Record Collecting for Girls Author Courtney E. Smith on Mix Tapes and Makeout Music
You probably have a lot of opinions about music, but Record Collecting for Girls author Courtney E. Smith has even more. In her music-nerd manual (which comes out today), Smith tackles such pressing musical issues as guilty pleasure songs, Top Five Lists, and what it means to like The Smiths too much. And since each essay in the book comes with a playlist, the only way to do this interview properly was to head over to Turntable.fm to spin some tunes and chat about music.
@courtneyesmith started playing "Lowdown" by Boz Scaggs
woolyknickers: Wow. This is not where I thought we would start this interview.
@courtneyesmith: Yes, really. This is happening.
woolyknickers: So…er, what does Boz Scaggs mean to you?
@courtneyesmith: Nothing at all, I happened to subscribe to Washed Out's playlist on Spotify and this was on it, to my surprise. And then it got stuck in my head. It means Washed Out are really messing with my mind.
woolyknickers: I don't think I've ever had Boz Scaggs stuck in my head before
@courtneyesmith: I swear, listen to that playlist. The flow is just…really impressive. It made me like a Boz Scaggs song.
woolyknickers started playing "I Want You" by Elvis Costello & The Attractions
woolyknickers: I chose this song because 1. Three different boys put this on mix tapes for me in college and 2. I want to talk about your top five lists.
@courtneyesmith: Woah woah woah. Did any of those boys ever actually listen to this song? It is #1 on my playlist of the best psychotic stalker songs of all time. This is not a romantic song!
woolyknickers: Right?!! It's crazy stalker stuff that guys lazily think is "romantic."
@courtneyesmith: Good lord. Boys don't listen to the lyrics enough. Once a guy put Otis Redding's "Tramp" on a mix for me. I was like…um, what's the message here buddy?
woolyknickers: Ha! What other songs are on your RUN list?
@courtneyesmith: The worst I've ever heard was one a British guy did for one of my girlfriends. Hurricane #1 "Step Into My World." It seems nice on the face of it, but something about that song is so oppressive on a mix. I.would.never. It's always the heavy-handed love songs that get you. Also anything Bright Eyes. I know several people would disagree with me.
woolyknickers: Bright Eyes = Bad? Or Good?
@courtneyesmith: Bad
woolyknickers: I agree. He's too earnest and he cries a lot. You can't have sex with that.
@courtneyesmith: Right? Be in love with me a little more ironically…or at least promise not to write a song about what a bitch I was when we break up.
woolyknickers: Who would you want to write a song about you?
@courtneyesmith: Honestly, no one. I'll do the writing, thanks! There's this line in a Death Cab song… "For What Reason" and I think he nails it. It goes something like, "In the end I win every time as ink remains." Writing songs is like writing history. Whoever does the writing dictates how the relationship is remembered forever.
@courtneyesmith started playing "Dance This Mess Around" by The B-52's
@courtneyesmith: We got completely off track from top fives!
woolyknickers: I know! So according to your rules, I have no bands in my top 5. The Replacements would be the closest.
@courtneyesmith: You don't own the full discography of any band???
woolyknickers: Nope. It's never been important to me to have all the albums.
@courtneyesmith: You're just not a completist. I like to think of that as not having OCD.
woolyknickers: I really don't have OCD.
@courtneyesmith: And you may look forward to never being on an episode of Hoarders!
woolyknickers: Life goal #1
@courtneyesmith: I'm waiting for an episode that features a person with a huge record collection. 78s, but nothing to play them on.
woolyknickers started playing "Young Turks" by Rod Stewart
@courtneyesmith: Oooh I love this song.
woolyknickers: In your book you say you want this played at your funeral
@courtneyesmith: I do.
woolyknickers: What about this songs says "funeral playlist"?
@courtneyesmith: Nothing at all. Everything else on my funeral greatest hits list is a bit sober, bordering on appropriate. I want this to come on and for everyone to chuckle. So they can remember I was slightly funny sometimes, winking slyly at them even in death. If they don't laugh, they're out of the will.
woolyknickers: Speaking of which, how big is your record collection?
