The Start of a New Project

I have a tendency to be a bit of a collector. I have stacks of comic books, overflowing bookshelves, an entire chest full of old VHS tapes and racks of DVDs. Although none of these rival my music collection. While I still have my fair share of records and cassettes, my CD collection has taken on a life of its own. With over 1,500 titles, its started to become overwhelming as you can see above.

How did I let my collection go from a rack that held 25 CDs to being partially stored in boxes in my closet? My exposure to music collecting started even before I could walk. My dad would push me around the Record Exchange and record conventions in my stroller. Most of the time I would come home empty handed and if I did get anything it was usually a superhero record. Realistically I just enjoyed spending that time with my dad. My real interest in music began in 1994 when my brother and I received our first stereo for Christmas. This was the first CD player anyone in my family had owned and my bother and I instantly wanted something to play. My dad rushed us out the record exchange and we began combing the racks for something we both would enjoy. Being 10 and 8, my brother and I did not know much about music outside of a few radio hits and what our parents listened to, but we both shared a love of Weird Al Yankovic. My brother and I pooled our money and brought home Weird Al's Greatest Hits Volume 2 and the Mighty Ducks 2 soundtrack for $5 apiece.

Our collection remained pretty stagnant for a number of years, we were too preoccupied with making mix tapes and taking cassette tapes out of the library to really be bothered with buying CDs. All that changed when our parents got divorced in the summer of 1997. Instead of seeing both our parents everyday, we now had a schedule to stick to. My dad wanted to make sure that we spent all the time we could together, so we started going to the library every week and also we began taking our weekly pilgrimage to the record exchange. We usually didn't venture outside of the budget racks, but we always came home with something. Over the years I learned more and more about music to become closer to my dad, since it was always a subject I knew we could always relate to. We started heading out to new record stores and would always find something new and exciting to bring home.

Music eventually became the way I related to people. When I got to college, I befriended the local record store owner and every time I would come into the store he had more recommendations and would even bring in albums from his personal collection for me to listen to. I eventually became a DJ at the college radio station which gave me even more expose to music. As all this was happening my collection continued to grow and grow. I would occasionally weed out a few stinkers, but almost everything remained.

For a long time, I looked at my CDs as a collection of memories. Each one bringing me back to the time it was added to the shelf. It is only now that I realize that I will still have those memories whether or not I own the physical CD. Realistically my collection will keep growing since there will always be new music I want to explore, but as I move forward I have to start saying goodbye to albums of yesteryear.

Which brings me to my current mission. Each day for the next year I plan to choose one of my CDs at random and give it a listen. I will then come back and write up my thoughts on the album and any memories I have associated with it. Then I will force myself to decide whether it is worthy to remain. If any of the albums or stories bring back memories of your own or inspire you to take on task of your own, I would love to hear from you.

I will be back tomorrow with my first post.