New Wave Outpost Forum

Do you just alphabetize the entire collection (I do), or do you break your collection up into genres or other categories?

My record shelves are full and I just inherited a large collection of Wax Trax/PIAS styled industrial. I'm trying to decide if I need to take all the records off the shelves to make room for assimilating the new collection, or if I should just start a new shelf for all of my "industrial" records, another shelf for the punk records, one for the New Wave, etc etc etc.

Stuff I've had for a while, alphabetically, in outer sleeves. Newer stuff (last 3 years or so) um, unsorted... but surprisingly, with a couple of hundred lps/12"ers and a load of 7"ers sitting on 3 long shelves, I can still remember the approximate area where a particular item is.

A lifetime of laziness pays dividends.

oh man. it's been driving me insane that my over 2000 records are not alphabetized. I've been waiting to remodle my garage into a studio/lounge where I would have proper record bins (like in the stores)...I somehow still manage to find stuff when I need 'em for DJing though....

I found this cool site to help catalog your collection...check it out --it becomes really addictive!

http://rateyourmusic.com/~rotator

(this is my page)

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I alphabetize everything (around 5000 lps). All my 'My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult' 12"-ers reside between My Bloody Valentine and Gary Myrick.

I've gotten alot of one-off 12" singles (mostly 90s techno) that I can't see mixing in with the rest of my A-Z collection and those are in a seperate pile.

Many times I have thought to organize everything by genre but have never followed through. Only my bop-jazz, blues and classical lps do I keep seperate - they're clearly not 'rock'.

I love going into a record store that has a 'reggae' section, a 'punk/new-wave/alternative' section, 'hair metal' section etc etc and have wanted to do the same with my collection, but I know myself...I'd get way too anal with the sub-categories.

So if I was handed a stack of industrial, WaxTrax-type stuff, here's what I'D do:
-All full-length albums would get alphabetized.
-All 12"'s that are relatively common names (like Front 242, Skinny Puppy, etc) would get alphabetized.
-Any 12" singles by artists that are no-names would go into my separate 'oddball 12" single' pile.

[quote][i]Originally posted by bpdp3[/i]

I love going into a record store that has a 'reggae' section, a 'punk/new-wave/alternative' section, 'hair metal' section etc etc and have wanted to do the same with my collection, but I know myself...I'd get way too anal with the sub-categories.

[/quote]

Once I get it together, I think there will be a couple genre areas....possibly a "hip-house/hip-hop" and an "Indie" area....
I am going to take related artists and put them in same catagory, Ie: under "Sylvian" will be all Japan, Rain Tree Crow, Solo etc releases. I may even put the solo work of Sakamoto in that catagory...(I guess he should go with YMO though, right)....also bands that where more important to me than the precursor band ie: Love & Rockets over Bauhaus...bauhaus would go in the Love & Rockets catagory (with Peter Murphy, The Bubblemen)...I know this sounds like it would be confusing, but as I am the only one that leafs through my records...itll make perfect sense![:p]

My Lp's and 12" are grouped by letter of the alphabet (all A's together, all B's together, etc) but not alphabetical yet, and like eight6 I have piles on the floor that someday will get filed but for now I've got a pretty good idea where stuff is. My 7" are all in boxes in random order with new (last 6 months) purchases just stacked on top. Someday I'll get to sorting them.

I first group them: New Wave, everything else, and then oddities like soundtracks. Then I alphabetize within each group. Apart from this I always seem to have some kind of assembly line organization going, which is haphazard at best. The ever-changing "waiting to be ripped" queue of ~ 30-40 lp's is kept separate and in no particular order. The "ripped but not imported and catalogued" is another stack.

2 categories:

1. Ripped to mp3

2. Unripped.

Anyone know how Fanciz organizes his collection...I bet it would be good for a laugh.

[quote][i]Originally posted by bpdp3[/i]
So if I was handed a stack of industrial, WaxTrax-type stuff, here's what I'D do:
-All full-length albums would get alphabetized.
-All 12"'s that are relatively common names (like Front 242, Skinny Puppy, etc) would get alphabetized.
-Any 12" singles by artists that are no-names would go into my separate 'oddball 12" single' pile.
[/quote]

That's not a bad idea, and one I hadn't really thought of. Since I DJ a weekly punk radio show my punk/HC records get thumbed through more often, but not necessarily what I play at home all that frequently. So a good majority of the records on my floor are ones that I have not re-filed since the radio show. Like most people on here I pretty much know where everything is in a genrealt sense, but there's always that one album I can never seem to find until 2 weeks after I wanted it.

this is my favorite topic in the past year.

does anyone use the plastic dividers with a tag at the top ? ("a" or "Aztec Camera" etc, much like the record store)

I eventually want to get these...is there a resource for theses dividers?...I could make them, but Id rather just buy them

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[quote][i]Originally posted by rotator[/i]
<br>this is my favorite topic in the past year.

does anyone use the plastic dividers with a tag at the top ? ("a" or "Aztec Camera" etc, much like the record store)

I eventually want to get these...is there a resource for theses dividers?...I could make them, but Id rather just buy them

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<a <a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/eternalux8/spinz6hc.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>
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You can get dividers here:
http://www.bagsunlimited.com/cart/browse.asp?subcat=10


When Tower went out of business I got a ton of CD dividers but have yet to use them. Someday....

[quote][i]Originally posted by coop41[/i]

You can get dividers here:
http://www.bagsunlimited.com/cart/browse.asp?subcat=10

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[:D]dude!!! Thanks --- great stuff....I'm going to have to save this link somewhere

Alphabetized but not within the letter plus newer stuff is on the floor until I get my lazy ass off the chair and put away.

It's funny but I pretty much know where (within 10 records or so) a record is at any given moment.

Go ahead....ask me where an LP is and I'll tell you where it's located.

I think I'm a weird categorizer. I'm obsessed with keeping certain genres seperate, but then get real lax about others.

I keep all my disco albums & 12 inchers together & alphabetized. All my 80's, 90s & later 12 inchers are alphabetized by artist & grouped together regardless of genre - then everything else is grouped together on another shelf.

"Everything else" is 95% new wave with a couple Supertramp & Heart albums thrown in.