@courtneyesmith: I decided a few years ago to cap physical product at 1000 units. But if you factor in digital albums since then…goodness, I need to do another inventory. 1000 fills the floor of a closet in my apartment right now.
woolyknickers: Oh. You're no hoarder either.
@courtneyesmith: I am unlikely to be buried alive because I have them neatly numbered and things are still aphabetical.
woolyknickers: Do you have vinyl or CDs?
@courtneyesmith: Mostly CDs, but a few things (like a lot of Elvis Costello's catalog) I keep on vinyl. For me vinyl is mostly nostalgic. If I really like the way the art looks in that format then I get it.
woolyknickers: Do you consider yourself a vinyl nerd at all?
@courtneyesmith started playing "Northern Sky" by Nick Drake
@courtneyesmith: I really don't. I started out as a little kid collecting vinyl. Remember those Disney storybooks with the 45 in the back? That was my formative record collection. It was me, a Fisher-Price record player and my Julian Lennon record for a long time. And then it was me, a tape recorder, and the radio making mixtapes.
woolyknickers: Julian Lennon, eh?
@courtneyesmith: Major 8 year old crush on him. In spite of the mullet and the earrings.
woolyknickers: What was his song?
@courtneyesmith: "Too Late For Goodbyes." LIFE CHANGER. Not really, but everyone had something. Pictures from Teen Beat of Kirk Cameron on your walls, Simon LeBon fold outs….oooooor Julian Lennon vinyl.
woolyknickers started playing "Hot Rock" by Sleater-Kinney
@courtneyesmith: Sleater-Kinney
woolyknickers: Sleater-Kinney is in your Top 5
woolyknickers: How did you discover them?
@courtneyesmith: Oh the cover of the Dallas Observer. It was that late 90s madness for covering lady bands, they were a few albums into their career and…just reading about it made me want to know what they were all about. And I found myself slowly buying all their albums. It felt more real than…I dunno, Garbage? Who were always just Butch Vig's band with a girl singer anyway.
woolyknickers: It's hard to imagine Garbage and Sleater-Kinney in the same category of music. But I guess that happens to "girl bands."
@courtneyesmith started playing "Buffalo Stance" by Neneh Cherry
@courtneyesmith: I'm fixated on this song lately. It really stands the test of time.
woolyknickers: Which is weird, because it kinda shouldn't.
@courtneyesmith: It came out in what…1989? When everything was C+C Music Factory and Roxette. Amazing that this was next to them on MTV.
woolyknickers: Speaking of which, you worked at MTV for years and I understand we have you to thank for Pete Wentz.
@courtneyesmith: I did, which is how I understand how this ended up on MTV. There's always that annoying person who thinks they're soooo smart and makes you put stuff like Neneh Cherry on. It's the passion play. Oh god, don't remind me about Pete Wentz. I swear. I didn't know it would go down like that.
woolyknickers: How exactly did you end up as a Fall Out Boy booster?
@courtneyesmith: Strictly by pointing out the numbers, honestly. I was handling online music programming for mtvU and Fall Out Boy were in one of our voting shows. They didn't even win, I don't think. But it kept steadily getting traffic. So I mentioned it and said perhaps we should go ahead and program that video. Seemed innocuous enough at the time…So when their next album came out we decided to get behind them in a bigger way on mtvU and film with them. Turned out they had camera-ready personalities. Not everyone does. An amazingly small number of new artists do. And then that rock started rolling and bulldozed the music landscape.
woolyknickers: Well on behalf of tween girls everywhere I would like to thank you for Pete Wentz.
woolyknickers started playing "Better Version Of Me" by Fiona Apple
woolyknickers: So I picked this song because Fiona Apple is in your top five and I have never heard Fiona Apple. Mostly because I didn't think she was cool to listen to.
