I’ve built some shelves and am now busy filling them with my CDs. I’ve got a few filing dilemmas.
1. Where do you put the ‘Mc’s and the ‘Mac’s? At the beginning of M or not?
2. Some artists have ‘de’ with a low case ‘d’ before the surname proper, like ‘de Montford’. Do you ignore it and file under M or keep it under D?
3. Similarly, ‘van’ as in ‘Van Etton’? Is that under V or E? Obviously doesn’t apply to Morrison whose first name is Van.
4. Then there is St. as in St. Etienne. The convention is that St. Goes before Sa, no?
5. Some names have a couple of surnames, such as Jerry Lee Lewis. Is he under Lee or Lew?
6. Do you break up the band? I’m thinking of The Wailers with or without Bob as a prime example.
7. How about when an artist goes under different names? Do you file Wings and The Fireman under McCartney?
8. Once you get an artist’s oeuvre altogether, is it chronological or alphabetical order?
There are certain rules that should be followed, but also allow for a bit of flexibility.
I keep all Marc Bolan and T.Rex together which knacks the alphabeticalness, but keeps one artists out put together.
Compilations should be at the end of the pile, unless they represent a period of time (ie a Mark 1 version of the band splitting up).
Where bands change their name they should be kept together – Generation X were particularly helpful when they shortened their name to Gen X – it allowed chronology and alphabet to remain intact.
Mines a strict Right to Left alphabetical – a friend of mine files his by genre. I can’t find anything in his collection.
Your questions – my opinion:
1. Macs and Mcs go in strict alphabetical order (unless its Paul McCartney an Wings, which goes under Wings, but the Best Of Paul McCartney and Wings goes under Mc)
2. de Montford – file under D
3. see above – under V
4. St. is an abbreviation of Saint – under Sa it goes
5. I thought Jerry Lee were forenames (am I mistaken?) – under Lew
6. Keep the bands and solo together – unless they are truly distinct (see Marc Bolan conundrum above)
7. Wings under W, Fireman under F, McCartney under Mc. Would you put Wings on the same shelf (in chronological sequence) with The Beatles
8. Once you get an artist’s oeuvre altogether, is it chronological or alphabetical order?
Only my opinion – they’re your shelves, file them how you wish/believe to be correct (even by colour of spine if you prefer)
Sorry, number 8.
The works should be chronological. Compilations at the end on chronological order. Unless a compilation marks a stop point in a bands career when they split up and later reformed
6 (correction) keep bands and solo separate (MB conundrum applies)
I like your answers, RD. Almost completely clear.
I’m abandoning genres apart from Classical which I’m filing under composer.
There aren’t that many Wings albums and there are some Paul McCartney & Wings albums. I’m inclined to put them all under McCartney.
You are not mistaken. Jerry Lee is his given name, the family name is Lewis.
Ok, ok. A better example. How about Justin Townes Earle? Is he a T or an E?
E obviously. Surname is the rule.
Townes is his middle name, like Paul is John Paul Jones’s middle name.
1. Where do you put the ‘Mc’s and the ‘Mac’s? At the beginning of M or not? Not
2. Some artists have ‘de’ with a low case ‘d’ before the surname proper, like ‘de Montford’. Do you ignore it and file under M or keep it under D? M
3. Similarly, ‘van’ as in ‘Van Etton’? Is that under V or E? Obviously doesn’t apply to Morrison whose first name is Van. V if it’s a band, E if it’s a person
4. Then there is St. as in St. Etienne. The convention is that St. Goes before Sa, no? No.
5. Some names have a couple of surnames, such as Jerry Lee Lewis. Is he under Lee or Lew? Lewis.
6. Do you break up the band? I’m thinking of The Wailers with or without Bob as a prime example. I wouldn’t.
7. How about when an artist goes under different names? Do you file Wings and The Fireman under McCartney? No. Different band.
8. Once you get an artist’s oeuvre altogether, is it chronological or alphabetical order? Chronological.
Thank you. Sorted. I think.
I saw how terribly, irredeemably wrong you were on number one and obviously didn’t read any further.
