So tonight I’m kinda low-energy, and I thought, hey, I know a mindless task. I’ll go through the CD notebooks and start ripping everything to iTunes. And I open the first notebook, contemplate my musical taste circa 1995, and realize, dang, there’s almost nothing in here I actually want on my computer/iPod/mind. Thank god for carapace_green, dirtylibrarian, and the rest of y’all who provide me with regular taste upgrades. Yet I can’t quite bring myself to throw the old music out.
Do you have CDs that you don’t actually listen to any more, but you keep them around anyway?
And if so, why? Give me an example…
thisisnotanlj
April 8, 2006 at 2:45 pmaddendum: I am finding a few worthwhile discs in the notebooks. Like Looper.
imnotandrei
April 8, 2006 at 4:31 pmThere are CDs I keep around for the cover art/packaging. Some of the Hawkwind fits in this category. The rest of it is in the “Until I burn the one song I really want from here, just in case I want to listen to it again, I’m not getting rid of it.”
anonymous
April 8, 2006 at 10:32 pmSo in juniot high I was into Pat Benatar. Haven’t listened to those in 20 years. Haven’t upgraded to CDs or anything. Why do I still hang on to the?
-Jeff C.
nerdpony
April 9, 2006 at 3:15 amI keep this scratched up CD of a really fantastic band who sings only Finnish folk music that pertains to women around, although it’s soooooo horribly scratched that none of the songs play through.
I keep it around because I inherited it after my grandfather died in the 4th grade… and he and I were never particularly close…
Whenever I try to listen to it or see it, I think of all the time I could… or should… have spent with him before he died so unexpectedly.
(On a totally unrelated note, EotW was my introduction to queer YA fiction, and totally inspired me to write some of my own…)
bridgeweaver
April 9, 2006 at 5:41 amSure. I don’t listen to the Indigo Girls much anymore but keep them around for parties. Hey, if you don’t listen to Chess anymore, my second buy-it-again copy has gone aand disappeared, so if giving something you don’t listen to a good home is better than just keeping it around, I’d happily help you out. *smile*
slayground
April 9, 2006 at 6:19 amI don’t think I have any I don’t listen to; I still love what I’ve always loved, from Duncan Sheik to Rainbow Brite and everything inbetween. ;-)
alisgray
April 9, 2006 at 7:56 amgive one a shot; I bet you’ll find something good in it. part of your past and all. (Ms. Benetar wasn’t so bad.)
alisgray
April 9, 2006 at 7:57 amI am spoilt with a 60GB iPod, so I have the luxury of stuffing *everything* in it. Putting it on shuffle then is a real adventure, especially aloud at work…
britainophira
April 9, 2006 at 10:37 amI’ve kept every c.d. I’ve ever bought/received/stolen from my parents, as well as cassettes and albums. Part of it’s probably just being a pack rat (though only in a few select aspects, such as music, books, and shoes), but another part of me likes to be able to physically see what all I’ve gone through. I seriously doubt I’ll ever listen to Marty Stewart again (I went through an unfortunate country obsession at about age eight), but he’s still around if I want to remind myself of his mullety ways. Before I kept everything because there was no decent store around that bought used c.d.s, but now I’ve become a wee bit of an audiophile and a bit obsessed with the idea of record collections as insight into personality. (On that note mine’s somewhat fractured thanks to Elton John, Kings of Leon, Ella Fitzgerald, the Backstreet Boys, Rilo Kiley, Janis Joplin, and so on.)
(Also: Hello. I don’t think I’ve ever commented here before but I do really love your work.)
nevikmoore
April 9, 2006 at 12:33 pmI tend to still like most of my CDs, although I don’t find time to listen to them. There are a few to purge, however. Yet it is so hard to let go. CDs have always been so expensive in my life, that purchasing one was usually a big investment. So I spent a lot of time mulling it over before I got around to buying it. This is still the case. Several years will pass sometimes before I buy a CD from a band.
Excepting, of course, the stuff I received as a record store employee. I had a nice discount. A “five-finger” discount. ;-)
anonymous
April 9, 2006 at 3:00 pmI have about 1500 cds and only listen to about 300. The rest are just put away to rot, basically. Just can’t get around getting rid of em.
the_misha
April 10, 2006 at 3:54 amA good 75% of my music collection falls into the category of “CDs I don’t listen to, but can’t bring myself to get rid of,” I’m afraid. Part of the problem is that my tastes don’t seem to change; they just expand. At this rate, I think I’m doomed to like a little of everything, and will eventually wind up crushed in an avalanche of jewel cases sometime in 2012…
anonymous
April 11, 2006 at 3:35 amOh, sure. I still even have crappy copies of dubbed cassettes I made in high school for some reason. CDs are like books — the only time it’s necessary to get rid of them is when there’s no more room for any new ones, and maybe not even then. In fact, forget CDs; the real concern is, how many books do I have that I’m never going to open again that I’m keeping anyway, because, you know, maybe I’ll want to refer to them again, or something.
Jefe
nerdpony
April 12, 2006 at 5:36 amYou listen to the Indigo Girls at parties?!?
I want to come to one of your parties.
bridgeweaver
April 12, 2006 at 7:58 amWe listen to everything from the IG to Tom Wates to Ella Fitzgerald to Avalon Rising to . . . Computers make djing parties much easier. Huzzah for the play list.
nerdpony
April 12, 2006 at 8:00 amYour parties are way cooler than the… two parties to which I’ve been.
Okay, that might be because at these parties, most other people were drunk and people I didn’t know too well… but still.
ms_anthropy
April 14, 2006 at 3:40 pmGet…rid…of…*error! error! does not compute!*
For me, neurotically, music is memory and if I get rid of, say, that skippy 45 of “99 Red Balloons” from the eighth grade, I’m secretly afraid entire chunks of my life might drop out of my head and be lost forever. I’ve been dumping tapes like mad, but I have two crates of 45’s from high school that they can have when they pry them from my cold, dead fingers. My musical tastes in high school were beyond atrocious, but that’s hardly the point. I don’t have to play them, I’m just reassured to know they exist.
Pathetic, isn’t it?
anonymous
April 30, 2006 at 11:00 amMaybe u should think about that again…