@courtneyesmith: Yes, yes she is. We are chronically inseparable in times of trouble, Fiona and I. She wasn't cool, she was commercial, and writing songs straight out of her journal on that first album. But I was 18 then and emotionally self-indulgent as ladies that age are sometimes inclined to be. It feels like we've grown up together, but haven't necessarily grown out of our bad habits. There's that moment after you get disappointed in life –doesn't even have to relate to love– where you get really self-indulgent. And you pitch a little fit to yourself, or have a little cry. Basically stop to acknowledge the injustice of it all.
woolyknickers: And listen to The National over and over again?
@courtneyesmith: Or Fiona Apple. It's a security blanket, it's "no one understands me and f-you all" music. Also, it's nice to know that no matter how crazy I feel when I lose it…there's someone else out there who is also crazy. It's comforting.
woolyknickers started playing "Borderline" by Madonna
woolyknickers: In one of the chapters in your book you talk about the new Madonna. Who are the most likely candidates? And do we need a "new" Madonna when she is still making music and we have her back catalogue?
@courtneyesmith: Well here's the thing: I think who may be the next Madonna is a lot less interesting than why everyone feels like they need to keep crowning people the next Madonna. Also, I find it highly suspicious that the whole conversation started when the old Madonna had a kid. I'm just saying. Ultimately I think the old Madonna has been losing ground on her Madonna slot though. She's not doing what 90s Madonna did and really changing, giving us the unexpected all the time. She's still trying so hard to be sexy. I'd be cool with it if she did something with more depth that was unsexy.
woolyknickers: Right. The way some people say MIA is irrelevant since she had a kid
@courtneyesmith: By some people do you mean Diplo? He's brutal to her in the press. I think that's an interesting dynamic too. The exboyfriend producer who always has to talk about her. You never hear her talk about him unless she's asked. He can't stop bringing it up. Career envy.
@courtneyesmith started playing "Some Velvet Morning" by Nancy Sinatra
woolyknickers: So since you put on Nancy Sinatra, I have to ask, do you think you actively seek out female acts?
@courtneyesmith: I do these days. A few years back I went through a big '60s girl group and female jazz singer phase. I like to give myself little projects and try to learn about new areas of music.
woolyknickers: Who are some of your favorite discoveries?
@courtneyesmith: My favorite discovery from that period was Honey Bees "Hey Girls." It's a random Swedish woman and just…weirdly a great song. I also love Julie London a lot. I feel like she's majorly underrated and written off because of her film career… but man her delivery will bring a tear to your eye sometimes.
woolyknickers: Like Dusty Springfield?
@courtneyesmith: Also Astrud Gilberto, god I love her weird voice. I feel like Dusty Springfield gets a lot of credit, thanks to Pulp Fiction.
woolyknickers: You don't think she deserves it?
@courtneyesmith: She totally deserves it, I think she's perfectly rated. Not under, not over. Just right! Oh and Shirley Horn. I picked up something in the sale bin at Amoeba of hers once and she's brilliant.
woolyknickers started playing "Call Your Girlfriend" by Robyn
@courtneyesmith: Even in current music though, I'd say I do seek out female artists more. I like to hear female voices.
woolyknickers: Like Robyn?
@courtneyesmith: Yes! And Lykke Li. And Bat for Lashes.
woolyknickers: Lykke Li and Robyn have soooo many songs about love and cheating and relationships. Sometimes I find that tiring.
@courtneyesmith started playing "Will Do" by TV On The Radio
@courtneyesmith: Even in men today there are not very many people writing overtly political songs. It's all very much about love, good or bad. Love sells?
woolyknickers: Love sells. Speaking of which, I love your book. I felt like we were friends in a bar talking about music. I really wanted to talk to you about the essays. Like, I wanted to tell you about "I Want You" being on mixtapes so you could confirm that it's crazycakes.
