Unfortunately, for all those masses of music I consumed, I’m left with a sour taste. I was deeply depressed and destructive for most of my teenage years, doing cruel things to myself and anyone around me. And all the while I was listening to every piece of music I could get my fingers on, which means that everything in my iTunes has been tainted. I think everyone finds music emotive, but I find being transported without any control very disconcerting. Led Zeppelin, Massive Attack, freaking Mika, The Police, Finley Quay, Tracy Chaplin, Bob Marley. All of it makes me feel something akin to nostalgia, but it isn’t sweet, it’s like a clenching of the stomach. There’s music in there that I desperately want to hear again, like Tu Pac or 36 Crazy Fists, but I just can’t. (Ok, admittedly the latter is pretty emotionally-fueled).
Also, a practical issue with my iTunes library is that I have to keep it on a separate hard drive as I haven’t yet owned a computer that is big enough or fast enough for all my music. This means I have to plug in my giant, old, excessively wired Seagate every time I want to listen to music. Seeing as I’ve been moving around since I was like, 17/18, I haven’t consistently had music in my life because my music is so damn cumbersome. So I’ve had the bright idea of deleting it all. Over ten years of music collection. I swapped to buying my music legally when I was 18 and so I have perhaps one gb of Apple certified songs on my iPhone, and I’ve been using the Tubiddy app (which makes Youtube more iPhone friendly). I’ve survived for like five years now without hearing The OC Soundtrack at the click of a button, so why not just take the next logical step and free up that hard drive for something I actually use, and that gives me pleasure – photography. Currently my pictures are distributed across so many platforms – Hubic, iCloud, Google Docs, two small hard drives, a handful of USBs, and SD cards. They need a home and I can’t afford another hard drive.
I need some advice! Should I just revert to using Youtube and be done with it? Or am I mad to delete my precious music that is loyally, albeit painfully, entwined with my worst and best memories?
well the problem with music is this – you typically outgrow it. The larger your collection, the more likely you’ll stop listening to most of it because how can you find the time to listen to 1000’s of song? Youtube is a good option. If you can’t get a terabyte external drive to store it on – your options may be limited. I like Amazon because when I buy from them, you can download but it stays on their cloud, so you never lose all your music. There are cheap thumb drives now 16gig for 8-10 bucks but I have no idea how much space you are looking at here. I use 1 terabyte external drives. Good luck!
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I’m glad that what I’m saying doesn’t sound stupid! And it’s so true about not having the time to listen to the music. There’s so much more time for mooching around listening to music when you’re a kid.
Thanks for the advice, thumb drives could be useful!
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nah not stupid. i have so much music that I’ll probably just delete it all. *L* I like watching Youtube ‘live’ performances. Life changes, priorities change – that’s just the way it is… 🙂
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Very true. I bit the bullet and deleted nearly everything. I feel liberated!
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I’m hardly an IT expert MLA, just someone who grew up at the same time IT did!
You should keep the music or at least a list of it, just in case. I have a spare drive, it’s toughened and as shock proof as is practically possible. I also suggest you listen to some of the music we used to listen to in the car. xx
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That makes you an expert.
Yes, I was thinking of a list. What did we listen to in the car? I remember Blondie for sure xx
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Not an expert just unlucky :-).
Lots of Steely Dan, some Michelle Shocked, The Strangers, Stevie Wonder though for some reason you didn’t like that, some Supertramp, sure there were more if I recall any I’ll make sure you know. xx
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How are you not an expert! It’s your career!
Steely Dan! Totally forgot about them. Can’t listen to the strangers, listen to a lot of supertramp, will unearth Shocked to see what I think. Don’t remember liking her too much? Xxx
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Oh God. I remember Limewire. It was HIV for your computer 😱 I was downloading everything I could. Music and movies. But now days I never download anything 😨😱
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Me either! YouTube all the way
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Yes!! Thank God for youtube! BTW I hope it’s OK that I follow u on instagram? 😱
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Of course! 🙂
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Yay thank you 🙂
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I did a post on music and the memories it evokes also, but luckily most of my memories are positive ones. I think you did the right thing, both because so much of the music brought back bad feelings and also because I’m a natural purger! I am relentless about throwing things away, even though I’m also a sucker for nostalgia and old times. As you said, it feels liberating somehow.
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Yeah I felt complete relief once I did it! I kept a list of the music I don’t want to forget… But feels good to be free of the baggage!
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I know exactly how you feel. Music is a dangerous emotional weapon. A few years ago I did a major music purge and deleted a majority of what I was holding onto from my iTunes. I’m always careful when a new album comes out that I’m excited about NOT to listen to it during any difficult times.
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It *is* dangerous!! That’s such a good point – I should take heed and be careful not to make the same mistakes over again. Thanks for posting 🙂
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