Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Music

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Manual of Style

	This page falls within the scope of the Wikipedia:Manual of Style, a collaborative effort focused on enhancing clarity, consistency, and cohesiveness across the Manual of Style (MoS) guidelines by addressing inconsistencies, refining language, and integrating guidance effectively.Manual of StyleWikipedia:WikiProject Manual of StyleTemplate:WikiProject Manual of StyleManual of Style
	This page falls under the contentious topics procedure and is given additional attention, as it closely associated to the English Wikipedia Manual of Style, and the article titles policy. Both areas are subjects of debate. Contributors are urged to review the awareness criteria carefully and exercise caution when editing.
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Personnel listing on albums

Assuming this is the right place to mention this. I'm sort of curious since I've seen it on some articles but not on others; why do Personnel lists on some albums use ''' to separate personnel instead of ====? I went to check this page to see if it was a MOS thing, but it appears to not be, so I'm stumped. Neo Purgatorio (talk) 18:12, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If it's about presentation, it's a MOS thing. Very basically pseudo headings are used when editors decide they should be (we have discretion about almost everything). They don't appear in the Table of Contents and offer no natural target for browsers, but give readers a heading-like indicator. If there has ever been a discussion about this specific concern, it may have resulted in a forgotten decision or none. If there's nothing written in stone about what should be done with personnelle, but there's a clear common style in current use, defer to that (it's natural consensus), and if it's mostly one way, with a relatively few outliers, it could be worth drafting guidelines based on the common style. Fred Gandt · talk · contribs 20:30, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Seconding everything Fred said. Worth clarifying the usefulness of pseudoheaders in keeping from flooding the TOC. As an example, I recently created Everyone's Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, where all the personnel are separately listed track-by-track. If I had used === instead, there would be 16 additional headers and the TOC would be longer than the infobox. In cases like this, I find preservation of space to be preferable. There is also the option of {{TOC limit}}, but I wouldn't use it in that article because it could interfere with other level 3 headings that I/other editors may want to apply later as they become relevant. As for a guideline, I think MOS:PSEUDOHEAD does a good job of getting this across already. QuietHere (talk | contributions) 04:57, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Classical music titles

Maybe I'm easily confused or going blind, but aren't there a lot of words capitalized that should be lowercase, in the section "Classical music titles", even in the examples? TooManyFingers (talk) 05:14, 7 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you're referring to the generic examples (Piano Concerto No. 5, Sixth Symphony, Requiem), those are titles of works, so I don't see why they wouldn't be capitalized. It'd be the same as an album called Album or The Album. And if that's not what you meant, then please clarify, because I don't see anything else I would consider amiss in that section. QuietHere (talk | contributions) 14:01, 7 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I was confused because I didn't read some of the material correctly. It was all fine already. TooManyFingers (talk) 08:25, 8 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

THEBAND rule - reasoning?

The current rule mandates e.g. "it was the Beatles' first album" rather than "it was The Beatles' first album". This goes against the common writing style I've read in newspapers, books, etc. for many years. (I pay attention to these things, have studied some linguistics, and read Fowler's grammar etc.) How was this wiki rule chosen? 2A00:23C5:FE1C:3701:A5E9:B57F:509D:732E (talk) 13:32, 30 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It was decided following an epic debate in 2012. It was even covered by the Wall Street Journal. If anyone is interested in my own nerdy thoughts on the subject, here they are. Popcornfud (talk) 13:48, 30 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Agree, see lowercase more often than not in books, although new Steven Hyden Springsteen book uses "The" style. Caro7200 (talk) 13:56, 30 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, the IP above is wrong that the upper-case style is more common. In my library of Beatles books, I'd say the mid-sentence lower-case style is more common by a ten-to-one ratio, at least. Tkbrett (✉) 14:22, 30 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Upgrading MOS:ALBUM to an official style guideline

I dropped this notice at the main WikiProject Music talk as well, but thought some eyes here might be different and appreciate the notice. At Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Albums/Album_article_style_advice#Upgrade_MOS:ALBUM_to_an_official_guideline, I have proposed making MOS:ALBUM an official style guideline, as currently it is only an essay. Feedback is welcome!--3family6 (Talk to me | See what I have done) 22:04, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]