I enjoy music a great deal. This will not come as a shock to anyone who knows me; I have most certainly annoyed the vast majority of my friends (acquaintances, family, random people unfortunate enough to be next to me) by forcing them to listen to the latest in a long string of favorite music. At any given moment, if it is at all possible, I am probably listening to one album or another.
I don't bring this up to claim anything special. I am not alone in enjoying music--there are entire industries supported by the fact that, in general, people enjoy music. That's why music exists. Rather, I mention my personal enjoyment of music for two reasons. Firstly, to give a bit of background for how I will answer the two fundamental questions I alluded to in the title of this post. Secondly, to provide a complete account of my qualifications to write about music.
To the second reason above, let me elaborate. I have very little formal music training, and none beyond playing in the school band through high school. I do not have or profess to have any of the following:
- Musical Ability, Knowledge, or Talent
- Journalistic Ability, Knowledge, or Talent
- Credibility of Any Kind.
Therefore, I highly encourage anyone foolish enough to read anything I post here to take it for what it is--nothing but spurious, highly subjective, personal opinions with no basis in fact or critical theory whatsoever.
So, all that being dispensed with, let us turn our attention to Two Fundamental Questions (And a Practical One).
Fundamental Question Number One
What Am I Doing?
This is the easier of the two fundamental questions to answer. I am trying to determine which albums I personally feel worthy of being in my record collection.
Fundamental Question Number Two
Why Am I Doing This?
Because I want to.
Okay, that's a cheap and easy way out, and not the full story. A while back a group of friends and I were playing a game called Devil's Advocate. This is an extraordinarily fun game in which you argue over topics of vital import, such as the pronunciation of "GIF" or whether or not couples should share a toothbrush. The question we were debating was whether or not having a collection counts as hoarding. Those coming down on the side of 'yes' further indicated that my record collection would therefore be considered hoarding.
Now, I disagreed, naturally, but their argument is hard to refute. Particularly when there are albums in my collection that I don't necessarily have much interest or desire to listen to even once more, let alone repeatedly. Why then do I have them?
The only way I can win this argument, and therefore not be a hoarder in the eyes of my friends, is to ensure that my record collection is composed entirely of albums that I am willing to experience again and again.
So while "Because I want to" is a perfectly sound and legitimate answer, it might be more accurate to say "spite".
A Practical Question
How Am I Going to Do This?
The flippant answer to this question is "arbitrarily".
For now, though, here is the plan, subject to change according to my whims.
Starting with the year 2000, I am going to determine a list of candidate albums, listen to them, and place them in one of four categories. These categories are:
- Albums Worth Owning on Vinyl
- These are the albums that I know that I'll return to again and again. In general, they will represent complete, cohesive experiences from start to finish.
- Albums Worth Owning Digitally
- These will, roughly speaking, be albums full of great songs rather than great albums. Again, 'great' is defined purely by my own capricious and uninformed opinion.
- Albums on which There Are a Few Songs I Enjoy Listening To, but which I Do Not Feel Compelled to Purchase in Any Format
- These are albums on which there are a few songs I enjoy listening to, but which I do not feel compelled to purchase in any format.
- Albums which Also Exist
- These are albums that I don't enjoy. This is not to say I find them bad, or would claim that they are bad albums or bad music. It's just that if the album didn't exist, I don't think my life would be any poorer.
When I make a determination on an album, I will make a post about it on here with a little bit of reasoning/backstory/excuses as to why I placed the album where I did. My hope is that this exercise, pointless as it may be, will help me to really think about how I feel about any given album.
Conclusion
Hello everyone who skipped all that crap up there! You've missed nothing.
To sum up, I'm going to go year by year in order to determine what albums I want to own on vinyl. I'm going to post about this effort on this blog. The decisions will be mine and will be grounded on nothing of any value beyond my own, uninformed opinion. I hope to post something more or less daily, but statistically speaking, I'm likely to quit within a few weeks.
We'll see how it turns out.
