Reorganizing My Record Collection

One of my all time favorite films is High Fidelity.  There are lots of reasons as to why it's one of my favorites.  First of all, it's hilarious.  But it's funny not because it's absurd humor like a Will Ferrell movie or because it's stupid like a Farrelly brothers film.  It's funny because it reminds me of my every day life.  No, I don't own a record shop in Chicago nor have I ever had sex with a recording artist.  The emotions and what the main character, Rob, goes through, though, that's what makes it relatable.  He's a self-loathing music freak like me.  His "friends" (the quotation marks don't need to be there, but he doesn't really see Barry or Dick as more than employees initially) are music freaks, too and contribute to his personality.  It's a better book than it is a movie, but both are phenomenal.  It's just that you see a little more into Rob's head in the book.

But I'm not reviewing either the book or the movie.  I'm talking about reorganizing my record collection.  Yes... I really am going to talk about that.

In the book and the film, Rob talks about how every now and then, he'll feel like his records need to be reorganized.  Sometimes he does it chronologically, sometimes by artist, sometimes by genre.  The most interesting way he talks about is organizing his records autobiographically.

It's an interesting concept, but I totally dig his thought process.  It's hard for me to organize that way because when I started collecting vinyl records, I just bought them to have them.  As time went by, there was more meaning behind every purchase.  Like now, if I want to listen to the Gaslight Anthem's The '59 Sound, I have to remember that I bought two of them in the summer of 2012 at a concert I attended with a certain female that shall remain nameless.

It's kind of interesting the way that I get into music sometimes.  For the most part, I'll discover things by getting recommendations from the website last.fm.  "If you like this band, try this band."  A lot of times in the past, though, my music tastes varied because of the women that I was interested in.  I mean... come on.  That's how I try to relate to everyone.  "So what's your favorite band?"  After a while it actually gets annoying to me because that's all I can talk about.

During high school, I was pretty narrow minded when it came to music.  Classic rock all the way, you know?  But once I hit college, I started listening to a lot of different stuff.  My junior year was when I had my first serious girlfriend and she got me into all kinds of music.  That was when I started listening to hip hop (which I loathe now).  So a lot of my iTunes library was devoted to hip hop solely because of her.  When she and I decided to part ways (I'm putting that super delicately), I started getting into really sad depressing music.  After her, I didn't think I'd be able to find another girl.  But that changed.  And because of this new girl, I started listening to the Gaslight Anthem and am now way too into Bruce Springsteen than I care to get into.  We ended up parting, amicably, and I still enjoy listening to those bands a lot.  Springsteen is my shit!  I just completed my collection of his studio albums on CD.  But I digress.

Now, I've been listening to some new bands because of someone else.  It's weird because I enjoy listening to music, but I never have anything else to talk about.  It also doesn't help that I've been out of society for the past 4 months or so.  All I can talk about with anyone is either the military or music.  It's like it's all I know.  Oh, well.  I'm sure there's something that'll pop up that I can talk about soon.

When I organize my records autobiographically (it's actually really hard to do), it brings up good memories and bad memories.  The organization feels like it's by love interest as well and sometimes creeps me out a little bit.  In a way, though, it's therapeutic and helps you to think about your past as the past.  It helps you look toward the future a little bit as well.  What's the next record I'm going to buy to put at the end of this shelf?  What's the next juncture in my life going to bring?