[mb-style] Should we change Classical Rules?

[Christopher Aillon]

Thanks for starting this davitor.  It wasn't exactly what I intended, 
though.  Let me explain further.

I don't want to strip Bach of credit on the album.  The way I propose 
it, the release will still show up in his artist page.  I want to have 
the album artist as Hilary Hahn and each track attributed to J.S. Bach. 
  This way, Bach still gets credit for the album directly on his page, 
and Hilary Hahn also gets the credit she deserves.  Both artists get 
credit on their pages and that's the way it really should be.  We can 
sit here and argue who the "artist" is per any number of guidelines, but 
the fact of the matter is Hilary Hahn put forth the effort to release 
this album.  Bach may have written the music, and thus, should be 
credited for each track, but he didn't put the album together.  That 
credit deserves to go to Hilary Hahn.  The album will then show on both 
artist pages.  That seems like a very obvious win.

Also, there is precendence.  See some cover albums by e.g. Sheryl Crow 
[1], or Cat Power [2].  Those artists didn't compose the work, but they 
still get credit for it on the album.  Not to mention all the other pop 
stars that don't even write their own music, but simply sing it.

It seems to be that the MusicBrainz guidelines are very pejorative 
toward classical performers in stripping them of credit they deserve. 
People listen to more popular music, not classical which is already a 
tremendous burden to classical performers.  It shouldn't be a penalty 
for receiving album credit on albums they clearly create.  They don't 
put their name on there in big letters for staring at.


[1] http://musicbrainz.org/album/6b120762-5d4d-42a9-8882-4f5888f3bb3c.html
[2] http://musicbrainz.org/album/04d583be-95b7-42b9-aaa5-500b36b4b8d8.html