Introduction to the album project

Sometime last year I got this crazy idea to blog all of the music in my collection. Crazy, because I have over 1000 titles overall (I haven't counted in a while), and at the glacial pace at which I write, it's a project that will likely stretch over several years. Another matter I was wondering about was whether people would care to read what I had to say on the artists and music, but the interest people have shown in my other music posts has helped to ease that concern.

There are several reasons I've decided to take this project on. One reason is to collect all the thoughts I have about music in one place. There are a lot of discs I have that I haven't listened to in ages, and I've changed opinions on a number of artists over time. Other bloggers have asked me opinions on matters I haven't given much thought to since I was young and brash - like the greatest song of all time, or the top 100 songs. This project will help settle those questions for me, and hopefully you'll find it interesting as well. There are other opinions I've stated over time - such as why Fairport Convention is a great overlooked band, why the Moody Blues are overrated, or why I'd rather be waterboarded than attend a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert - and this project will help you understand how I've come to those opinions.

There are some other reasons for doing this that don't have so much to do with music. As I've stated recently, the world that I grew up in is slowly fading away, and I'd like to recall some of that world with this little piece of cyber-real estate. I hope that this project spurs older readers to recall some of their stories from those times, and helps give younger readers a sense of what coming of age in the 70's and early 80's was all about. From a blogging standpoint, I hope that having something regular to write about establishes a groove for me that will help me to write on more serious subjects. Election time has arrived, and this is a way for me to get into a regular writing habit that will make it easier to take on other subjects. Perhaps this project will also help to build upon the base of readers I have; maybe people will start coming around to see what's next in my collection.

I don't really have any set format in mind apart from going down the line in alphabetical order and writing whatever comes to mind on the album, whether it be stories I know about the artist, personal recollections, great songs, and so forth. I also plan to link video clips whenever appropriate. Some albums and artists I have more to say about than others. Most of the time I plan to do one post per week that will knock down several titles. The artists I have a lot to say about, I plan to go to two or three posts per week to keep the pace from bogging down. Other than that, I have no set rules at this point.

The first post should be up in the next 2-3 days, unless Barack Obama distracts me. It's a long way from AC/DC to ZZ Top, and it promises to be quite a journey.