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"The great reorganization"
Posted: Jun 23, 2008 in Things to do, Music, Movies
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I'm not too hardcore about how I organize my cd's and records, I just like to be sure they are in alphabetical order, and that cross-referencing bands doesn't get too complicates. I still put all of my Steve Malkmus cd's with Pavement, and I file anything Will Oldham related under Palace. I was unpacking my cd's and records tonight and it reminded me of that part in High Fidelity where John Cusack was reorganizing his records. Is anyone here really picky about how your cd's and records get filed? What is your technique?
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The computer does it for me!
Dang! I JUST got a burner and learned how to use it. I don't store any of my music in my computer though. I'm a sucker for packaging!
I'm on an alphabetical-chronological system, but it gets tricky w/the related artist thing.
Tricky, for instance, is in the M's for Massive Attack. Fugazi is in the M's for Minor Threat. Imperial Teen is in the F's for Faith No More.
I keep Foo Fighters in the N's for Nirvana, but that one gives me the vague sensation that my system is flawed.
My iTunes matrix presents other questions -- usually tied to my "Soundtracks" folder. Take Urge Overkill's rendition of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon." Should that be in "Soundtracks" because of its close association w/"Pulp Fiction" or simply hang out in the "Misc. '90s" folder?
I'm getting ready to do this with my DVD collection (of about 500 or so discs). It's a bit different than a music collection maybe, but before I packed them away for the movie I had sort of a hybrid video-store system where I would categorize by genre, but loosely define genre as "movies of a certain type and/or movies by a certain actor or director or some other grouping of my choice."
So I'd maybe have a section of, say, Tom Hanks movies or Tarantino or Coen Bros. movies, but then a section of comic book movies and horror flicks. It depends on what "kind" of movie I consider a certain film to be.
I'll admit it's an imperfect system when personalities clash (for instance, something like "The Terminal": is it a Hanks movie or a Spielberg movie? But I have a sort of strong personality clause that helps the system a bit).
My collection has grown quite a bit in the two or three years I've had my DVDs packed up, so it'll be interesting to see how things shape up.
This is all a long way of saying I hope you find a good way of doing it, but I can't help you too much. Good luck!
With DVD's I got it in alphabetical order...but I keep all box sets and TV seasons separately...since they are usually bigger boxes.
With my records I break it into genre's: Breakbeat/Drum and Bass/Electro, Scratch Sample records, Club joints, Underground (new), Underground (older), and LP's/Random. LP's/Random contains all rock records, Star Wars, Sade, 60's greatest hits, Daft Punk and children records that I have obtained through the years. It's the stuff I don't use too often while mixing...mostly listening. LPs are separate from singles, since they don't have instrumentals and are thicker.
But within each genre, I usually keep them in BPM order, so I could just mix one track to the next, in order pretty much.
But I do have sections also paved out at the back of some genres..All Wu-Tang members get put in the same area, all Hieroglyphic members stay together...etc.
It's a random organization that makes total sense.
You're reminded of High Fidelity...I'm reminded of Diner; when Daniel Stern's character freaks out on his wife (Ellen Barkin) because she fails to put his record back in alphabetical order AND with the correct genre.
I have 8 kids...I'm happy if my cd's just make it back in their correct cases!! LOL
I only worry about keeping my digital music collection arranged. In minutes, I can view my collection chronologically, alphabetically, by genre, cross-referenced by related artist, etc. I still buy hard copies of everything though, and since I'm not that concerned about arranging them by content since I usually listen to digital, I just arrange them by color. It creates a pretty cool effect similar to this:
http://tinyurl.com/3vecww