Friday, April 24, 2009

Adventures in Alphabetization

I've been buying a lot of music lately, and that's forced me into a sort of ethical quandary. Looking through the loosely-organized racks at new and used CD stores, the issue has become apparent and annoying, but I've been able to brush it off. Unfortunately, when I went through my collection and finally organized the big CD binder, I had to make a decision, one way or another, no room for compromise. Still, I'd like to hear input, to see if anyone else has dealt with this particular alphabetical dilemma.

I file solo artists according to the first letter of their last names, and bands according to the first letter of the band name, excluding articles (a, an, and the--and occasionally "el"). When a solo artist happens to perform under a band name (for instance, Aphex Twin), it's filed as though it's a band.

The dilemma revolves around Ben Folds, who once performed in a group, the Ben Folds Five. I've decided, after much deliberation, that "Ben Folds Five" is a band name, and as such is filed under "B;" Ben Folds, on the other hand, is a solo artist, and gets filed under "F." For "Folds." I'd have the same policy for, say, Dave Matthews, but I hate Dave Matthews, so I don't have to worry about it.

CD stores do not split hairs quite so carefully, which means if I want to buy any Ben Folds, I have to be sure to look in both the B and F sections, and a few sections in-between.

Assuming, of course, that I don't fall into a fugue state and start organizing their racks. It's been awhile since I did that (and that was in a graphic novel section at Borders), but I can't imagine they'd look too kindly on it. Although I did put the Goosebumps Horrorland books into proper numerical order at Wal-Mart a few days ago...

2 comments:

Don said...

I'd have the same policy for, say, Dave Matthews, but I hate Dave Matthews, so I don't have to worry about it.
That's good to know. I don't trust people who like Dave Matthews overmuch.

Diamondrock said...

What's a "CD store"?