Tiggs, I agree with the answers above. Here’s one which drives the France-raised Mrs F to distraction.
I ignore the definitive article. So The Beatales go under B. The Police go under P.
Les Negresses Vertes go under L.
Je suis hypocrite.
And I bet you put Les Dawson under D – must drive her mad.
What?? Even the Wings/McCartney problem?
I agree with your wife that Les Negresses goes under N. However, the French shouldn’t keep dropping indefinite articles.
Butbutbut… they get the audience to chant “LNV” on their live album. Not “LV” or “LV, L”.
So L it is. Next to Les Miserables, the unhappiest of all the Lesleys.
Where do put an LP by “Les Gray’s Mud”?
The answer is of course – in the bin.
Marvellous. I think I’m going to enjoy this thread…
Mais non. As someone with quite a few francophone albums, I can instruct you to ignore the article. Le Vent du Nord are definitely filed under V.
My love for Breton music and dance presents another issue. By rights, Breton does not use c, q or z, though of course Paris had to use such consonants; the sound tends to be represented as ch or c’h. I have a CD by C’hwibanez; who knows where that belongs?
Here’s another issue. A couple of years ago, Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin decided to give themselves a band name and became Edgelarks. Of course, it would be ridiculous to have their CDs in two separate shelves. They’re all under H.
1 Mc and Mac get treated as a separate letter between M & N.
2. In my 1400 CDs, this problem has not presented itself. I feel deprived.
3. Again, this only comes up with Van der Graaf; I hope it is obvious where they belong.
4. St or Saint comes just before T, but I would probably self combust if I had a Saint Etienne album.
5. Lewis.
6. C’mon, you weren’t really thinking about Bob and The Wailers, were you? It’s easy when Glitter comes just before Glitterband anyway.
7. Going back to Le Vent du Nord, there are albums by individual members of the band, or as duets. If I didn’t file them under V, I would never find them again, as I am not on nodding terms with their names. But clearly Gabriel and Hackett get their own sections.
8. Alphabetical? Are you kidding? Got to be chronological.
To an extent I split by genre. Classical has to be separate and has its own rules. A collection of French chamber music hardly deserves classifying as a compilation, like it was on K-tel. I keep separate sections for multi-band compilations, covermount CDs that were worth keeping, comedy and, yes ladies and gentlemen, birdsong. Folk is split from rock and pop, but singer songwriters could fit in either, which is problematic. There is no logic that Joni is in one, while RT is in the other. Even within that, African artists and French folk are split out.
But then, where should the CD by Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Toure be filed? I am not even sure if Farka is a given or a family name. Aaaaaargh! I will have fitful sleep tonight.
I treat Mc and Mac as another letter but between L and M. Same with St between R and S (try St. Vincent if you don’t like Etienne).
I think Ry Cooder & Ali Farka Toure goes under C. I think Toure is the family name.
but I definitely think of that as an African blues album rather than a Ry. To put it under C would, whisper it soft, put it under a different genre.
There are no genres. Just music. Apart from Cassical.
Filed before Classical presumably?
I know she was a big woman but a whole genre to herself!
@retropath2
🎩 🎩 off
I had a girlfriend who left behind her David Cassidy collection. That stuff has to be kept apart from the rest.
I had a 21st century version of that problem when ny daughter added the likes of Steps and Beyonce to my IPOD without my knowledge and you could bet your bottom dollar they would turn up when set to Randon for a dinner party. ‘Ah Steve, I didnt know you were into Steps’
Better than Hancock Half Hour episodes coming on
…
Cover mounts tend to be various artists and have a whole different shelving system: I like not the alphabetical of v. Given my love of covers and of tribute albums, this is a big section with me.
Various Artists is a completely separate set of rules.
They should have their own section after A to Z, and be arranged perhaps by genre grouping and alphabetical
So there are genres after all?
Too complicated unless ‘random‘ is one of the genres.
CDs – qu’est-ce que c’est?
At a more general level, the only filing system that makes sense is one that completely ignores ‘The’ and then uses the first letter of whatever comes next eg The Beatles – ‘B’ : John Lennon – ‘J’. Forget about genres and ouvrés – that way lies madness. I speak with all the authority of one who worked in Bruce’s Edinburgh, Virgin Notting Hill and Andy’s Norwich.
