We're trying to get it sorted: -
What was your name again?
20/11/2015
I have noticed of late that a grand old tradition from the days of my education is gradually being ousted by those whose knowledge of it is trumped by the tools they are constrained to use. I refer to the practice of Alphabetical sorting by Surname in the Music sphere.
I have bought a lot of CDs in the last three years, since I stopped spending money to buy drinks. The shop I have bought the most from is called The Warehouse, a palace of plentiful and cheap Chinese manufactured goods. (See "My Warehouse CD stats" at Right) They sell music CDs, but with a limited range of releases. The number of compilation titles would easily approach the number of single-artist releases. You can see from the menu at right that music is not one of their high-profile items. They have been stocking some great compilations from mostly EU sources which I consider good buys. I have already looked at value in two previous posts, What Have I Got And What Have I Not?, and "What Have I Got And What Have I Not?" Answered. These compilations are usually shelved in random order, and must be browsed through in search of bargains. It wouldn't surprise me if this is a policy of the store, on the basis that psychologically, shoppers feel greater satisfaction with a bargain if they have spent a little effort and can congratulate themselves for finding it. Then again, perhaps the mark-up is so low it is not worth paying someone to place them and keep them in order. Or maybe, just maybe, it is TOO HARD TO DECIDE THE ORDER. |
Full-price CDs, a mixture of recent releases and perennial sellers, are shelved on racks marked with capital letters in alphabetical order. Having browsed their shelves infrequently but regularly, I could hardly fail to notice that at first occasionally, and then with greater frequency, and now most of the time: -
The staff shelve CDs in Alphabetical Order of First Letter of the Part Naming the Artist. That is to say: - Amy Winehouse is under "A" Bruce Springsteen is under "B" Dusty Springfield is under "D" Katy Perry is under "K" Ricky Martin is under "R" I began by thinking this was a consequence of ignorance, and the failure of the Modern Education System, but with more thought I have reached a more charitable explanation. The staff will be constrained by a computer system that has a single "Artist Name" field, rather than two fields, "First Name" and "Last Name". Thus any sorts done in the system will always be in order of the first character of whatever appears in the Artist Name field, be it:- |
My Warehouse CD stats
Year Package Bought Quantity 2013 32 2014 43 2015 47 Package Package Disc Type Quantity Quantity Singles 33 33 Doubles 42 84 Triples 34 102 Fours 4 16 Fives 3 15 Tens 6 60 Singles approx $8/disc Multis approx $5/disc |
First Name: A for Ariana Grande
Only name: A for Adele Initial/s: J for J Cole Adjectival name: L for Lil Wayne (His apostrophe's gone AWOL, LOL) Surname: M for Mumford and Sons Stage Name: P for Pitbull A Number: 2 for 2 Chainz Group Name: L for Little Big Town Not to mention the current fashion for every second release to be by one Artist "ft." another Artist. Ref. YouTube this very minute, 5 of the first 8 offered as "Top Tracks – New Zealand by #Music": - Pia Mia - Do It Again ft. Chris Brown, Tyga; DJ Khaled - Gold Slugs (Official Video) ft. Chris Meek Mill Ft. Nicki Minaj & Chris Brown - All Eyes On You; Missy Elliott - WTF (Where They From) ft. Pharrell); Wakhra Swag | Official Video | Navv Inder feat. Badshah YouTube can't even decide if it's Artist - Title - Featuring, or Artist - Featuring - Title In the face of such variety it is not surprising that the Surname sort is dying a natural death. Usually pedantic Record Cataloging site Discogs follows this trend as well, for the same computing reason. I guess it had to come; I remember the first glimmerings in 1966 when the rot of modernity appeared in the form of a band awkwardly named "? & The Mysterians" with their hit "96 Tears", confounding DJs and list-makers everywhere with uncertain pronunciation and a label featuring two non-alphabetic characters and two digits! The poor incomprehending record company had to explain it all in brackets on the record label (see Right). |
Try sorting these!
|
For the twenty top selling CDs as listed on their website, The Warehouse has entirely abandoned the Artist for a list in Alphabetical Order of Title: - (Don't be confused, the first two are actually titled "1" and "25"!)
Top 20 Sellers
1 CD/DVD The Beatles
25 CD Adele
All Time Greatest Hits CD Neil Diamond
Bays CD Fat Freddys Drop (I note Fat Freddy's dropped his apostrophe!)
