Too many DJs? Too many poorly filed CDs.
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
As I’m increasingly using this site to out myself (or rather purge) on various issues, I am really going to come clean now and publicly admit something I’ve never owned up to before.
My record/CD filing system doesn’t work anymore.
For years I have endured smirks from other, more tidy and alphabetical music fans when I try to explain the rationale behind the system. It’s simple and theoretically makes perfect sense, being loosely based on genre, release date and er… ‘vibe’ and ‘personal relationship to my life’. For example, you can find all of my Go-Betweens records arranged in order of release in the 80s/90s part of an indie-pop section, nestled closely near the likes of The Church and The Triffids and also in the vicinity of a stack of stuff like The Blue Aeroplanes and um… Neds Atomic Dustbin because I bought them around the same time. Because this is logical isn’t it?
But my collection has increased exponentially (and my memory has grown more addled) since this fine system was first put into place at the tender age of 10, and things have been starting to go wrong at the most basic level.
Things hit a new low recently when I was looking for the Incredible String Band, went absent-mindedly to the folk section and couldn’t find it. Of course its not there - I had at some point sensibly decided to file them with Pentangle in the ‘late 60s’ section. Near the Beatles because Paul McCartney once said that The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter was his favourite LP of 1968. Similarily, I was having problems instantly locating Pink Martini. I thought I’d put it under ‘jazz/lounge’ but actually found it under ‘world’ near Mariza, the Portugese fado singer, because they both played the La Linea Latin Music Festival in London and they kind of have a Latin vibe. Sometimes.
So you’re beginning to see the problem here.
But what is the solution? I can’t go alphabetical, it’s too clinical. And I like genre - it just doesn’t work all the time. I’m sure I read somewhere that John Peel used to file his records in the order he got them. Maybe that’s the answer? Any better ideas?