Oooh. I’ve probably bought something off you!
No. I go by surname. There are way too many Johns. Lennon goes under L. Coltrane under C. You’d put Elvis Costello under E and The Costello Show under C? I don’t think so. There are exceptions: Kylie Minogue is to be found under K, of course.
Obviously at this point she doesn’t need a surname.
How about Chuck?
But dontcha just love filing Bjork under G?
As you may know, in Iceland itself, in lists of names, it is always the first names that are counted and dictate the alphabetical order, and not the surnames. This is because, of course, an Icelandic ‘surname’ is simply a patronym made up of the person’s father’s first name, plus -son or -dóttir as a suffix.
So in Iceland, Björk certainly would be filed under Björk, and not Guðmundsdóttir.
I agree on genre with one exception. Classical gets its own shelf.
Row of shelves.
Snob.
Quite.
Where do folk like Johannes Johannson then: is he classical?
No.
“Classical” only applies and merits separate filing in my filing system, where the legend on the album cover is in the format Composer(s) – Title(s) of work(s) – Performer(s) and/or Conductor(s).
With exceptions, of course.
I’ve no idea about ‘Johannes Johannson’, but Jóhann Jóhannsson is definitely in the special ambient selection of my carefully curated collection.
File under J, eh, anyway…..
New age on my comp, “J” on the shelves, between Joan as Policewoman and Elton John.
Reassure me that you don’t have a whole section for New Age. Good grief, I have shared whisky with you!
I call jit that to get around all the various for classictronica
Is classical then sorted by composer, by orchestra or by conductor ?
My default is composer, but I have many classical CDs that are multiple works by different composers, sometimes with no obvious “primary’ composer – do I then need a ‘various artists’ category within the classical category ?
I find a greater continuity through the First Violin.
Then where to file Rachmaninov Piano Concerto #2?
If there is an orchestra, string quartet or singer, say, playing a variety of composers that goes under the artist.
Sometimes, to fill the CD, they will add a short piece at the end. That files under the main piece’s composer
I have a Compilation category for classical and everything else where they’re filed by name.
Don’t think I have ever been in a record store that listed artists alphabetically based on their first name. Just wrong, unless they only use their first name, Madonna, Prince etc.
How about The Wynton Kelly Trio? That’s a group beginning with W. I filed it under K.
Agree. It’s not a group name, he’s the point of it.
Exactly. Whereas The Paul Breitner Trio are filed under P (no-one in the band is named Breitner).
Hope you all file Muddy Waters under M.
And Howlin’ Wolf under W. But, what to do with Bo & Son House?
By genre. House music.
I would file Bo under McDaniel, obviously.
Obviously. Same reason Fatima files McKinley Morganfield under M.
No, because “Muddy Waters” is a nickname (he’s not Muddy from the Waters family…). Same with “Little Richard” (under L), “Dr. John” under D (he’s not a real doctor), and “DJ Shadow” (under D).
And “Howlin’ Wolf” obviously is to be found between Steve Howe and Freddie Hubbard.
And Bo Diddley is under B, not M nor D…
Dai my boy – I worked in three rather well-known record emporiums: all three were eventually convinced by the magnificence and simplicity of “my” system. I repeat, ignore The, La etc. First letter of person, group – that’s it. John Denver next to John Lennon, Bob Dylan next to The B-52s. Simples.
All the rest of the above discussion is trainspotters getting excited about spotting a train.
ps I went back into Andy’s after I had left – mayhem, mutiny from stern to bow, it was as though I had never been there. I plough a lonely furrow, unrecognised (cont’d p94)
Can I just say that I was joking?
We know!!!
It’s my jokes nobody gets. “I could watch Groundghog Day for ever” is simply not good enough. “I could watch Groundhog Day over and over again” is much better.
Shouldnt it be filed under T?
No. Ignore the definitive article but not the other one. A Certain Ratio is right there in the A’s along with A Girl Called Eddy.
On this, I agree with Tiggs.
Top notch correct!
