In the old days we sorted our albums on the shelf following a strict set of protocols. Anyone who broke the rules and messed up the system would be banned from touching them again.
Now we have digital songs. They exist on a computer or other device. There is fancy software that will read the tags in the song and let you sort by song name, album name, artist name, etc.
If you wanted to sort your collection by artist, a computer will never get it right. Impossible.
Oh, they are smart and have rules. ABBA will be at the beginning. ZZ Top will be at the end.
They will cleverly remove articles, so The Beatles will go in the B’s, as they should.
But they will fail with many cases.
If they are smart enough to figure out a name, they will sort by the last name. So Bob Dylan will go in the D’s, where he should. Tom Petty will go in the P’s. As we like it.
But then, they will put Lynyrd Skynyrd in the S’s. This is obviously unacceptable but how will a computer ever know? They can’t. They will put Judas Priest in the P’s. Alice Cooper in the C’s. Jethro Tull in the T’s. This will be a total mess for the compulsive obsessive types.
Of course, there are some things I’m not sure we ever figured out. If it is a Jimi Hendrix solo album, ok you sort it in the H’s by his last name. But what about a Jim Hendrix Experience album? Does that also go in the H’s? Or does it now go in the J’s because it’s the official band name?
And where do you file the band The The? Do they disappear into a vortex of nothingness?
Also, I wonder if all the post modern vinyl collectors of the current day worry about these things with their album collection?
