My music library has around 1,000 songs (mostly Tamil and Hindi, with some Telugu and English film songs).
I spent this morning tagging them by year with mp3tag. (Manually. You don’t automate the pleasures of life.)
I thought my 1990s collection would be the largest. I was in college, listening to lots of music then. But surprisingly, my collection has grown post the 1990s.
I have 3 guesses why.
- Recency bias. I re-built this collection recently. Maybe I forgot older songs?
- Digitization bias. Maybe I listened to more songs as the cost of transmission/storage fell?
- Worsening standards. Maybe I used to be choosier about music?
Though I’m not sure of the above, there’s another interesting anomaly.
There is a spike in the 1960s.
I don’t need to guess this one. I know why. Those are the songs my parents liked. I grew up hearing them.
The oldest song Tamil song is from Thiruneelakantar (1939). It’s from my father’s collection. I’ve heard it often enough to still enjoy it.
The oldest Hindi song is from Jaal (1952). He has a fondness for Dev Anand’s songs. So do I. This one is a beauty.
The oldest Tamil song my mother introduced me to is from Parasakthi (1952). She used to dance to this song when young.
The earliest Hindi song she introduced me to was from Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955). It’s the song I grew up on, and it’s still among my favorites. What a melody!
My wife prefers newer songs. But I have low standards and few preferences. It makes my life rather happy.
So, in celebration of Make Music Day on 21 June, I’m treating myself to 2 weeks of my collection from the 1960s!
PS: My full collection is at https://gist.github.com/sanand0/877637165b17239aa27beac03749c9a6