@courtneyesmith: Ha! It is not okay. NOT ROMANTIC. So here's how I thought about it while I wrote… I actually thought about specific girlfriends of mine for most of the essays. Things we'd discussed, points they'd made I wanted to refute. And then wrote as if I were writing to them. A few of them actually saw themselves in it and we've had emails about it since they read the book. All good, except the part where I said that someone with no guilty pleasures is an asshole. The girlfriend I was thinking of while writing that essay loves a ton of pop music. And that's fine. My problem is she absolutely recognizes low and high brow in cinema and TV. But tries to insist that it doesn't exist in music. Girl, no. That and I was thinking about the number of essays I've read by men who to try to validate KISS's career.
woolyknickers: Ugh or RUSH. I have a theory that no girl actually likes Rush
@courtneyesmith: Oh, I would co-sign that. I don't know any girls who like Rush.
woolyknickers: What are your musical guilty pleasures?
@courtneyesmith: Lately I have to say Ke$ha. Which seems trendy, I know. All the music writers like Ke$ha all of a sudden.
@courtneyesmith started playing "Clover Over Dover" by Blur
@courtneyesmith: I just like the underdog I think. That is how the Pussycat Dolls became my guilty pleasure.
woolyknickers: Whoa.
@courtneyesmith: Yeah. I know.
woolyknickers: Did you watch the reality show where they cast a new Pussycat?
@courtneyesmith: Uh no I'm not that invested. It's a guilty pleasure! I don't own their albums, or even songs. It's just like when I need it…I go YouTube it and have a moment and then move on without telling anyone. GUILTY. It was so on the DL I didn't even think about liking them until my friend Gina, who was a co-worker at MTV talked to me about the Guilty Pleasures essay in my book and was like…umm you don't even know it and the Pussycat Dolls are your guilty pleasure.
woolyknickers: I sort of feel like that about Rihanna.
woolyknickers started playing "What's My Name? (Feat. Drake)" by Rihanna
@courtneyesmith: Oh god, I can't help it. I love this song.
woolyknickers: I know!
@courtneyesmith: They obviously put crack in it. I was saying about the Pussycat Dolls as underdogs…
so whenever that was a thing, every time we'd get one of their videos at MTV it was…hmmm, no one was excited. You know you're going to play it but everyone was not into them. And I started to feel bad for the Pussycat Dolls. Those songs are just as catchy as the new T.I. or whatever.
courtneyesmith started playing "Square Pegs" by The Waitresses
woolyknickers: In your book, you make a lot of music lists. Have you ever met your match when it comes to making lists?
@courtneyesmith: Yes, but our relationships were always platonic. It's hard to have two music nazis in one relationship.
woolyknickers: So what would your Match.com dating profile say? No music nazis?
@courtneyesmith: Hahaha! No…but I would look closely at things like how many bands a guy lists. If it's a lot then you know you've got trouble on your hands. Or if it's a staunch dedication to a singular band it better be one I like. I'm not listening to Phish every night for the rest of my life.
@courtneyesmith started playing "Cruel To Be Kind" by Nick Lowe
@courtneyesmith: This song is for all the men I won't date.
woolyknickers: Ha! Are there other bands that are deal breakers?
@courtneyesmith: Yes. The Smiths. I do not date men who like The Smiths too much.
woolyknickers: Really?! Why?
@courtneyesmith: I already know it won't work out, but we can be friends and you can tell me all your neurotic thoughts about every girl you do date who isn't good enough for various reasons.
woolyknickers: And what band means you are made for each other?
@courtneyesmith: Oooh that's a good question. I don't think there is one. I'd just like to have tastes that are similar enough to not be irritating and different enough so that there's always a sense of exploration. Like me, but not too much like me. It's like that with everything though, isn't it? Not just music.
woolyknickers: Sounds about right.
Courtney E. Smith's Record Collecting for Girls is out today.
Melissa Locker may very well be a music nerd.
I bought Fiona Apple's "When the Pawn…" album on four separate occasions between the ages of probably 12 to 14, because I always eventually felt guilty about how often she cursed and talked about sex, and I'd give it away or throw it away in favor of listening to more Christian rock (actually DC Talk). But what pubescent girl can resist 'Paper Bag'? I always went back.
