Talk:The Junior Varsity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WikiProject Illinois This article is part of WikiProject Illinois, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Illinois on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Biography Portal
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
This article is supported by WikiProject Musicians, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed biographical guide to musicians and musical groups on Wikipedia.

[edit] CSD Notice

I just want to log a vote against deleting this article. The band is signed to Victory Records and has two releases on the label; Victory is one of the leading independent emo/punk labels. They have toured nationally several times and have a significant underground fan base (their MySpace page has 33,000 friends and over 350,000 hits). These factors should pass the Wikipedia notability criteria, no? This is an article that will eventually have to be rewritten if it is deleted. Chubbles1212 06:06, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Good point, can you provide any other references about size of fanbase? --Elonka 06:36, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

The Purevolume site has 522,000 hits. Chubbles1212 06:59, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Okay, it's been a few weeks, but this article still doesn't have anything like a credible source that proves notability. I'm proposing the article for deletion, but there are still a few days left to try and come up with something like reviews in a major publication, or sales figures or proof of a major award, per WP:MUSIC. --Elonka 01:46, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

I added a note about their recognition from SPIN magazine. How much more do you require? Being as they have released two albums on a highly touted independent label, and have national recognition in a major music press publication, it seems clear to me that this band is nowhere near A7. Chubbles1212 02:00, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Right, which is why I'm going with a prod instead of {{db-music}}. As for what I require, I'd like proof of notability. Just releasing the albums isn't enough, just touring isn't enough, unless you can show that they're selling out major stadiums or something. The SPIN magazine article helps, but "band of the day" doesn't necessarily prove notability in that context, which can be more of a, "Hey, here's a new band you may want to check out," kind of thing. Have they been written up anywhere else? Major accolades for their shows? Do they have a gold record? Have they won any awards? Anything like that would help. --Elonka 02:12, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

I am unable to speak to the relative notability of the following sites, as I don't read much online review literature. But a cursory search dredged up a ton of reviews of the band's latest album, some complimentary, some not: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

They also had a short writeup in Punk Planet, which is available online at http://www.punkplanet.com/reviews, but you have to search for it. (All of the reviews in the back of Punk Planet are short.) Chubbles1212 02:36, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

I just added more content, most of which is paraphrased from allmusic.com, about their live shows, critical reception, and a tribute album on which they appear. I also added a link directly to the allmusic writeup. This is something of a surreal experience - I originally came to this article looking for more information about the band, and then found myself needing to defend its very existence! I maintain that this band isn't chump change, that they have a significant nationwide following, and that their significance merits mention on the site. Chubbles1212 21:44, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

More for the bonfire - Here's a series of scans from Victory Record's website...four writeups from UK rock magazines about the band. [12] Chubbles1212 22:05, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] International attention

I've extended the prod for another 5 days to allow for collecting more information. Are there any sources which affirm that this band has had international acclaim? I took a look at the above links, but most of them seemed to be of the nature of saying that the band existed, but not that it was particularly acclaimed. I think we're getting close to "notability" level though. What else have you got that you think meets WP:MUSIC. Also, if you want, we could do away with the prod and go to a formal AfD (article for deletion) discussion, getting opinions from multiple other editors, but that's risky and could go either way at this point. --Elonka 23:09, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

The cited UK articles say the following: "This Illinois band make perfect pop-rock that's as influenced by Yes as it is by hallucinogenic drugs" (Metro UK article), "Bands like this are all too rare these days - fun bands that...can still write killer pop songs that create genuine smiles" (Kerrang review of Wide Eyed), "Victory seems to have hit gold again with the Junior Varsity" (Rock Sound review of Wide Eyed). That's pretty glowing from the UK press. The link to these writeups is cited in the article. I also linked to the allmusic writeup, which mentions the acclaim for their live shows in the Chicagoland area and the positive reviews for The Great Compromise.
So, I claim that the band fulfills the criteria for notability for the following reasons:
-They fulfill criterion 3, having gone on both several major national (Warped Tour, touring nationally with other bands mentioned on the page) and international (UK) tours.
-They fulfill criterion 4, for having released two albums on an important independent label, most of whose roster also has Wikipedia articles of their own.
-They fulfill criterion 5, for having been reviewed in a number of reputable music journals.
Chubbles1212 23:55, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I'm hoping that, by this point, the article can be considered properly sourced; it's got four links to external articles in the body of the text. Chubbles1212 00:24, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Ah, you've been listing the references inline, instead of down at the bottom of the article, that's what's been causing confusion. Could you please list all of the article's references, in a "References" section too? That way it makes it easy to quickly scan and see what's being used. --Elonka 19:34, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Much better, thanks! --Elonka 20:29, 16 November 2006 (UTC)