I obviously talk a great deal about my love of music in Darren’s Music Blog but I thought it might be an idea to give readers a quick tour of my actual CD collection.

Although I was a keen purchaser of vinyl in my mid to late teens during the first part of the 1980s, frequent house moves in my late teens and early 20s meant that the format was becoming a bit cumbersome. By the time the 1990s came along I was glad to embrace the CD and gradually began building up a collection. From just a handful of CDs thirty years ago it’s now grown to what it is today. They are not all new. Many have come from charity shops and second-hand record shops and record fairs. I’ve had a couple of bulk acquisitions, including when my father, a passionate life-long rock fan, unexpectedly died back in 2007.

The filing system

For many years I just used to keep my CDs in alphabetical order. When I had merely a couple of hundred it was the easiest way of finding what I wanted. But as my collection grew I found I spent more and more time browsing to decide what I fancied putting on. I rearranged everything into a rough and ready series of genres. Given my varied musical tastes this is particularly handy as it means I can browse through the shelves according to my mood, depending on whether I’m in a folk mood or a heavy metal mood or whatever.

A walk through the sections

From left to right the subdivisions for each genre (and there’s no particular reason for them being in this order) are as follows:

Folk and acoustic – lots of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span plus numerous others artists spanning the late 50s folk revival and skiffle boom to the present day. The more mellow acoustic end of the singer-songwriter/Americana genre is also included here. It’s mainly all about me being able to browse according to mood so I certainly don’t get hung up on what constitutes ‘folk’.

Heavy metal – pretty self-explanatory and includes everything from AC/DC to Black Sabbath to Motorhead, plus a growing collection of ‘New Wave Of Classic Rock’ releases. Again, I don’t get hung up on precise definitions: if it’s loud with plenty of guitar solos I know I’ll find it in here.

50s rock and roll and traditional blues – from Chuck Berry to Little Richard and from B.B. King to Muddy Waters they are all kept together here. A nicely growing part of my collection and some great charity shop finds.

General rock and miscellaneous – this is basically my ‘everything else’ section for stuff that hasn’t been put into a special category of its own. It includes the likes of the Beach Boys, Santana and Status Quo along with anything from a genre that hasn’t got its own section. I’ve not got a reggae collection but do have a handful of CDs by the great Bob Marley. They go in here, along with Sandy Shaw and Dusty Springfield.

Prog – from the Moody Blues and Pink Floyd to Barclay James Harvest and Yes, it’s all in here.

Punk and New Wave – back in the day I never really bought much in the way of punk or new wave artists but over time and through lots of great charity shop purchases I’ve built up a nice little collection including Blondie, the Clash, the Stranglers et al.

We now head down the hallway and into the spare room where I’ve recently set up another set of matching second-hand Ikea shelving units. They are far from full at the moment so some of them are just used for DVD’s, notepads, and bits of pieces of home-office life until my collection grows. The first two units are full though and contains the following:

Brit-pop and Indie – Blur, James, the Las, Supergrass et al are all in here. I bought a handful of these CDs when they originally came out. I was an enthusiastic Supergrass fan from the get-go – but many I’ve been able to buy for next to nothing from charity shops as all the 40-somethings dispense with their CD collections and switch to digital or vinyl or whatever else the cool people buy these days.

Glam rock – anyone who has had more than a glance at this blog will be aware of my passion for all things glam. It’s not really my era. I was only six when the Sweet’s ‘Blockbuster’ and Slade’s ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ came out but by my early teens I was absolutely hooked, courtesy of Slade’s early 80s revival and many second-hand discoveries at Preston’s Action Records. As well as Slade and Sweet there’s the Glitter Band, Hello, Mud, T. Rex et al all filed here.

Frequently asked questions

Where do you get your shelves from? The first few I bought brand new from Ikea. All the subsequent ones have been picked up second-hand to match. It’s as easy to buy second-hand Ikea CD shelves for next to nothing these days as it is to buy CDs.

How do you file your CDs within each genre? Alphabetically by artist surname or band name and in original release date order for each artist with any compilations at the end. However, I do also make use of a bit of pragmatic grouping if an artist who is mainly involved with a band also releases a solo album. Mick Jagger’s She’s The Boss is under ‘R’ for the Rolling Stones, for example, not ‘J’ for Jagger.

Why do you like CDs so much? Read this

Further reading:

The changing demographics behind charity shop CDs

In praise of the CD: Seven reasons why CDs are my favourite music format ever