@melis
The other night I met a girl and she looked at me so nice. I asked her for the digits and she didn't think twice.
@Dancersize I AM RESISTING THIS URGE RIGHT NOW
Coupla days later called her up and asked her out, she said with you? I said with me! and then she said without a doubt! I took her to the garden where I guess they grow the olives, she wore a tighter skirt than any I had seen in college GODDAMMIT
@melis
Yesssssssss.
She said I love to smoke and drink while cursing like a sailor. I asked her where she got her mouth and if she had a tailor. Finally I walked her to the door to say good night. She said I am an apple would you care to take a bite (a bite!). Politely I refused and said I'm lookin' for a lady. So she slapped me in my face and said BOY YOU MUS' BE CRAZY!
would just like to say that I absolutely do like RUSH.
@Carter DeShazo@facebook I know a couple of gals who like Rush. But I am not one of them.
@Megan Patterson@facebook One of my best girlfriends truly LOVES Rush (goes to Ticketmaster hours in advance and refresh refresh to buy tix in the first minute, plus she goes to the show by herself because she knows nobody else who loves Rush.)
I love Rush. But it's a Canadian thing. I also love the Barenaked Ladies. What can you do?
@Nicole Cliffe I like Rush. I am not Canadian. I know other girls who like Rush–maybe it's a Midwestern thing, too? Sheesh, I didn't think we were THAT far behind.
@Nicole Cliffe: Another female Rush fan here, but in Boston. To be fair, my husband is a HUGE Rush fan and finally wore me down.
@Bittersweet I also love Rush but thought it was a Long Island thing (though acknowledge that it is first and foremost really a Canadian thing). So, I guess all girls who love Rush feel a need to blame it on their hometown.
@Carter DeShazo@facebook. Second that. Yay, Rush!
@All: Ok so there's 8 of you in the whole world.
Checking in as a Rush-liker in Texas. I went to the concert a few months ago, and there were no lines in the ladies' restroom, yay.
@Carter DeShazo@facebook I don't mind Rush at all, but my best friend in high school was a huge fan. Of course, she was a drummer, so Neil Peart, obviously. And we lived in Ohio.
loved this article….I'm like this with southern rap…if you like Jay-Z too much, it won't work…dig early Lil Wayne, Hot Boys, and No Limit Soldiers…we could be soul mates!!
@ThundaCunt Outkast?? Also it's good to see you back here. I missed your comments!
This interview made me like her enough to forgive her for Pete Wentz. And that is saying something. (Who am I kidding, even my 50-year-old, tattooed, Lynard Skynard loving DAD liked Fall Out Boy at one time. He asked for the album for Christmas.)
I accidentally fell in with a group of "serious music/college radio people" in college and I hated listening to them talk about bands and be elitist about it and it's taking me a long time to stop taking out that hate on the music. I still can't listen to Of Montreal.
I would totally date a boy who loved The Smiths.
@LuluBates I will ONLY date a man who loves The Smiths. A lid for every pot, I say!
@hungrybee Me too, I would never date an antismithsist.
Must be Moz-poz!
@queenofbithynia Seriously. Morrissey is absolutely hilarious, and I like people who share his brand of humor.
@hungrybee I dunno… he's funny but he can also be kind of creepily jingoistic sometimes? Also I like meat and Moz hates people who like meat, so that's a thing. SOOOO I need someone who loves the Smiths but is maybe a little uncomfortable with Morrissey as a person. I am a delicate flower with delicate flower needs!
@annepersand Woah that is totally me! Meat-eater here who loves the Smiths but finds things Morrissey the person says at times problematic.
~*~*~vegas time bb?~*~*~
@annepersand Isn't that weird jingo-y turn more of a solo thing though? I like him solo, but I love him in The Smiths. A big enough difference, I think. (Also, I think he's in on the jingoism joke as much as he's in on the we're-all-so-sad joke.)
