Tonight I decided once again that I should give my CD collection a new organization. The mere fact that this thought has occurred is proof that it is too large for me to comprehend. If it becomes necessary to take a music collection out of the simplest "alphabetical by artist, chronological within artist," only doom can be spelled for the future.
Vinyl is easy. I have less than a hundred discs, so they get the basic organization. My cassette tapes have dwindled to a small handful that are still around only because each is in a corner of an unrelated box, placed seemingly at random or as a joke by my mother (I know I never purchased Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" single, yet there it is, Spanish version too, every time I open a particular box looking for something else). MP3s, though the fastest growing medium, are easiest to handle since they take up no more physical space than the drive or disc they are on (I do, however, have them spread out over two external hard drives and about 60 optical discs; someday they'll all be in one place, someday).
I'm too old to be the kind of person who has never bought a physical album and I'm too young to be able to enjoy music as an ethereal, intangible entityBut CDs constitute the physical bulk of my music. I'm too old to be the kind of person who has never bought a physical album and I'm too young to be able to enjoy music as an ethereal, intangible entity. Alphabetical is out of the question because I have not the contiguous space required to do so. My CDs have not been organized alphabetically since 1999. It began simply enough, and for a practical reason. I had too many to fit into the CD spinner, so I broke off a group to go into a smaller CD rack, with ample room for growth left on both. Soon those filled up, and my CDs began the organic growth I have become accustomed to ever since.
Currently, there are nine branches of this gnarled tree. It's not so much that the organization is faulty - it's that there are leaves I can't see anymore. I currently have about 150 CDs in my bedroom, broken away from the main set in the living room. And these are not bastard children; they are Beatles, punk, and Japanese bands—arguably favourites—and they are in a milk crate beneath my bed.
A look into the punk section tonight reveals there are three Nomeansno albums from which I have never removed the shrink wrap, and I love that band. All true lovers of music have vast stores of albums they have never heard. At one point in my life I kept a separate shelf just of music I had never heard, in the hopes that I would deplete it as I gave each piece a listen. But I was acquiring faster than I was listening (the evil side effect of used record stores) and eventually I had to cut my losses and excise most of that shelf.
I want to return to a time in my life in which I listened to something different every day, if not twice a day.I want to reorganize so that I find myself listening to more music. I fear that I am beginning to settle in my ways and will soon find myself with a limited palate. ("Limited" here is subjective; anyone with the Grateful Dead's Reckoning in the bathroom's CD player and Boris The Sprinkler ... Is Gay! in the living room is certainly not "limited" in the traditional sense.) The Dead have been in that player for almost a week now, Boris two days. I want to return to a time in my life in which I listened to something different every day, if not twice a day. A new CD organization will not just provide variety to my listening habits; it will ward off old age.
The subgroups basically break down like this:
- Bands I'm into because of The Beatles
- Bands I'm into because of The Residents
- The Beatles
- The Residents
- Punk bands
- Japanese bands
- Bands I know personally
- Comedy albums
- Soundtracks / Compilations
I have no idea what to change it to. I definitely want to bring the 150 CDs I never see out into the open, which I have now done by way of spreading them on the floor of my living room. Now I either gingerly step around them as I move about my apartment or stare impotently, unable to decide where they belong. The reorganization process will likely take several weeks, and when it is over I may very likely end up with the exact same divisions I have now, only with shifted locations.
Eh, maybe exactly where things are now. I've become set in my ways.