girl Was Pretty". That 70's disco inspired song opened my eyes to the fact that K-pop singers could make this kind of music. I would never have bought this CD if not for the funny looking lizard and scorpion and a sun with a blow dryer. It made me laugh.

BoA 2nd album - 'No. 1'

I was visiting Korea when BoA dropped her 2nd album and took the K-pop world by storm with the hugely popular song "No.1". It still has to be considered her biggest hit and the cover picture was plastered on store windows throughout the entire city of Seoul in 2002 and it's burned into my psyche I think.

H.O.T 2nd album - 'Wolf and Sheep'

For me personally, this was the most anticipated K-pop album ever. The reason that I became such a fan of K-pop was really because of the pop goodness that was H.O.T. Their first album was a revelation to me and my friends and I waited with bated breath for their 2nd album. The store shelves were lined with these funky, graffiti art covers and it was a really unique look for K-pop at the time.

I think I could go on and on with all the cool album covers from back in the day but I'll stop with this list for now. Let me know which ones were your favorites!