Re: arsclist record collecting

[k mcbain <fu.manchu@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 17:25 04/03/2001 -0600, Karl Miller wrote

> I would suggest you do some reading on a mild form of autism, I believe it
> is called aspergers or asbergers syndrome. .. At any
> rate, I have observed these symptoms in record collectors, and in many of
> my fellow librarians.

its interesting that you say that. i have only just read an article that 
suggests that this form of autism is now found in 10 times as many people 
as it was in the 1950s......
withdrawing into your own little world, being largely unsociable and 
fixating upon an area of study or a single thing - these symptoms are 
indeed also characteristic of hard-core collectors. I am however, in no way 
qualified to compare the two...

For many of the true collectors I have interviewed, collecting seems like a 
full-time occupation (for those not actually in the business of collecting) 
and, if they are not yet retired, it will take up as much of their leisure 
time as is possible.

on 05/03 Patrick Feaster wrote

>An accumulator acquires records
>indiscriminately. A collector seeks out specific items. There are of
>course many gradations between these two extremes, but a "collection" is
>understood as representing some degree of connoisseurship.

naturally i have met numerous people who fall rather more towards the 
middle of this continuum. I have also met so-called collectors who really 
show very little knowledge about their collections, aside from knowing that 
an item was in The Top Ten for example. the collection here does seem more 
like a status symbol. Whilst I know that all collections, embodying the 
self and all that, can and do act as signs, there is definitely an element 
of 'consume for the sake of consuming' - and in this way i guess they are 
mere accumulators.

When I was younger, there started a craze for DJ-ing. Dance music was big, 
everyone could get their hands on a set of turntables and become a star.
To be a fully fledged 'member' of this DJ culture, to be serious, you had 
to spend (and people still do) about £100 per week, acquiring the newest 
releases (of which there would only be a run of about 200), releases that 
were either on white labels (and meant that you would pretty much be the 
only one in your area with it) or were re-released the following week 
re-mixed. You were either fully committed to participating in this practice 
or not at all...all or nothing.

i am sure that this kind of panic buying occurred throughout the 50s and 
60s with Rock n' Roll, although surely you would have accrued more kudos 
from being in a band or having a radio show or something (i apologise for 
my ignorance here). DJ culture - and not even in the original sense - seems 
to have taken hold....latched onto a consumer society built on 
ever-changing trends and fashions. To own a collection of 12" is to know 
music. possession of the carrier seems to provide its owner with the 
appearance (and self-assumed) knowledge about that genre.

its a funny old world.
kate