Please Describe your Music Collection


One of the better parts of the forums is reading about other people's systems, but I think it would be even more interesting to hear about people's music collections. Format, type of music, size, how stored, favorite artist, worst purchase, first purchase, ect. Whatever info about your music you want to volunteer. Think of it as a musical biography.

Here's some of my music info:

The collection consists of approximately 2200 records. 300 are CDs and the balance are vinyl. I've transfered about 35% of the collection onto hard disk as part of an iTunes driven digital jukebox. The albums are stored in a separate room on Intermetro modular metal racks. They're alphabetized by artist, but I have separated out the few classical records. By music type approximately 45% is pop/rock and 25% is jazz. The rest is pretty evenly distributed between blues, classical, country, reggae and R&B. I do not have any Broadway musicals.

My earliest musical recollection is my mom listening to William B. William's "Matinee Ballroom" on the radio. Also alot of early exposure to 50's "oldies" and Brill Bldg. pop. However, my first record purchases were the first Manfred Mann album (yes, the one with "Do Wah Diddy") and the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go". I still have each album although they are in very poor condition. I still listen regularly to the Supremes, its a truly great record. The guts of my collection is the standard baby boomer Motown/British Invasion/San Francisco Psychedelia/Funk/Punk/Jazz-Fusion/New Wave/sensitive singer-song writer cannon. I'm a pre-grunge kind of guy. My big heroes are Bob D., Beach Boys, Smokey Robinson, Elvis Costello, Little Feat, Steely Dan, Joni, Los Lobos and Jimi.

Starting in high school I started getting exposure to jazz and quickly took a liking to McCoy Tyner, Miles, and Coltrane. Also purchased virtually everything by Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin. I dived pretty hard into the ECM and Blue Note catalogs.

During college the most popular records were Pink Floyd's "DSOTM" and Steely Dan's "Royal Scam". Around this time I also developed a serious interest in electric blues. Over the years I've become a big fan of B.B., Albert and Freddy King, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy.

As a adult my tastes haven't so much changed as solidified. Over the last few years I'm only buying 50-70 records a year. I can't explain why, but I'm not as quick to explore new music as when I was younger. Despite this I still developed a liking for raggae (primarily Steel Pulse, but some others), Mozart, early 90s Brit pop (Lush, Cocteau Twins, etc.), Dwight Yoakam and anything by V.M. Bhatt. As time goes by I've also found that I appreciate Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong (particularly as a vocalist) even more.

I once recieved a great compliment from a friend. He was looking thru my collection and said, "You have a great collection, even you failures are interesting." As he said this he was holding a copy of Rick Wakeman's "Journey to the Center Of the Earth". Sorry Rick, it's probably my worst purchase.

Tell me about yours.
128x128onhwy61
My musical tastes are varied but I basically own about 400 pop/rock material which spans from Little Richard to the Nikka Costa's offering. I was never into what was really popular at the time. When I was in high school people were into Styx and Journey and I was into Santana, Pink Floyd, Moody Blues and Jethro Tull. I also have about 250-300 jazz items and my favorite periods are bop and swing. I love the period of miles davis's origional super group and tend to listen to more horn players than other artists.

I also own about 30 selections each of blues and classical items. But it is very hard for me to find recordings in these areas that I like. I seem to like blues alot more in a club than on a recording, and alot of classical music just puts me to sleep.

These days I am into finding an artist that gets played on my local public radio station and finding recordings that I like of theirs. Some items I have liked are:

Ben Harper - Fight For Your Mind
Tom Waits - Blue Valentine
Los Lobos - Kiko
Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

although I find it amazing how I can like one recording from on artist and dislike some of their other recordings so much.

I just love putting music on anytime I am home. From stretching in the morning to something light and inviting, to rocking in the afternoon to Joe Cocker to relaxing in the evening with Gerry Mulligans origional quartet or billie holiday. When people call me they eventually ask what have I listened on that day.
My collection is pretty much all over the map. I started with The Dave Clark Five"Glad All Over",the first lp I bought and still have, to classical ,classic rock,country rock atmospheric(space),singer–songwriter, soul–R&B,world,a very large jazz collection (all kinds),and on and on with alot of non mainstream artists. There are about 1500 lps and 2,000++ cds and have I've culled another 1000 or so from the cd collection.I suppose I aslo have 200 or so cassettes(packed away),and rarely listen to my vinyl now and haven't bought an lp in at least ten years.I have been pretty much a dedicated collector from the get–go and over the years have seen countless live shows as well.
Had about 1500 LPs but got tired of bacon frying in the background and sold the lot. Now have about 1000 CDs, 80% of which are "classical" (symphonic, chamber, instrumental, opera, and my particular fancy, English choral music). The remainder are a farrago, omitting hip-hop, progressive jazz, elevator music, and hard rock.

will
Thank you Audiogon for changing the subject title. Also thanks to all those who replied.
I own 1300 vinyls and 100 CDs in my collection. There is also a floating collection that is always changing i.e. I sell in order to get something new.

Most of my records are unique original and $$$. I dig onto progressive rock, fusion jazz, avant-jazz or avant-rock, sophisticated electronics, neo-classical avant-garde, acid jazz. I have very few pieces of a traditional jazz and routine rock such as Zeppelin or Pink. Beatles I keep for my wife although I do hate them since they cary the sin to bring pop onto the music world. I'm a great fan of tango and french chanson and have pretty thick line on my shelf for that as well.