@hungrybee I think it's loving the Smiths "too much" that's the issue. Or in the case of my pet peeve, loving them in a particular way. If someone comes at me all, "I love The Smiths" like it makes them deep or special, I am going to laugh in their face and dance away to ABBA Gold. In fact, one of my boyfriend's sterling qualities is the quantity/quality of his Smith-loving. He's a bit of a Mozpologist, but that's a whole other story.
Is this the safe place where we can talk about Mixtapes we once made for potential romantic partners?
Because I recently discovered in my ancient yahoo account I never use, in "sent mail" a mix titled "A Night In Our Dreams–In The Past, In The Future, Infinite" – which OMG how did anyone ever want to have sex with me?
I will spare you the PARAGRAPH I wrote for EACH SONG explaining why it was on the tape, but the sequence?
Oh! What A Night –> Spooky –> This Old Heart of Mine –> Three Little Birds –> Norwegian Wood –> Baby It's Cold Outside –> Beyond the Sea –> Unchained Melody –> Playground Love –> My Cherie Amour –> SpottieOttieDopalicious –> Fell In Love With a Boy –> Take Me to the River –> Kiss –> She's Always In My Hair –> My Favorite Things (Coltrane)
Just….ugh. I share this for the young ones – AVOID AT ALL COSTS a boy who makes a playlist like this. For so many reasons.
OH WHAT A NIGHT OVER NORWEGIAN WOOD ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME
@melis It was….relevant. (I feel like that may make it worse)
@leon.saintjean You know I only say this with love, but: Unchained Melody LOL.
@leon.saintjean If you sent me a mixtape like that I would do you just out of sympathy. Though maybe that's not quite the effect you wanted?
@Xanthophyllippa An at-work gchat w/ the recipient has confirmed that this is pretty much the effect it actually had. Ahh, youth.
@Lily – I KNOW! Haha. And if only I did share some of the descriptions of why the songs were chosen. I believe I referred to D'Angelo's cover of Always in My Hair as "grimy and carnal," which…I'm going to probably just take myself out of the dating pool for a few months as penance for these horrible sins.
@leon.saintjean As long as you didn't send it recently, I'm willing to bet you've served your time….
@leon.saintjean was that called The Try Hard Mix?
@leon.saintjean WHAT THE WHAT WHAT "Fell In Love With A Boy". WHAT.
And that's coming from someone who's terrible at mixes. Like, I always let my more unlikeable qualities and intentions shine through the lyrics of the songs I pick. I think my id is making those tapes. I've been known to put various Swedish-language songs, or Jonsi singing in Hopelandic, just to avoid communicating too much.
Oh god, mixtapes! I once played the Wham! Rap over the phone to a boy.
@LuluBates I may not have a job, but I have a good time / With the boys that I meet down on the line!
That required zero Googling, by the way. Now I am going to have this stuck in my head all night.
@miss buenos aires Say I. DON'T. NEED YOU. and if you don't approve, well who asked you to!? (Also absolutely no googling required).
Also is Wham a guilty pleasure or has it crossed over into acceptable territory by dint of time and the proto-hipster use of white short shorts and frosted tips?
@scully Wham! Bam! I am! A man! Job or no job, you can't tell me that I'm not…
I think Make it Big has become hipster fodder with all the other '80s pop, but the rapping can, I believe, still be a bit of a guilty pleasure. Unless you treat it as, "I'm really into their early stuff, back when they weren't really known outside the UK. They were a lot less polished then, and a lot more homoerotic."
@miss buenos aires This all makes me feel so much better about my sheer dorkiness.
@LuluBates I once played Elvis' 'Don't Be Cruel' over the phone to a boy AND SANG ALONG. He hung up at the verse about going to the church and saying 'I do'
I love that Julie London gets a shout-out! She's one of my favorite female singers ever!
(I also echo the Fiona Apple love, and I'm kind of obsessed with her to this very day, but that's a bigger issue we don't have to get into right now.)
