Every so often I find some time to dig through my digital music library. A while back, I deleted my iTunes library (alas, bloated and slow; come on Apple!) — but not the music source files — and have been sorting through (e.g. must-listen, save-for-someday, mashups, one-hit-wonders, exotic/strange/novelty, vintage), weeding out (no tags = delete!) and adding back to iTunes some favorite and forgotten files from my two 500GB hard drives.

A moment of listening to various songs can evoke vivid memories and take me back to former ‘chapters’ in my life. I’ve noticed that certain music delineates into distinct segments:

1. My pre-teen and early teen years (late elementary and middle school):
   Billy Joel, Journey, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Lionel Ritchie, Men at Work, Michael Jackson, dance and electro by Herbie Hancock and Afrika Bambaataa.
2. My mid teens (early high school): U2, The Smithereens, Agent Orange, The Alarm, INXS, The Call, Genesis, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Vangelis, Prince, The Police.
3. My late teens (later high school): The Cure, R.E.M., Depeche Mode, New Order/Joy Division, Erasure, Clan of Xymox, Dead Can Dance and other 4ad artists, Yaz, Cabaret Voltaire, Violent Femmes, The Smiths, numerous ‘college rock’ and acid house artists.
4. My early twenties (college): Meat Beat Manifesto, Front 242, My Bloody Valentine, The Wolfgang Press, Harold Budd & Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Cocteau Twins, Hugo Largo, Bel Canto, numerous alternative, new age and ambient artists.
5. My mid and late twenties: The Orb, Orbital, Biosphere, Michael Brook, Olive, Blur, Future Sound of London, Insides, Autechre/Gescom, Aphex Twin/Polygon Window, B12, LFO, Black Dog, Warp Records artists, Galaxie 500, The Spinanes, Lou Barlow/Sebadoh, Portishead, Abra Moore, Roger Eno, LTJ Bukem, Mouse on Mars, Neotropic, Cardigans, Lamb, Hooverphonic, Funkstorung, Richard H. Kirk/Electronic Eye/Sandoz, Kruder & Dorfmeister, numerous IDM, big beat and bhangra artists.
6. My early thirties: Boards of Canada, Faithless, Amon Tobin, Blonde Redhead, Cat Power, Miles Davis, Joseph Arthur, Plaid, Lemon Jelly, Zero 7, Bent, Air, Arovane, Cinematic Orchestra, Thievery Corporation, Kid Koala, Ninja Tunes artists, Monolake, Tara Jane O’Neil, Hem, Ladytron, Lali Puna, numerous chill-out/lounge/trip-hop and indie artists.
7. My mid thirties: knock-yourself-out, snoop.

Notably, certain ‘one-hit wonders’ evoke the most vivid memories — possibly because I listened to the hell out of and then promptly forgot about them. Now that almost everything I listen to is digital (minus the records in our basement lounge) via iPods, home and work computers, the boundaries seem to have dissolved. Perhaps in hindsight patterns will emerge…