Owning TooMuchMusic Is Bad...

[theSoulfulMofo]

Back in college, I used to own a crappy boom box with probably 30 CDs. I'd listen to most of them from first track to last. I have never been the kind of person to listen to one song over and over. When I buy a CD, the album as a whole has to rock. And when I listened to an album, I would listen to it from beginning to end over and over. By then, I knew every track for every song.

By my third year in college, my CD collection racked up to a little over 100, and I was living in a 10'x10' rental room. I always hated the mainstream radio format, and I got sick of listening to the same artist for an hour. I wanted variety, but I didn't want to insert and take out CDs after every song played. So I got a part-time job and spent my first paycheck on a 50 CD jukeboxminihometheatresystemwithDolbyProLogic.

Dolby ProLogic is good for me, because I could turn it up pretty loud on a spaced-out level, and it won't go through the walls to annoy my neighbors. That, and my ears hurted a lot less.

I was listening to music every minute of the day. Whenever I was in my room. Whatever I was doing.

Now I think I own too much music, 500+ CDs catalogued in my computer database, excluding CD-Rs. The reason I say this, is that I don't listen through my new CDs as much. It's not that I'm not discrete in my CD buying selection. It's that when I put my new CD in my jukebox and listen through a few times during the week, and then the next week I'm playing music on my jukebox as usual ON SHUFFLE... I don't recognize most of the new songs, because I don't listen to one album over and over as I used to.... I can't always recognize the artist, I don't know what these songs are called, I don't even know what track the song's on or which album is playing...

Too Much Music Is Bad.

 

[Elvis Presley]

I hear ya, im cutting back on buying new music.....


yeah right!

 

[MrBrau1]

Didn't Confucious say "It's better to read 1 book 1,000 times, than to read 1,000 books once"

I'm kinda in the mindset of getting deeper into what I already love.

 

[theSoulfulMofo]

heh, i usually read books once...

 

[Popmartijn]

As Bob Dylan once remarked to a concert-goer. "I don't believe you, you're a liar!"
You can never own too many CD's.

C ya!

Marty (not yet at the 500, but has 300+)

 

[u2popmofo]

Too much is not enough.

 

[HeadsOnSticks]

I'm kinda in the mindset of getting deeper into what I already love.

i wholeheartedly agree.
i own well over 1,500 cds, and while that sometimes makes it difficult to choose one to listen to, i look forward to expanding it over time.

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

I kind of feel that way lately, too...

I still want over 150+ cds to add to my collection, but most of them are albums I loved as a kid/teenager that my dad had.

 

[HeartlandGirl]

One of my uncles suffers from this problem, but on a ginormous scale. He is in his 40s and never had children, so all of his spare money goes to music. First he collected LPs, and he has thousands of them. I once helped him add some new additions to his catalog of LPs, and it was a spiral binder with about 200 single-spaced typed pages in it.

Finally he switched over to the CD format. If I go to his house, the brick area in front of his fireplace has hundreds of CDs on it. They're all stacked about 30 CDs high, five or six rows deep, and these are just his newest purchases. I might look through a few of them, and if I mention "Oh, this one is good!" a year later he still hasn't opened it. If you ask him "Do you have so and so?" his answer is probably, but he doesn't even know.

Some days I look at his albums and just drool. Other days, I am grateful that I can at least name one song on every album I own. I guess the moral of the story is...all things in moderation.

 

[Bono's shades]

That's strange, Mofo, because my situation is very similar to yours. My music collection has grown tremendously over the past few years, ever since I realized how much money I could save by buying over the Internet and shopping at used music stores. Sometimes I think to myself, "Why am I buying more CDs? There aren't enough hours in the day to listen to the ones I already have!" But I keep buying them anyway. I'm a hopeless addict.

 

[celia]

"Why am I buying more CDs? There aren't enough hours in the day to listen to the ones I already have!" But I keep buying them anyway. I'm a hopeless addict.

That's exactly what I was thinking the other day yet I carry on buying them!

 

[SkeeK]

yes, that situation is awkward. i'm just happy i'm a damned thief and i don't pay for most of my music.

 

[Aralitia]

I have 224 cd's I counted them last night

I have not bought a new cd in a long time I can't afford them nowadays

 

[IWasBored]

i've got too much music, i don't have enough music. yeah it does make it hard to chose what to listen to, and i've only got about a 1/3 of what heads has...but i'm the kind of person who will listen to an album a million times when they get it, it will go on the shelf for a few months, and then i'll suddenly feel like listening to it again...cycles, sort of....

the only real problem other than the obvious financial one, is that i keep leaving cds places.

 

[fah]

Too much music is not bad.
I'm a mother and I know about these things.
Bad things: lying to your mother, war and mean people
Go buy some music!

 

[Saracene]

Well, I simply don't have any free space in my room anymore to store my precious CDs (who also have to compete for shelf space with books and collectibles). I also have trouble trying to get rid of CDs that I don't really listen too, cause every one has at least one or two songs I really like and I don't have the heart,

But naaah, there can't be too much music,

 

[fah]

I listened to myself and went cd shopping. Picked up the new releases from Sting, Mary J Blige and Warren Zevon. I'm in my happy place.

 

[joyfulgirl]

I know exactly what you mean, SoulfulMofo. I just ordered 4 CDs at one time and thought, geez, that's a mistake. Now I'll get a feel for 4 new things instead of really taking one in deeply. I think this syndrome is connected to the intensity of media in general, the constant assault on our senses which scatters our attention and ability to focus on one thing, creating a false sense of always needing the next thing before the thing in front of us is absorbed. Also, back in the days of albums it was too much trouble to get up and move the needle to skip a song I didn't like so I really listened to records beginning to end. Now if I'm in the kitchen cooking while music is on, I have the remote control with me and with a click I can skip songs. It's like too much music has created music ADHD or something.

 

[Angela Harlem]

if it gets to the point where it is overwhelming, it can't be enjoyed. if you dont enjoy your current music situation, it must be changed somehow so you dont end up not enjoying it.
music is made to be listened to and loved. take care of it, nurture it!

and water once a day...
or not.

i am in the too much and not enough boat. i am overwhelmed and confused.

 

[Popmartijn]

As Bob Dylan once remarked to a concert-goer. "I don't believe you, you're a liar!"
You can never own too many CD's.

C ya!

Marty (not yet at the 500, but has 300+)

I don't know about the things I said before... Last weekend I moved my CD's to my new house. Despite having bought 2 CD-racks (for 180 CD's each) I still don't have enough space to store them all. So maybe it is possible to have too many CD's...



Marty

 

[MrBrau1]

It's not about how many you own. It's about how many you listen to. I don't trust someone who listens to a cd once and can say it's good. I'm more interested in the record someone insists you get because it's so amazing they're on their 3rd cd because of use or sharing. Those are the fucking sweet ones. The trend buys just seem to gather dust after a month. I've got a music industry buddy w/ 2,000+ cds, yet when we're on a road trip listening to a mix I made he'll be like "who's this?", I'll tell him, and remind him he OWNS the record.