A music nerd friend once played me a Julie London bootleg of "Everybody's Fucking," done in her lush, string-laden ballad style, about the various and sundry ways all her pals were doin' it whilst she wasn't. Kinda hard to imagine anyone getting more than her, but I guess we all go through dry spells.
My musical guilty pleasure is Kevin Rudolf. I dare anyone, anywhere, ANY TIME to beat that. (And yes, I am on record as saying this. I will defend it if you ask me five years from now.)
@katherine I think my love of Gordon Lightfoot beats your Kevin Rudolf love. Also, Neil Diamond. Really, it's like my guilty pleasures were chosen by my 67 year old mom.
It makes me so cranky that Turntable.fm isn't available outside the US.
Also, I've been burning CDs to play on the stereo at work (I'm a waitress) and my latest includes "Buffalo Soldier" and it is a BIG HIT with customers.
I like Rush.
Wow. This prompted me to spend approximately an hour and a half watching 80s videos on YouTube. That's an hour and a half of my life I'll never have back, but I have to say, George Michael really can sing.
Oh. Um. I feel I may like The Smiths too much. Because I…I listen to the Smiths a lot. I know a lot of Smiths trivia. In the dark days of 17 I felt like "How Soon Is Now" was meant for me (now my favorite Smiths song is Sheila Take A Bow or That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, but How Soon Is Now is still high up there).
In other news, this is one of the most entertaining and fun-to-read interviews I have ever consumed. And now I want to buy this book, it sounds great!
1. An ex-boyfriend got a tattoo of the word tramp on his arm, because of the Otis Redding song "Tramp." While we were dating.
2. Someone who has only "1000 units," "mostly CDs," wrote a book about record collecting???? Um…I don't judge people based on the size of their record collection (unlike some friends of mine), but I guess I do judge their ability to write a book on the subject of record collecting. I mean, I'm 24 years old and probably have around 4-500 records (actual records) but would not ever call myself a collector. I dunno, I guess the people who I might think could actually write a book on the subject are serious record collectors who have at least, I dunno, probably 5-10,000 records. Not that that's how many records I expect people to have, but if they're gonna write a book on it, yeah.
@ranran pretty sure she purposefully limits physical stock… she says so… so that 1000 is a carefully culled selection from presumably once more vast holdings. i don't think that just number of records qualifies one was a collection/musicophile. one has to know their stuff, and this lady clearly does.
@liznieve ahhh, it won't let me edit. collection=collector
@liznieve Musicophile and collector aren't the same thing, though. I don't have a problem with people limiting their physical stock, and I certainly don't think it has any relation to their taste (though, I dunno, I don't really think she's mentioned anything particularly noteworthy/unusual in this interview), but record collecting means, you know, collecting records. Actively buying them. And records and CDs aren't the same thing.
At the risk of repeating myself: being a record collector has a real, specific meaning, which is not equivalent to having good taste or knowing a lot about music.
@ranran in the interest of splitting hairs, as we seem to be doing, then what would one call collecting digital music? just "music-collecting"? I think that "record collecting" has expanded a bit in its definition, more toward "the collection of recorded things" rather than strictly vinyl. And while I get what you're saying, I also find your tone a bit elitist and offputting, I can't lie.
@liznieve I'm sorry you're put off. I think record collecting IS elitist and, yeah, kind of offputting. But I'm not a record collector! I do have friends who are. They're annoying, mostly!
I don't understand how you can "collect" digital music. Part of collecting (and a large part of what makes it offputting to many people) is the hunt. There has to be a sense of rarity. If everything is readily, instantly available to you, then you can't really collect it. Like, can I say that I collect Hairpin articles? That would be absurd — they're on the internet, available to everyone. And yes, it is elitist to want something, in part, because other people can't have it. But that's part of why collecting, by nature, is elitist.
Sorry, to me it doesn't feel at all like splitting hairs, it feels like an incredibly broad topic, but that's just because I am witness to conversations about record collecting literally every day.