I never know whether to file The The under the first or the second T
@dai
I vaguely recall Andy’s doing this in the UK in the 80’s.
Back in the seventies a friend who worked in a record shop filed my records by their catalogue numbers.
I couldn’t find a thing.
(Well I could but it was difficult)
You would have to be a real geek to know that The Clash’s debut album is CBS82000 or Nick Lowe’s ‘So It Goes’ is BUY1.
Geek? I thought that was common knowledge.
The Jam Going Underground – Polydor POSP113
etc
A friend of mine files them in the order he bought them in. But he’s mad.
Autobiographical – which means he can’t replace his real first purchase with a cool one
Rigid Digit wrote:
1. Macs and Mcs go in strict alphabetical order (unless its Paul McCartney an Wings, which goes under Wings, but the Best Of Paul McCartney and Wings goes under Mc)
2. de Montford – file under D
3. see above – under V
4. St. is an abbreviation of Saint – under Sa it goes
5. I thought Jerry Lee were forenames (am I mistaken?) – under Lew
6. Keep the bands and solo together – unless they are truly distinct (see Marc Bolan conundrum above)
7. Wings under W, Fireman under F, McCartney under Mc. Would you put Wings on the same shelf (in chronological sequence) with The Beatles
8. Once you get an artist’s oeuvre altogether, is it chronological or alphabetical order?
This is exactly how one’s collection should be arranged. Multiple albums from the same artist artists should be sorted in chronological order.
With you on everything but 2 which is wrongety wrong.
I politely disagree!
Don’t you mean ‘di Sagree’; file under S.
Presumably alphabetical within de? At the end of the day as long as you can find stuff it doesn’t matter.
I assume that entirely numerical band names like (er, the only one I can recall) 999 are filed under ‘N’ for nine ?
A significant part of me thinks there should be a numerical order section after the alphabetical one – if the band’s entire name is expressed as a number.
You mean you don’t own 15-60-75’s cracking album, Jimmy Bell’s Back In Town, or 801 Live or anything by 10cc???
They go at the end but before Various Artists.
I said “the band’s entire name expressed by a number”. So…
10cc would be under T just before Ten City and 10,000 Maniacs. 801 Live would be under E just before 808 State.
15-60-75 would be in the numerical section.
801 is the name of the band. Live the title of the LP. But, I see what you mean.
The only one I have is Original Soundtrack by 10cc – that’s at the beginning of my collection before the ‘A’s
Correct. Numbers converted to text, and placed accordingly
µ-Ziq?
!!!?
File under M for Micro.
Maybe not sensible, just my (possibly flawed) logic
!!! has been translated as chk chk chk , so possibly C
?
I refuse to buy such madness.
File under I
Thinking about this a bit more after finding a ? And The Mysterians album, punctuation goes at the end of the alphabet and Greek is filed according to the English pronunciation, as in ‘micro’.
What have I joined?
You have found your tribe Mr B.
I’ve only ever used alphabetical order in iTunes, never with my CDs. You’re only ever an ABC or Aberfeldy album away from having to budge 3,000 CDs up one place. Mine are filed (roughly) in genre, or, at least, with CDs of a similar feel. I have, however, reached the point where every shelf is full and there’s nothing I can remove off any of them without something having to move to somewhere that it really doesn’t belong.
Today, for instance, I received Fliptrix’s debut CD. It needs to go on the British rap/Grime shelf, along with all his other CDs. But what to remove and where to put it? I ended up taking a Funky DL album out, shoving it with some electric CDs I have piled up on top of the British Rap/Grime CDs, relegating the special edition of Silent Shout by The Knife to the bottom shelf. The bottom shelf is chaos. It’s got a few artist collections on it, but mainly things that don’t fit anywhere else, plus overspill from other shelves. When a CD gets removed from the bottom shelf it enters the [dramatic pause!] cupboard!! No CD wants to go in there, because CDs in there get forgotten about.
