Filing your music alphabetically - C/D?

I gave up on filing my physical collection alphabetically because it was too much trouble moving everything for new purchases, but it was taking so long to open my mp3 folder that I thought I'd split it up, one folder per first letter of artist's name. And now I am having some moments.

La Düsseldorf under L or D? D'Arcangelo under D or A?
Is the "Captain" in Captain Beefheart a title? "DJ"?

What about pseudonyms which look like names (Marc Bolan, Laurel Halo)? I would be inclined to file by "surname" but then you have a whole continuum of arguably somewhat name-like 2-word solo artist pseudonyms and you've got to draw a line somewhere: Alex Smoke? Gary War? Robag Wruhme? And what if you don't actually know - Kemper Norton? And Josh Wink is almost his real name, but does that really mean he should be under W but if he'd called himself Josh Bink he'd be under J?

Yeah I'm thinking about this too much, and it doesn't really matter for digital files because I can always run a search, but I thought, I bet ILX has thought about this already...

1. "L"
2. "D"
3. "C"
4. "DJ"

Marc Bolan has solo records? At any rate, I file under last name in those cases (i.e. Edward Ka-Spel under "K").

no easy answers to some of these questions, but as a 3rd generation librarian I enjoy this kind of hairsplitting.

I am afraid that the rising tide of filing-by-first-name will eventually sweep me under, right now my hard drive is an unwieldy mix of the two.

I don't have any solo Bolan but according to wikipedia yes; I checked before listing him.

I work in a library (though am not a librarian) so I'm aware I'm reinventing some wheels but a quick glance at a book of cataloguing rules persuaded me that it was too different a problem space. I'm all for adding skip in filing indicators to ID3 tags, though!

(and yes, there does seem to be a certain perversity in using a computer system that will put them in plain ASCII order for me, and manually filing them to be in a less maintainable order instead, but hey)

just put it where you'll find it!

librarians have to catalog stuff so numerous people can find it. it's your personal collection so i wouldn't worry too much about all that, unless it's fun for you

1. "L"
2. "D"
3. "C"
4. "DJ"

Agree with all of this except La Düsseldorf, but I know I'm on a losing battle with this one. I ignore foreign words meaning 'the' in the same way I ignore 'the', basically.

Kemper Norton

It's a pseudonym. Most single-artist pseudonyms I would file like real names with surname first, but band names that are people's names (hello John Sims) would be under the first letter of the whole thing. For some reason I think of Kemper as more of a band name, so he'd be under K for me, but that might just be a quirk.

don't think the "La" in "La Düsseldorf" can be read as a conventional "The" because of the dual language mucking about

but then i think the cleanest way of avoiding all the first name difficulties is just to file by first name.

some terrible joke/paradox about where you wd file "The The" in here

Yeah I had Die Goldenen Zitronen under G and L'Augmentation under A in my CD filing days, but the mismatch in language between "La" and "Düsseldorf" was giving me pause, making me wonder if it really was an article. (xp or what NV said)

Likewise, don't know if A Minor Forest is a particular undefined small forest or a forest in the key of A Minor, and surely the ambiguity is an intentional part of the name.

Thank you for Kemper Norton fact-check! It is a kind of villagey-sounding name and will probably end up under K in my arbitrary decision-making process.

(Yes, it is for "fun"; a strange kind of fun I grant you, but there it is...)

iirc I have one La Dusseldorf LP and one La Peste LP, both under L, and I guess they are both there because the bands weren't from France. not sure if I have anything by a French band called La something. probably best I just keep avoiding them

am also now becoming aware of inconsistencies - A Minor Forest were under A and A Certain Ratio under C. this is hell

back when i still had cds i did this by artist. and then by album chronologically within artist i think. now i just have spotify and itunes.

lol just remembered any band name starting with "A (other word/s)" gets filed under "A", as in A Primary Industry. it's so much less common than 'The".

do you treat "this" like "the?"
right now "this mortal coil" is under the T section

For me, it's only 'the' and foreign permutations of. A Certain Ratio would be under A. I realise the difficulty with La Düsseldorf's double linguistic thing, but I won't change my mind. Even though it makes La! Neu? even more difficult to file.

what about 'thee' which is just a silly way of spelling 'the' in the circumstances?