@ranran sure, I get what you're saying. I don't agree with it, but I see your point. Maybe I just got old and shifted priorities away from my "vinyl or it didn't happen" youth, but witnessing conversations everyday about record collecting (as you define it) sounds atrocious. Conversations about music, though, and not the medium it comes on, that sounds awesome. (yes, my cranky pants are on today, I blame the rain.)
Ok, here goes, a serious and only marginally related question. How do people find music they like? This was so easy in college, but now, shockingly, I have a job, and other interests, and things to discuss with my friends other than cool bands and whatnot. But I'm so tired of listening to the same music for 7 years. So what is it? Pandora? Spotify? Having cooler friends than I do?…
@alice b. tchotchke follow up question – how do people get a hold of the music they like?! I MISS NAPSTER. It is so much work to keep up with current music these days.
Obviously I am not a real music lover. I am too lazy for music.
@alice b. tchotchke I use turntable and music blogs (especially Fuel/Friends and Friends With Both Arms). And pretty much any time someone posts a mix on tumblr I download it.
@redheadedandcrazy I wait till albums are $5 on Amazon MP3 (or they have the $2.99 or $3.99 deals). I probably spend $30/month on new music, which is kind of ridiculous because there aren't enough hours in the day to listen to all that music.
@redheadedandcrazy I just google the song title and then site:mediafire.com. web-based file sharing is the future.
@Four Horsemeals of the Eggporkalypse Dear RIAA: THIS IS CLEARLY SATIRE! YEP. I DEFINITELY DO NOT DO THIS.
@backstagebethy Thank you Thank you. These blogs look great – half stuff I like and half stuff I have never heard of
@alice b. tchotchke Prettymuchamazing.com is my current favorite music blog. They offer a lot of free/legal downloads and a fairly good mix of genres. (Though definitely with an indie slant- but that includes indie rap/R&B as well as indie rock and indie electro stuff)
@alice b. tchotchke i spend a lot of time on hype machine (hypem.com). it's a music blog aggregator. you can search for artists/songs, or just browse by most popular, recent, etc. you can listen to stuff directly through the site as well as clicking through to the blog that posted the song. best site everrrrr. i also really enjoy fluxblog (fluxblog.org).
@shivster Thanks for all the recommendations. I knew this was the right place to ask.
@alice b. tchotchke Also a good way to find newer stuff is to pick up your local indy weekly (like the SF Bay Guardian or similar) and look at the live shows at smaller venues. Then just start myspacing some of the bands and see what you like. I have made some good discoveries this way.
@scully Thank you all for the awesome ideas! I have felt so out of touch with new music lately and had no idea where to begin.
@Four Horsemeals of the Eggporkalypse i do the same thing. the RIAA stopped prosecuting individual downloaders a couple of years ago so they could go after more uploaders. you're totes safe
Amazing interview tactic. Why hasn't this been lauded on Poynters yet?
This was a great interview. Although, I think according to this woman, I am an asshole? I mean, I am SO one of those assholes who has no guilty pleasures. But not because I am unable to recognize high/low levels of art (although I am pretty skeptical of the arbiters and qualifications of those categories), but because I'm a grown-ass woman and for the life of me I cannot understand why should I feel guilty about enjoying whatever the fuck I enjoy.
@NatashaMcG Seriously. I didn't even read the article because, right off the bat, I was like, "Boz Scaggs is bad-ass and I don't want to hear from people who have to make excuses for listening to him."
Oh wow there are so of my favorites on here and I never consider them guilty pleasures. If 'Lowdown' and 'Buffalo Stance' really don't make you want to dance you are hard of hearing. And 'Borderline'?!?! One of my favorite angsty 'love' songs, because I can't really tolerate slow, weepy songs.
I'm now really ashamed to admit that The Smiths and Fall Out Boy are both in my top 5.
@backstagebethy @Allonsy Great suggestions guys! Adding those sites to my Google Reader right now.