When maintaining a large music collection, the first thing you have to do is decide on how you are going to organize it. I might have touched on this a while back in my LiveJournal blog, http://j-bkl.livejournal.com/. The most important discussion of how to organize music in literature ever?
High Fidelity, by Nick Hornsby. If you are reading this, you likely know this. If not, you need to a) read the book and b) see the movie.
But how do I do it?
Simply put
Alphabetically, then Chronologically. In other words, Abba before Erasure, and within Abba, in order of release.
If it's an artists name.. last name first.
The dangerous bit? "The."
How do you alphabetize "The".
Think about "The Who," "The Pink Floyd", "The Jimi Hendrix Expeirnce," "The Jam," and of course "The The."
Now, not having any serious training in the library sciences... I wing it. For movie titles, and when appropriate, I use "The." Most of the time, ignore it. "The Who" belong in the W's, not T's.
This will lead to inconsistency, and people trying to move cd's in your collection when you aren't looking, but hey, it's your damn collection.
Now, let me mention an album in my collection that completely fucks up any and all alphabetization.
"(500) Days of Summer" is the soundtrack of the 2009 movie of the same name. I have a special love for good soundtrack cd's. You get good buried tracks, introduced to artists you never heard of, and sometimes you get this album 10 million times better than the movie that spawned them. You get raw material for mixes... and when there is dialog snippets? JOY!!!!
"(500)" as an album is brilliant. Don't fear the hipster, don't fear the drama over whether the writer/director is a self centered douchebag completely twisting his failed relationship for our enjoyment and his vengeance. You get a swath of songs that capture the feel of the movie, obscurities that make you feel like a musical Indiana Jones, and good choices without irony.
And, with the parensthesis, it shoots to the front of your collection.
And, maybe... the front of your heart.
Album:(500) Days of Summer
Year: 2009
Date Listened in Tour:1/11/10
Rating: *****
Best Song: There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