I'm not big fan of classical music but there are a few classical pieces that I simply adore and never get tired listening to: Beethoven symph#9, #5, #6.
Tchaikovski "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Nutchacker". Rachmaninoff Conciertos #2,#3 Chopin/Cliburn Waltz C-sharp-m in particular. Vivaldi "4 Seasons".
Hi,

I've been into vinyl since about 1965 and was lucky enough to have a relative that was a dj. He taught me how to handle records and gave me a watts record brush which was band new to the market at the time. I have a handful of damaged vinyl that I can't part with for sentimental reasons but otherwise most of it is museum quality.

I have approximately 3500 albums and about 40 cd's. Don't laugh, I've had a CDP since 1992 and actually upgraded with an HDCD unit last year. It sounds like my tastes somewhat mirror yours although my favorites are Neil Young, Steely Dan and most female vocalists. I wish I knew more about jazz and blues but I'm turning into a quick study.

I'm a real lover of any music that evolved from Buffalo Springfield and there is just so much of it. I always felt it would be interesting to do a visual family tree from that great band. Their influence is much greater than most realize.

I've been buying a few collections of vinyl from friends in the midwest and am overjoyed at the new stuff I've found. I also have the Seven Wives Of Henry The Eigth. Pretty goofy record. Also, a copy of War Of The Worlds with Richard Burton narrating.

While I'm optomistic about the future of digital I'm also frustrated with the medium and figure I'll bail shortly. The music industry today is a gigantic dysfunctional family that's full of paranoia. The decision drop kick digital is mainly to simplify my life. If they would only use all the available space on sacd or dvda for two channel I would embrace it whole heartedly. For now they have multi layers for cd playback, multi-channel and video. I guess, being a two channel guy, that I really don't hear as much improvement as I hoped for.

If you are a fan of the Supremes and enjoy Nancy Wilson then I highly recommend The Best Of Nancy Wilson. This is an absolutely stunning recording. It's pretty easy to find in a used record store.

My most disappointing album is Sopwith Camel. Fazon is a killer song (well worth owning the disc) but it seems to me like that is the only piece of inspired music they ever had. Lightning didn't strike twice with this talented group.

I've really only owned three systems in my life. First was K horns and AR, Thorens. Changed to an LP12 very quickly. I then purchased a second LP12 when the upgrades couldn't be done to the old table. Then went with British gear, Naim and now Linn. Tubes, Lowthers and a Teres are probably going to happen this year. I guess with the Lowthers I'll have to place them well into the room. After over 30 years in this passion I'll be owning my FIRST pair of speakers that aren't designed to be placed close to the back wall.
I like everything except Rap and Opera. My collection consists of ~600 vinyl records and ~500 CDs.
I mostly listen to Jazz and Alt. Country. With Reggae and Rock mixed in.
Hands down the worst I've ever owned was "Out Of The Cradle" by Lindsey Buckingham, ex Fleetwood Mac. I can't believe allmusic.com gives it a 4 1/2 star. I was actually embarrassed for the artist while listening to it. Laughably bad.
I currently have about 1300 CDs. I have always loved music and valued decent sound, always preferring music for everything from background to prime activity over many other possibilities for same. As a kid, I built up a collection of about 250 albums, mostly of 70's and early 80's rock. I've always liked progressive rock bands like Genesis, Camel, Yes, as well as the electric guitar in it's many forms - Clapton, Hendrix, Lowell George.

I had the musically and budgetary crippling life event of getting married and having children, which put me into about a 10 year hiatus where music was there in the background, but not an avid pursuit nor a prime activity very often. During a move, I sold the vinyl and the associated playback gear and moved on with about 150 CDs that has since grown.

I consider my musical taste to have grown, but not have overhauled. This is partially due to having the money to be more adventurous in exploring new tunes, partially due to the vast amount of information available on the internet, and partially due to evolving tastes. My collection is currently about 75% rock (used very loosely), with the remaining 25% evenly split between blues and jazz.

While I'm tempted by all the adulation for vinyl, I'm not the tinkering type, and I expect continued advances in digital, particularly in terms of access and ease of use. I have copies of many of my favorite CDs loaded into changers to provide a random-play "personal radio station" of sorts, but am both frustrated and encouraged by the progress towards music servers and network connectivity. I imagine a time not too long from now when all my music will be available on a music server, and playable through any system in my house or anywhere else I can hook up to the network.

I'm probably hopelessly optimistic, as I see the current music scene as evolving and interesting, with lots of new music that I want to hear, while maintaining a healthy appreciation for that which came before. I also am fairly active in back-filling my collection, often with bands I didn't fully appreciate when they were current that I do now.

Nice thread topic.
kr4, thanks for the correction. Remember, the mind is the second organ to go.
The Rap music title is a bit more provocative, don't you think :-)

Yeah "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth" ain't so great, but it's not totally without merit. You might try "Seven Wives Of Henry VIII" instead. It's alot better.

Off the top of my head, here are some stinkers I have:

Joe Walsh "Got Any Gum?"
David Bowie "Never Let Me Down"
Jethro Tull "Under Wraps"
Neil Young "Life"
Eric Clapton "August"

The common theme seems to be 70's icons failing in the 80's (a very dismal musical decade indeed). Redeeming moments are few and far between on these albums.
Hey, what happened, the title supposed to be "Describe Your Music Collection".