Number One: Imagine a world where CDs are still among your prized possessions. You file your CDs in alphabetical order. You have the entire catalog for a band - do you arrange them alphabetically by title, or chronologically according to release? Why?
Number Two: You're going to see four moderately well-known bands play. One is your favorite band, one is a band you can't stand. Is "Never wear a band shirt to a band’s concert" a hard and fast rule, or in this case, is it ok to wear the t-shirt of the band you're going to see? Why?
My answers:
Number One: Chronologically, of course. The collection as a whole is arranged alphabetically, which is enough to satisfy my OCD side. But I like listening to bands from the beginning, to hear how their music progressed. Also, I started filing my music this way before we had the Internet at home, so I was able to go to my cabinet and see what order albums were released even though I lacked constant access to Wikipedia.
My CD catalog.
Number Two: I wear a band's shirt if they're playing in a festival environment. I want to show my support, and when I've done this in the past, the bands are "small" enough, popularity-wise, to notice and appreciate it. And God forbid someone assume I'm there because I love the headlining band if they truly suck. I don't see the big deal about wearing a band's shirt to their show - who really gives a crap about that kind of thing? If I were a rock star, I'd love seeing my logo out in the crowd.
One - I still have some CDs laying around :) and what I did was file them alphabetically but each album for the same band was in chronological order. I'm weird like that, but I'm also the girl who's closet is in ROY G. BOV order.
ReplyDeleteTwo - I ALWAYS wear a band shirt for the band I'm going to see! Assuming I love the band.. sometimes I don't own a band shirt for the band, and then I'll wear a tank top because shows get hot. ;)
I used to have my closet arranged by color too! Now I just hang my shirts by type - t-shirt, button-down, long sleeve, collared, sweaters.
DeleteOne - This is not at all hypothetical. I have a wall of CDs. It is arranged alphabetically by artist and chronologically within each artist. I hug it sometimes.
ReplyDeleteTwo - In a perfect world, the correct answer is I wear the shirt of another awesome band that one of the members of the band I love was in. So, if I'm seeing the Foo Fighters, wear a Queens of the Stone Age shirt. In a less than perfect world, no I don't wear the bands shirt. I'd feel awkward which ruins a little of the fun of seeing a band I love.
Yeah I guess CDs are still common enough that "hypothetical" doesn't really apply here. Interesting t-shirt approach - it's like a trivia game!
DeleteOne - I alphabetize the CDs by artist, but then chronologically within each artist. I'd actually like to see if anyone responds alphabetically within each artist. I just imagined it and started freaking out a bit. My OCD is unpredictable at times.
ReplyDeleteTwo - I never wear a band's shirt to their concert, however I almost always BUY a shirt at their concert. While I don't necessarily see a problem with wearing a band's shirt to the concert, I enjoy dressing up too much to go that casual. If the band is rockin, the outfit should be, too!
I don't think I've ever seen you in a band t-shirt... rockin' outfits, YES. Cookie Monster shirts, YES. Sports shirts, YES. Bikini tops, YES. I feel like there's been an Aerosmith shirt, but I can't imagine what one.
Delete(Wow that comment sounds creepy. But I'm still going to post it. That's how confident I am that you will understand.)
Lies. In fact, not only have you seen me in an Aerosmith shirt, the tweet was posted specifically to you!
DeleteOops. I thought that comment felt wrong as I wrote it, but clearly I picked "creepy wrong" instead of "flat-out wrong." I blame my incredibly spotty/selective memory.
DeleteOne - I asked for (and received) 2 CDs for Christmas. I put the music on my computer and iPod, and then I normally keep the CDs in my car. There's something about popping a CD in that goes along with cars. They are arranged by frequency of use.
ReplyDeleteTwo - If I have a t-shirt for my favorite band and I am going to see them, I am damn well wearing their t-shirt. Maybe I'll layer it with a jacket/blazer. But I'm definitely wearing it, especially if some band I hatehatehate is going to be there, too. I wouldn't want anybody thinking I came to see THEM.
Clarification for One - If I had the entire catalog for a band, it would still be arranged by frequency of use, or possibly by which CD art I like best.