There is, however, a growing trend of slim cardboard sleeves. I’m in two minds about these. The good thing is that they take up very little room, which is brill, cos space is premium on my overcrowded shelves (how I’m going to fit everything in a smaller house, once me and the missus go our separate ways, I don’t know). But the downside is that because they are slim I tend to squeeze them into gaps anywhere I can see one, which pleases me immensely. However, because they could be anywhere and are so thin I can never find the buggers. I came across my promo CD of Carnal Mind by L-Side today. Totally forgotten I even had it, never mind find it. And as I sit here thinking, I have no idea whereabouts on the shelves I put it. I’m sure I’ll find it again one day.
True – once organised, inserting early alphabet entries can be a bind. But oh so cathartic and satisfying.
I try to leave strategic gaps which works in the short term.
If you have a perpendicular row of Ikea benny’s , if those are the towers with a dozen levels of about 15 thick, cathartic it ain’t, it’s a days work. Entirely why I got rid and invested in some wider jobbies. And it’s still a bugger.
Upgraded the Benos to Billy’s with half depth glass separating shelves.
30 to a row, and 60 to a cubby hole.
Yes, it is a bugger. But it keeps me quiet
Without wishing to be the heretic in such considered company, is there not value in storing ones CD’s completely at random? This approach often results in you picking up and playing something you haven’t seen or heard for ages, whilst continuing to look for the CD you wanted.
Also, if I recall correctly, Led Zep 4 was unadorned with any identifying text. How would one deal with that conundrum?
But…but….you wouldn’t be able to find anything…
**head explodes**
Easy. Led Zeppelin goes under L then chronological order for the act.
I suspect that if you were conscious of it as a conundrum you would always know where it was.
This is, in effect, the way I do it. At one point they may have been in (vaguely) alphabetical order but people (who can it be?) keep putting them back in the wrong place and before you know it, it’s all over the shop. It’s fine when you’re browsing for something to listen to, less helpful if you’re actually after something specific. We’re having some new shelves done soon and my wife thinks we should go by genre, which sounds foolish to me, not least since how do you agree what genre something is?
Whenever I rip a CD, I remove the genre metadata. Who cares?
I’m with Duke Ellington: there are only two types of music; good or bad. And I don’t buy the bad stuff.
That’s not what I’ve heard. Jings, but those Mummers are annoying!
Absolutely nothing in my life has ever been or will ever be in alphabetical order not even the hlpbatea.
Shouldn’t that be aabehlpt?
😀
Aaln.
Where to store my Joan as Policewoman CDs made me pause for thought. ‘J’ seemed the only logical answer so there they sit.
I keep each artist’s output in chronological order, including ‘best ofs’, so New Order’s Substance singles collection (1987) is to the left of Technique (1989).
On reading this thread I realise there is considerable benefit in letting your computer organise your music collection for you, even if it makes eccentric decisions sometimes. At some point in the past I uploaded vast swathes of my music both to Amazon and Google, both of which are on Sonos, so I don’t even need a computer. All I have to worry about is ordering all my old Penguins numerically.
Rough Trade in Brizzle has the most irritating filing for its records. Alphabetically, but within their categories. You have to know the vinly you’re looking for is a 1960s, US group.
What is wrong with having everything in the shop A-Z? I can see why classical might warrant its own section, but where does jazz become pop or rock, or where do you file Poppy Ackroyd?
Rough Trade in Nottingham has the racks organised by Country of Origin. America, Europe etc. Bloody weird. And annoying.
I think I know where jazz becomes pop or rock but wimped out of this for my collection. It’s classical or everything else.
Classical is a composer-led genre and absolutely everything else is performer-led.
Classical is the only genre that needs it’s own section.
Apart from multi-artist compilations, which are a whole other minefield. Do you file the lot purely by title or group them by genre (what about mixed-genre compilations) , origin (e.g. magazine coverdiscs separate from label samplers, separate from genre samplers, separate from mixdiscs?). I haven’t even started thinking about how I’ll solve this. They are all mixed up in cardboard boxes, away from my main shelving. I have digitised them all though and I play them from the computer.
Quadrophenia nestled chronologically in The Who section.
The film soundtrack though? Does it go with other soundtracks in Various Artists, or is it part of the catalogue to be filed after The Kids Are Alright, which is both a soundtrack and compilation? (I is getting very confuse)
I’ve solved the issue with the vinyl version by framing it and hanging it on the wall.
