Talk:Michigan State University Spartan Marching Band

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Former featured topic candidate Michigan State University Spartan Marching Band is part of the Michigan State University series, a former featured topic candidate. Please view its sub-page to see why the nomination failed. Once the objections have been addressed you may resubmit the topic for featured topic status.
Michigan State University Spartan Marching Band was a good article nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There are suggestions below for improving the article. Once these are addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Reviewed version: April 26, 2007
Articles for deletion This article was nominated for deletion on June 21, 2007. The result of the discussion was Speedy keep.

Contents

[edit] Major Revision

Thanks to AStudent for an excellent job on getting this page started. A made a few edits today. I'm new to wiki so I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes here.

  • Corrected the "instrumentation" section
  • Added the "facts & figures" section
  • Added detail to the "traditions" section
  • Added info box

Since this is a wiki page and not a full-blown website, I propose that we cut way down on the lengthy "history" section and eliminate the "bowl games" section (which is covered in one bullet under "facts & figures").

When I get a bit of time, I'll upload some pictures and sound files.

Brad Halls 04:49, 28 March 2006 (UTC)Brad Halls (SpartanBand.net webmaster)


Just FYI - you totally forgot about the color guard. We're just as much a part of the band as anyone else! :-D

[edit] Color Guard

If you're talking about the "instrumentation" section, I would tend to agree. Even though the color guard doesn't play "instruments", we should probably have everyone included here. So how many people are in the color guard "block" nowadays?

Brad Halls 17:05, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

  • I think that the figures specifically relate to how many members are the in pregame block, since the size of the colorguard varies every year someone toss out a range ~30? 141.217.221.212 02:31, 22 July 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Traditions

Moved traditions into subcatagories, expanded other parts of the article further. Could use some more pictures, especially some of the higher quality, sunny, gameday pictures (silver, grass, and blue sky look wonderful!). AStudent 09:45, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Band Day

Corrected the section on Band Day, which stated that it "typically happened on Saturday mornings when there was an away football game." Not so. I marched in Band Day 1983-1987 (and SMB 1988-1991) and they were all home games — either early in the season when the SMB was not yet finished with Pre-Season, or later in the season to give the SMB a much-deserved week off. Kevin Forsyth 23:05, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

  • I edited the section on band day as well. Previously, the article stated that band day ended in 1992, but I marched the final one in 2001. 71.65.0.226 04:45, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
  • I'd like to see a second source on that date. According to the Lansing State Journal,[1] it was 1992. Not that the LSJ is the best source, but in my opinion it beats an anonymous IP. Kevin Forsyth 00:15, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
    • I'm AStudent, I began this article and I marched SMB from 2001-2005. My freshman year (2001) was the last year that they held band day in Spartan Stadium. In 2002, they reverted to Natural Grass and didn't want the extra wear and tear on it. It ended in 2001. AStudent 06:48, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Just some suggestions

It would be nice to have a "history" section near the beginning of the article, and have some references/cites on many of the claims made throughout the article. – Lordmontu (talk) • (contribs) 05:23, 9 April 2007 (UTC)


I think it might be wise to try to find additional sources for the article as well. There is only one source for the entire article, which seems a little suspect. Also, there are are many comments which appear to be boosterism and do not necessarily adhere to WP:NPOV. If they were sourced, it might not come across that way. In particular, I noted:

  • "the 300 member SMB has since grown into one of the premier college bands in the nation."
  • "Membership in the Spartan Marching Band requires a tremendous time commitment"
  • "Gaining membership in the SMB is highly competitive"
  • "The Spartan Marching Band instrumentation of "all brass and sax" is unique to college bands in the United States"

The article reads well -- I think if you can source it adequately it will be a good article. Karanacs 18:45, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

The article would have an easier time in the present AFD if someone would fix the band website, which was the only source, and is broken. The last snapshot of it is from May 15, 2006, and apparently the university left it up to the band website to present all info about the band. The links in the copy of the website at Wayback do not work. Did MSU or the band forget to pay the annual fee for the domain name? Without it the history links are missing. I added some articles from the Detroit paper, but as is no one would know there was ever a conductor named Falcone. At a college library there is probably a clipping file which would allow a well documented historical section. There is also probably a history in the historical books about the college. Edison 22:41, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

The article at the moment reads quite a bit like a course syllabus:

  • "Marching Band is a 1 credit "pass/fail" class (MUS 114) that students must pay to enroll in."
  • "All members are expected to have their music memorized by Thursday of the week of the game."

I remember similar language being used in the syllabi for my band. In any case, such statements would better serve those browsing the band's own website. The various traditions are interesting, but the brief "Facts & Figures"—upon expansion—would itself be what I consider an ideal article. — Nahum Reduta [talk|contribs] 18:23, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Failed GA

I'm failing this article for GA status. It's nearly completely unreferenced, and the Facts & Figures section looks like trivia and should be merged into the main article text and converted to prose. ShadowHalo 19:13, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Significance

I see no significance to this article. I think there should be a {{Template:Db-club}} tag. Bassgoonist 18:48, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

The Spartan Marching Band is highly visible at Michigan State sporting events, has published recordings, and was awarded the Sudler Trophy. It's very clearly not a canidate for speedy deletion. -- Upholder 19:15, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
This has been discussed for many marching band pages, and I personally think there is really no significance. It only has one source, that isn't even accessible anymore. With only once source of info, a source published by officials of the organization itself, I really see no claim of significance. Bassgoonist 19:21, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
There is a difference between being non-notable and the article not being completely sourced. Speedy deletion is not an option for articles that are about notable subjects where the article being sourced to the desired level. Regardless, the AfD process will sort things out now. -- Upholder 19:54, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
Bassgoonist, rather than trying to delete an article about a well known college band because you don't like marching bands, how about looking for references? It took a few minutes to find dozens of articles in the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, a few of which I added. Please read the Wikipedia polisies for deletion, and do not make unfounded nominations. Edison 22:45, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
I did read them, and I stand by my decision to nominate it for deletion. I have nothing against this marching band, or any other marching band for that matter. If you really want to call my intentions into question I would appreciate it if you'd do it in a more private manner than publicly trying to discredit me for no reason. Bassgoonist 00:24, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
So how did that work out for you? 24.233.142.246 (talk) 06:49, 8 April 2008 (UTC)