DeleteI still buy CDs too, but in some ways I'm behind the times so I wasn't sure if people still bought hard copies of albums. My car CD player is jammed though, and it doesn't seem worth it to get it fixed, so I can only listen to tapes in the car. (See? Behind the times.)
DeleteMy last car didn't even have a CD player. I had my portable CD player plugged into the tape player via one of those converter things. I am still super excited about now having CD player capabilities! Meanwhile, my sister's car has a 5-disc shuffler!
DeleteI think buying hard copies of albums IS starting to fall by the wayside, but I get so annoyed fiddling with downloads and getting music onto electronics. CDs are just easier.
I use tape converter things as well, but soon they'll stop making those and I'll have to find something else, or my next car won't have a tape player and I'll have to find something else, so I get very sad. I like tapes.
DeleteA 5-disc shuffler in a car just seems like a problem waiting to happen.
Number One: I arrange them chronologically according to release. No real reason other than that is what feels right to me. I like having the CDs arranged from their earlier stuff to their most recent so that I can easily choose what period in time I want to listen to.
ReplyDeleteNumber Two: I normally go out of my to not be "that guy". ha ha If I have the extra funds I do normally like to buy a shirt to correspond with that tour/album though. I haven't been to a show in so long, this one gives me the sads. ha ha
1. I would probably arrange by release. That's how I currently have my dvds. It's actually something I change quite frequently though. It's my secret midnight de-stressing act.
ReplyDelete2. Wear the shirt if you want to. I always find I have the most fun when I go all out and don't worry about what anyone else thinks. I also listen to the band that I love obsessively before a show.
I listen to the band obsessively beforehand, too! Even though I think it'd be nice to hear things live I haven't heard in awhile, I can never hold out.
Delete1 - While organizing your CD collection alphabetically may suggest a dusting of OCD to gen pop, only the truly disturbed leave their collection UNorganized. How, prey tell, is one supposed to find anything without some semblance of order? Yet there are limits. Organizing by color is utterly bonkers. If I want to listen to say, Tortoise's first album, but the Japanese release with the bonus tracks, I now have to dig deep in a brain already filled to capacity with Axel Foley quotes and sneakers I should have bought in the early nineties and remember the cover was brown and not white. And by then I'm distracted and just throw Steely Dan on. Alphabetically is the way to go, but if you have enough CDs to warrant a system to find one, you likely have multiple albums buy the same artist… THEN WHAT?
ReplyDelete2 - No. Don't ever be "that dude/chick" who wears the band you're seeing's t-shirt, for three reasons. First, thanks to social networks and the reveling in our own self satisfaction, our society has turned to battle royale when it comes to expression. You can't simply show you're a fan by rocking a t-shirt and be granted the acknowledgement as such from an audience. You're generally ridiculed if your fandom isn't "inside" or dedicated enough. Cause quite frankly, you can buy a Black Sabbath t-shirt at a Best Buy these days. And while we should all care less what other people think about us, I don't need the dude wearing the 1983 Rolling Stones tour shirt giving me the evil eye and calling me a poser on my saturday evening. Second, you just dropped $89.50 for general admission. It's hot, you're surrounded by the utterly inebriated and for the next 3 hours, there's no escape. You're going to come out of that situation covered in the slime of a bunch of people whom you have no idea where they spent their week. As well as spritz of light beer. You're going to think twice next time you decide put that vintage Joy Division shirt on again. Lastly, and this is rare, albeit possible. Say you do decide to wear that Phil Collins shirt you got for xmas (its 1985 in this reenactment) to the show. You show up to the venue, and they're SELLING the shirt you're WEARING, and heres where everything backfires. Now instead of everyone thinking you're a fan, everyone around you is playing, "lets guess what he spilled on the shirt he came here with and changed out of". Or, they're labeling you the type of person that shows up to places hoping they sell shirts, cause you didn't bring one.
I bow down to you, good sir, because you just blew my mind.
DeleteI like the uniqueness of this post :)
ReplyDeleteI arrange by genre and I could not bring myself to wear a band t-shirt :)
~Keith
Interesting approach with the genre. I've thought about doing that, but have too much difficulty even assigning genres as a label on iTunes.
DeleteYou are so cute. Your book love comes out in your music love too.
ReplyDelete+Victoria+