And what to do with the Classical version? That’s in the (relatively small) classical section
Soundtracks go in the compilation section unless they are made by Prince.
i have a monthly meet up with some guys who are all old Soul fanatics, filing is always a prickly subject, most interestingly is how would you file Ernie K-Doe…….??? Its actually under K for Kador which is his actual surname…
i also struggled with Major Lance…..M or L??? of course its L, Major being his Christian name.
Like Major Major in Catch 22. The airforce algorhythm shared his father’s sense of humour and promoted Private Major Major immediately to Major Major Major, quite a precipitous rise in the ranks, then up to Major Major Major Major shortly after. He couldn’t cope.
You see, you could avoid all this if you simply filed Ernie under E and Major under M.
Clearly this new fangled alphabetisation by first name is wrong. Basically I have always followed the telephone directory way of doing things for artist names, but sometimes you just have to compromise – as an, ahem, former business analyst, I would ask the question ‘What are you trying to achieve here..?’. The answer must be ‘To easily find an artists’ stuff’, and as long as you know your system then all is well….some may want to put Marc Bolan with T. Rex (personally I wouldn’t….that’s like putting John Lennon with The Beatles), but most would put T. Rex and Tyrannosaurus Rex together. Tin Machine in with David Bowie..? Probably I would ( although that is academic for me as I have no TM!). I have Wings under McCartney….some releases are Paul McCartney & Wings, so that decision gets around a world of pain. Like I also have The Jimi Hendrix Experience under H with all the other Hendrix.
1. Where do you put the ‘Mc’s and the ‘Mac’s? At the beginning of M or not? Ignore the ‘a’ in Mac, as in the telephone directory.
2. Some artists have ‘de’ with a low case ‘d’ before the surname proper, like ‘de Montford’. Do you ignore it and file under M or keep it under D? Under D for me. I think the only example I have is Jackie De Shannon….filed under D.
3. Similarly, ‘van’ as in ‘Van Etton’? Is that under V or E? Obviously doesn’t apply to Morrison whose first name is Van. Under V for me.
4. Then there is St. as in St. Etienne. The convention is that St. Goes before Sa, no? As with Mac, treat them as if they are both Saint.
5. Some names have a couple of surnames, such as Jerry Lee Lewis. Is he under Lee or Lew? Lew….Lee is a forename surely..?
6. Do you break up the band? I’m thinking of The Wailers with or without Bob as a prime example. Interesting one…I would probably put them all together, but then I don’t have much of this particular band. I do have the Flying Burrito Bros separate from Gram Parsons
7. How about when an artist goes under different names? Do you file Wings and The Fireman under McCartney? Yes.
8. Once you get an artist’s oeuvre altogether, is it chronological or alphabetical order? Chronological as much as possible, with comps usually at the end, also chronological. Exceptions would be where, say, a label change prompts a comp (REM for example) mid career.
“I would ask the question ‘What are you trying to achieve here..?’.”
Nail. Head. None of you people (as far as I know) are running a public record library.
My purpose is to make it easier for the kids to find stuff after I’m dead.
Like my kids would be interested..! We do keep meaning to make an inventory of stuff (not only records) that have value so they don’t go in the skip.
Most of my vinyl is recorded in Discogs. My collection is apparently worth between $10K and $30K, depending on condition.
@dai , I bet people think it is worth heaps more.
Even though it was nearly 20 years ago, my sister has still not entirely forgiven me for skipping some black rubbish bags that she left in the hall when we were clearing my late mum’s house after she died.
I didn’t know they were full of the never-used-because-too-good top-quality Irish bedlinen that mum had received when she and dad got married in 1947. In my defence, my sister never told me what those bags were, but there again I didn’t look, I just chucked them.
That’s one thing my kids won’t have to worry about – though my daughter will no doubt retrieve the Please Please Me LP first pressing she stole from me and I stole back. It’s the books they have to worry about.
Wouldn’t it be better to store them in value order? That way they they can take 90% straight to the tip/charity shop and sell the rest!
Good point!