"th'" is the most annoying thing actually

Avoid this conundrum by boycotting artists who do that.

"This Mortal Coil" under "this", yes

"Thee Oh Sees" are under "thee", right after "The The"

With 'thee' I give credence to the band clearly making a "thing" about the word, so I put them under T. I don't think I own any records by Th' Faith Healers, and can't think of any other bands that do that. Not sure what I'd do. Probably F.

yeah I wound do F for that as well, it's a fine line

th' inbred was the other band i had in mind, old 80s band on alt tentacles

seems I have Th'Faith Healers under F... L'Acephale (from the US) under A, L'Altra (from the US) under L. can't deal w/ this

but band names that are people's names (hello John Sims) would be under the first letter of the whole thing.

PJ Harvey?

I don't have anything by Thee Oh Sees, but I do have Thee Silver Mt. Zion etc. -- which gets back to the issue of band names starting with "A" or "An," my solution being to file it under "S".

This Mortal Coil unequivocally belongs under "T," btw.

funny i feel like i file silver mt zion under S - it wasn't always "thee" was it? used to be "a" silver mt zion?

Most of my records have plain sleeves so just cant look down the spines anyway

More and more i like the idea of painting over the middles of the records and forgetting things like the names of them, but just associating them with whatever is painted there

funny i feel like i file silver mt zion under S - it wasn't always "thee" was it? used to be "a" silver mt zion?

Yes and yes.

PJ Harvey's real last name is Harvey iirc, so she goes under 'H"

PJ Harvey?

PJ Harvey is the name of the artist, not a fictional name. So it'd be under Harvey. If you choose to call your band your own name then you're treating everyone else as a session player; don't then try to say "but it's a band".

xp

what about e.g. The Charlie Daniels Band?

"D" for me, although I don't have any of those records

like "Baker-Gurvitz Army" would be under 'B"

PJ Harvey is/was ostensibly a band, though. Still, despite protestations from Peej Pedants, though, most people treat it as a solo act, and not the best example in this case.

A more straightforward example: how do we file Dave Matthews Band Name Your Reasons Why They Are So Bad & Hated?

basically if there is a real name in my collection, it goes under last name regardless of individual vs. band semantics

what about "mr" and "mister", like would I file it (for example), mister mister/momus/mr airplane man OR momus/mr airplane man/mister mister. St Vincent before or after saint vitus?

hahaha jeez I have no idea

subjectively:

Mister/Momus/Mr

Saint/St

basically if there is a real name in my collection, it goes under last name regardless of individual vs. band semantics

sir you are history's greatest monster

hey you gotta break some eggs to make an omelet

Move over, Jimmy Carter! xp

Daniels Band, Charlie, The
Matthews Band, Dave, The

Lee, re: PJ Harvey, I repeat: If you choose to call your band your own name then you're treating everyone else as a session player; don't then try to say "but it's a band".

Mr & St I think I expand into 'mister' and 'saint', but I'd have to check, it doesn't come up much.

because a band name might look the same as one of the band members doesn't mean that the band name is doing the same thing as the person's name

what about the Freddy Jones Band, noted chicago roots rockers. No member of the band is named Freddy Jones.

Burrito Brothers, The Flying

AKA "Oh and by the way, which one's Freddy?"

SMH, Noodle.

I think half the reason I don't own any records by excellent Danish jazz bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen is bc no one knows where to file him alphabetically (and neither would I!!!!)

Floyd, Pink

I already dealt with this stuff, guys! Read the bloody thread.

can see the value in keeping your Alice Cooper and your Cooper, Alice records separate tho