Cinema (Deluxe Edition) CD Andrea Bocelli
Dark Sky Island CD Enya
Hits For Kids 2015 CD Various Artists
How Great Thou Art The Very Best of CD Sir Howard Morrison
If I can Dream with Philharmonic Orchestra CD Elvis Presley
In The Lonely Hour Drowning Shadows CD Sam Smith
Made In The AM (Deluxe Edition) CD One Direction
Maori Songbook 2 CD Dennis Marsh
Now Volume 49 Various Artists
On Another Note CD Sol3 Mio
Pop For Tots 2 CD Various Artists
Purpose (Deluxe Edition) CD Justin Bieber
Ten Guitars Heartland 3 CD Various Artists
The Very Best of Cilla Black CD/DVD Cilla Black
Welcome To My World The Very Best of CD John Hore Grenell
X Wembley Edition CD/DVD Ed Sheeran
You could think they should be in order of popularity, but that might involve actually measuring something.
Other Warehouse web pages are by Genre, and appear by default sorted by Title, but you can choose to sort by "Author/Artist: A to Z", or even "Author/Artist: Z to A".
When you do, you find the same sort by First Character, so that in Country, Alan Jackson comes after Alabama, and before Alison Durbin.
For an amusing exchange of views on sorting recordings in general see this Forum thread "question about organizing your collection at home" at the Discogs site.
Top 20 Sellers
1 CD/DVD The Beatles
25 CD Adele
All Time Greatest Hits CD Neil Diamond
Bays CD Fat Freddys Drop (I note Fat Freddy's dropped his apostrophe!)
Cinema (Deluxe Edition) CD Andrea Bocelli
Dark Sky Island CD Enya
Hits For Kids 2015 CD Various Artists
How Great Thou Art The Very Best of CD Sir Howard Morrison
If I can Dream with Philharmonic Orchestra CD Elvis Presley
In The Lonely Hour Drowning Shadows CD Sam Smith
Made In The AM (Deluxe Edition) CD One Direction
Maori Songbook 2 CD Dennis Marsh
Now Volume 49 Various Artists
On Another Note CD Sol3 Mio
Pop For Tots 2 CD Various Artists
Purpose (Deluxe Edition) CD Justin Bieber
Ten Guitars Heartland 3 CD Various Artists
The Very Best of Cilla Black CD/DVD Cilla Black
Welcome To My World The Very Best of CD John Hore Grenell
X Wembley Edition CD/DVD Ed Sheeran
You could think they should be in order of popularity, but that might involve actually measuring something.
Other Warehouse web pages are by Genre, and appear by default sorted by Title, but you can choose to sort by "Author/Artist: A to Z", or even "Author/Artist: Z to A".
When you do, you find the same sort by First Character, so that in Country, Alan Jackson comes after Alabama, and before Alison Durbin.
For an amusing exchange of views on sorting recordings in general see this Forum thread "question about organizing your collection at home" at the Discogs site.
The problem of "The": A small article about the small article "the".
Another sign of the computer-generated confusion of current practice in sorting is that the previously ignored article, "The", is now included in the sort, so that with Rock & Metal sorted by "Author/Artist: A to Z" we find The Allman Brothers and The Strokes both together under "T"; and with sort by "Title: A-Z" we find Tempest by Bob Dylan on the same page as The Beatles Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. (Sold Out, incidentally, after 48 years it is still selling!)
Now don't tell me no-one cares about "The" any more, because I own a music cataloging program, and the associated Collectorz website has a page showing that they deal with this issue, and offer a choice to have the computer sort either with or without "The".
It also has the ability lacking at Discogs; separate fields for First Name, Last Name, Article, and a Display Name, so that an artist can be displayed as "Screaming Jay Hawkins", but still sort under "H" for his surname Hawkins.
"The" also gets discussed in this thread "Articles Preceding Non-Article Portion of Artist Name" at Discogs. I had to laugh about "The The".
Discogs, perhaps most likely of sites to actively have rules on this matter, has a whole page devoted to the intricacies of listing an Artist Name.
Now don't tell me no-one cares about "The" any more, because I own a music cataloging program, and the associated Collectorz website has a page showing that they deal with this issue, and offer a choice to have the computer sort either with or without "The".
It also has the ability lacking at Discogs; separate fields for First Name, Last Name, Article, and a Display Name, so that an artist can be displayed as "Screaming Jay Hawkins", but still sort under "H" for his surname Hawkins.
"The" also gets discussed in this thread "Articles Preceding Non-Article Portion of Artist Name" at Discogs. I had to laugh about "The The".
Discogs, perhaps most likely of sites to actively have rules on this matter, has a whole page devoted to the intricacies of listing an Artist Name.
Oh well, at last one of my old pet peeves will be alleviated; now people shelving Jethro Tull will get it right, shelving them under "J", instead of incorrectly shelving them under "T"; because they are not a person, Mr Tull, but a group "Jethro Tull".
(Even if they are actually named after a real person, Jethro Tull (agriculturist), (1674 – 1741))
(Even if they are actually named after a real person, Jethro Tull (agriculturist), (1674 – 1741))