I have two smaller units that could be used for exactly that purpose. I’ll spend the rest of my life valuing each item. Gives me a reason to live, I suppose.
Surely they’ll just file it all under S for skip?
Let’s go back to the beginning. Why does one have a filing system? Surely it is to find what we want quickly and conveniently. How are we likely to determine what we want to find? I contend that we will usually have a particular artist in mind that we want to play, or that we are into a mood or genre. I feel like some blues or some sub Saharan blues for example.
If we have a particular artist in mind we know their genre so I first allocate according to category. Yes, I acknowledge there are challenges in nominating the overriding genre for some artists, but the advantages outweigh borderline challenges.
Once into genres like rock I will pretty much stick with Rigid’s methodology although I will bung a band , their individual members and offshoots in one section. So Beatles and all the Fabs go together coz I’m likely to want to hear the band and/or the solo albums.
Reggae goes via dub, vocal groups etc. Wailers, Bob, Pete and Bunny together. Coz we are down to a genre it is pretty easy to locate what I want. Africa goes by country then grouped by name. I’m not fusssed by alphabetisation as there are too many challenges and I can find what I want quite quickly.
Some have said they can’t find stuff in my collection. Suits me fine.
But what happened when the country changes name?
I have much sympathy for this. To my shame, I’m dreadful at remembering names, especially non-English ones. I think I need a ‘World’ section.
@junior-wells
That’s anarchy!
That’s Wordwang!
They are grouped geographically on a contiguous basis. The name doesn’t change things.
Ah, but do you go round Africa south to north? Clockwise or anticlockwise? We need to know this.
Or is musical genres within Africa: I recall you listed over a dozen for Zimbabwe alone. ( Or rather I don’t, but bet you can. And probably will.)
I mostly listen to my music on the computer these days, and when I do listen to a physical CD it tends to only be albums from the “just purchased” pile. Those piles get stowed away in cardboard boxes, in no particular order except a monthly order of purchase…and they end up wherever I can find a space for them. My most loved “classic” (not Classical) albums are stored in a few racks on top of a bookshelf, so they are easy enough to find if I should need to (rarely happens).
Back in the non-CD days when my collection was five crates of LPs, I’d file them in order of preference, which would go through subtle changes every now and then.
In my digital collection everything is af course in alphabetical order (and although I of course have a method to it, it doesn’t matter because any part of the name typed into the search bar will find them…)
But having so much music and buying so much new music all of the time means that there are plenty of names that I’ll forget temporarily, always just when I need to remember them…and then it becomes a game of trying to recall anything helpful: did they collaborate with some other artist that I can search for and find them that way? Have they covered a song by a composer I know the name of? Can I recall an album or track name? (hardly ever…especially not names of songs, my brain just doesn’t care to remember them, any more than it will bother to memorize lyrics) Perhaps, if I’m desperate enough, I can recall what year it came out? (or five year time period)
So in the end (more and more, I suspect, as we get older) it all comes down to that: use any filing system you want, but if you can’t remember who you’re looking for, good luck finding anything specific! But I’m sure you’ll find something else instead, that you haven’t thought of in years…
@Tiggerlion it is all about convenience for you, it is not a DEWEY system for any of the great unwashed to come and rummage. It is for you to organise for your convenience.
Vinlys are particularly handy coz you can easily locate core records by the colour on their spine which leads you to the general vicinity. CDs present more of a problem, especially jewel cases.
Yes Tiggs you need a world section and then watchagonnado. You have headed down the road of genre categories and the next stop is sub categories.
I won’t leave @mikethep hanging any longer , I start in the South. I have quite a few of these and they are subcategorised by township jazz largely revolving around Abdullah Ibrahim and Hugh Masekela with others of that ilk , ie Caiphus Semenya adjoining. Mbaqanga includes a lot of the Earthworks stuff including Mahlathini and Mahotella Queens. Mbube is Black Mambazo and other choirs of that ilk. Miriam Makeba is the magnet for female vocalists overall such as Dorothy Masuka (technically from Zim) Letta Mbulu etc and then there is political stuff ANC revolutionary songs. Namibia’s SWAPO sits with them.
