daddy, where does nusrat go?

i find myself needing to re-organise my cd's...

having worked in three different music stores in my past (including a five year stint at one of the largest ones in the world), and as a pirate radio station librarian, there were, on many occassions, the dreaded discussions of how to organize one's own collection.

it is a bit of a nerdy thing, and the average joe/jane has only a few discs to their name, so no problem...but the collector/clerk may have thousands...and what to do?

now, every store has it's own way, and every individual music collector has their own way, but the general consensus is some kind of alphabetical order, at least for the individuals (joe jackson in the j's) or a band (beach boys in the b's)...even that there is contension (quick, where do you file van morrison or captain beefheart, or los lobos?-the last store i worked at insisted on "los", but they were gringos).

don't get a clerk started on customers (we all want to find the store that files the beatles under "T" or all artists by their first names). and never ever mention "high fidelity" the movie or book. just don't.

because of the already monumental task of alphabetizing, we then find ourselves with the connundrum of "sub-dividing": do rock bands from other countries go into world music? or rock? do we separate country from folk? blues from new orleans? jazz from big bands? where would hoyt axton go? how about experimental music? or sesame street records?

don't get me started on compilations or soundtracks... so, where does nusrat fateh ali khan go?

now, when you come over my place, you will understand why there are stacks of cd's and records all over the place.