Style guidelines updated on staging server

[Tom Hull]

Robert Kaye wrote:
> 
> http://musicbrainz.eorbit.net/style.html

Style Guidelines:

> 1. Use a colon : to seperate parts of a title
>      Ray Charles: The Early Years

s/seperate/separate/

I don't think the example is an example of this. We're talking about
titles: subtitles. E.g., Etta James:

  Tell Mama: The Complete Muscle Shoals Sessions

There are also series titles (most annoyingly, "20th Century Masters:
The Millennium Collection"), which may or may not be distinct from the
title (e.g., Capitol's "Vintage Collection" series, or its previous
"Capitol Collectors Series"). Sometimes the spine helps out here. For
example, the spine says:

  Blues Masters, Volume 12: Memphis Blues

rather than:

  Memphis Blues: Blues Masters, Volume 12

Then again sometimes the spine says something completely different:
I have a Ruby Braff record on RCA with completely different titles
on cover and spine.

Sorry this isn't very constructive. I just don't know any algorithm
for sorting out record titles.

> 4. When two artists collaborate on an album, file the album under
>    the primary artist, and then append the name of the secondary
>    artist to the name of the album as follows: 
>      The Green Album (feat. Kate Bush) 

Two problems here: what is a collaboration, and what "feat." means.

 1) I've usually treated collaborations as separate artist entries,
    then tried to cross-reference the artists. If you treat "Willie
    Nelson & Webb Pierce: In the Jailhouse Now" as "Willie Nelson:
    In the Jailhouse Now (feat. Webb Pierce)" you short-change Webb,
    who provided all the songs and most of the substance; OTOH, it's
    Willie's record contract and studio time, marketability, and
    dominant vocals that make the record work.

 2) The most common use of "Featuring" in artist names occurs in the
    case of a standout or breakout solo star within a group (i.e.,
    not a collaboration but something more like, well, featuring):

      Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan
      Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes Featuring Teddy Pendergrass

    Many of these cases wind up being applied after the fact.

The problem with refactoring the artist names, of course, is that
you wind up having to cross-reference, and you run into a lot of
noise (e.g., "Ani DiFranco & Utah Phillips" vs. "Utah Phillips &
Ani DiFranco"). But burying the information in the title has got
to be worse.


-- 
/*
 *  Tom Hull * thull at kscable.com * http://www.tomhull.com/
 */
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