You still all awake? Zimbabwe is a big section with the core being Mapfumo, Mtukudzi, 4 Brothers , Bhundus, Leonard Dembo other rats and mice get bundled next to them.
East Africa includes Tanzania and Kenya.
Rhumba /Soukous of Central Africa takes in the music of Congo and DRC (formerly Zaire).
CAmeroon is next with Manu of course being the core some Ray Lema and Francis Bebey
Up to Nigeria and the twin towers of Fela and Sunny Ade are the reference points. Other juju acts like Ebenezer Obey sit next to Sunny then there is a separate sub genre of Fuji music principally Kollington and Barrister.
Adjoining Nigeria we have Ghana with a whole bunch of Highlife – Sweet Talks, Agyemang, Jewel Ackah, Pat Thomas , Frempong et al.
Above Ghana, Mali has the electric side Les Amassadeurs and the Super Rail Band which subsumes Salif Keita, Djelimady Tounkara and Mory Kante (though he came from Guinea -so tricky) , the female vocalists, technically from different regions are grouped together Tata Bamba Kouyate, Fanta Sacko and her aunt Fanta Damba and of course Rokia Traore and Oumou Sangare. The Desert blues side of things is held up with Tinariwen and Ali Farka Toure with other Toure’s, Kouyates, Cissokos etc alongside. See up there they all common surnames coz of this griot business so alphabetical is fraught.
Before Senegal, Guinea is principally represented by the Bembeya Jazz band and the towering voice of Sory Kandia Kouyate. Again traditional stuff gets lumped next to them.
I lump Senegal and Gambia together though it is split between traditional kora music and Yousou Ndour’s mbalax music, and separately Orchestra Baobab.
Mauritania is just Dimi Mint Abba on one side of west side and Sudan on the east side. Only a few so no order issues once the country is in its rightful sequence. Once we hit saharan Africa Algeria has Rai and the rest are lumped together as traditional though a separate category is for Egypt’s Oum Kalthoum of whom I have a few albums.
I have just done this from memory so I’ve missed a lot of artists that are core holdings and some countries like Zambia, Angola, Uganda etc but you get the idea.
“You still awake?” you ask – zzzz.
I definitely need a World section, because I can never remember anyone’s name.
As you say, early on, of course.
(Respect)
So.
50 Ways To File Your Albums.
I’m surprised HMHB haven’t written a song about it.
I have my own idiosyncratic system, but I’m not going to elaborate and have you all tell me how wrongitty-wrong it is, because I don’t care.
Out of interest (as I’ve just seen a post commenting on this) do any of you alphabetise your spice/herb rack?
Yes
(what a silly question)
or, for that matter, your herb garden?
Absolutely. How else do you find stuff when the heat is on and the fat is spitting?
No! Green stuff, red stuff and brown stuff and then a bit of poking about is the way to go. However, if I’m cooking something that requires a lot of green stuff, red stuff and brown stuff I dig it all out beforehand so it’s there when I need it.
@mikethep that’s my kind of cooking.
@hubert-rawlinson Good man yourself.
Re: “do any of you alphabetise your spice/herb rack?”
No, but i did count up how many different jars/bags of herbs and spices we have.
The total was 70 (although admittedly a few of them say “Best before August 2003” on them).
2003 pah modern stuff. I think we have stuff in parnds shillins and pence.
Yep, to Mrs. T’s scorn I fitted a big spice rack on the wall in the larder and got all the herbs and spices out, combined the (many) duplicates and put them back in alphabetical order. Every time I can go straight to the Hot Paprika filed under P I silently mouth “I was right”.
Put them wherever you want them, with the “rules” that make most sense to you. You’re the one who’ll have to look for for them.
Wonderful to see you about, mini.
I’ve just realised I’ve filed Duke Ellington under E and Count Basie under B. Schoolboy error. Mind you, I discovered I have two Kristina Train CDs. I’ve never knowingly heard of her nor any recollection of buying them. they are rather good. Bruce Springsteen is a big fan. I wonder what she is doing with her life now.
First @lenny-law now @minibreakfast. We’ll have @drakeygirl along next.
**crosses fingers**