Chet Baker
The Clash
Cornelius
Corrosion of Conformity (from my hometown - Raleigh!)
Count Basie
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Curtis Mayfield

When I go into a music store, I get so frustrated by all the arbitrary categories: alternative rock, classic rock, folk, blues, jazz, metal, used, new, imports, etc… I usually know exactly what I’m looking for, but it takes forever to figure out where it’s categorized! Why not just list everything by artist, A to Z? These genres are so irrelevant and outdated now anyway. Are the Red Hot Chili Peppers “rock” or “funk”? Is Tom Waits “blues,” “jazz” or “alternative rock”? What is Prince? Oh, he’s black, so we better put him in “Soul”. But wait, that Purple Rain song kinda rocks!? Why not mix all our music? Why segregate? End Music Segregation NOW! I’m gonna stage a sit-in at Cheapo.

I also have a collection of antenna rotors; I’ll send a picture someday.

Catch you later, Nina & Dylan!

Classical
Traditional American Mainstream Pop/Easy Listening/Polka
Jazz
Blues
Country/Folk
R&B
Rock/Post-Rock Pop
Showtunes/Soundtracks
International (subdivided by country or region)
Latin
Christmas
Gospel
Comedy
People Talking But Not Necessarily Telling Jokes
Hip Hop
Post-Disco Dance Music (disco generally I put in R&B, sometimes in rock/pop)

I worked at Musicland stores for a long time, which experience has influenced my categorization methods. I’m most interested in placing something where I think a guest would be most likely to look for it, if for instance a guest were trying to pick something to play at a dinner party during which I had surrendered control of the stereo, which I wouldn’t. So I file Neko Case in Rock/Pop because her audience is essentially a rock crowd, even if her music sounds more country-ish than Shania Twain, whom I file in country. But then again I put folk (traditional and contemporary, and by “folk” I basically mean white people with stringed instruments, though of course other folk music turns up in International, Blues, and elsewhere) in with country and don’t both giving bluegrass its own section ’cause there’s too much overlap for me to bother with. M.I.A I put in rock/pop rather than Post-Disco Dance or Hip Hop. I put Lisa Stansfield in R&B, but Hall & Oates I put in rock. John Zorn I put in jazz. Ray Charles I put in R&B. If someone makes a gospel record but did not begin as a gospel recording artist, their gospel record goes with the rest of their records. But if they began a gospel recording artist and then went pop, they get to have records in two sections.

I have to ask: are they alphabetized or cataloged in any way? Mine definitely are not alphabetized, but I’m working on entering them into the computer. I finally gave most of my 45s to a friend who owns three old jukeboxes (kinda like a permanent loan to a more worthy curator). They don’t look quite as pretty on shelves, either.