Wikipedia:WikiProject Songs

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Shortcuts: WP:SONG WP:SONGS WP:SINGLE

Music Portal

WikiProject Songs is a project intended to improve articles on songs. The goal is to make the song articles provide basic information in a quick and easy-to-read fashion. This project is based on WikiProject Albums, and uses similar templates. A lot of this project has been lifted directly from the Albums project. This project is not yet fully defined, so feel free to modify and clarify it.

[edit] Notability

Main article: Wikipedia:Notability (music)

Most songs do not merit an article and should redirect to another relevant article, such as for a prominent album or for the artist who wrote or prominently performed the song. Songs that have been ranked on national or significant music charts, that have won significant awards or honors or that have been performed independently by several notable artists, bands or groups are probably notable. A separate article is only appropriate when there is enough verifiable material to warrant a reasonably detailed article; permanent stubs should be merged to articles about an artist or album.

[edit] Articles for deletion archives

See also: Wikipedia:Centralized discussion/Lists of songs

The following previous discussions at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion may be useful:

• List of songs about weather (AfD discussion)
• Category:The Waterboys recordings (CfD discussion)
• Cheeseburger In Paradise (AfD discussion)
• List of songs with particularly long titles (AfD discussion)
• Box of Rain (AfD discussion)
• Bouncing Off The Ceiling (Upside Down) (AfD discussion)
• Gone Before It Happens (AfD discussion)
• The Playboy Mansion (song) (AfD discussion)
• It's nice to know you're here (AfD discussion)

[edit] Style

[edit] Naming

Song article titles should be named after the song, without quotation marks, for example, "Paranoid Android". If there is another article with that name use the format '<song name> (song)', for example, "Wonderwall (song)". If there is more than one song article with a title then disambiguate by putting the artist name in the title to make '<song name> (<artist name> song)', for example "Because (The Beatles song)".

[edit] Formatting

When creating any music articles remember that song and single titles go in quotation marks "like this" and album titles are italicised like this. The song title should be in boldface in the first sentence and in infobox chronologies, but the surrounding quotation marks should not be in boldface.

When linking to song articles, use piping to conceal the disambiguation terms, for example use the syntax "[[Because (The Beatles song)|Because]]", to make the link simply appear as "Because".

Also, although piping is normally discouraged on disambiguation pages, song and album titles are an exception:

• For a song, use double quotes with the syntax: [[Because (The Beatles song)|"Because" (The Beatles song)]], to format the title as: "Because" (The Beatles song).
• For an album, use pairs of single quotes with the syntax: [[Abbey Road (album)|''Abbey Road'' (album)]], to format the title as: Abbey Road (album).
• See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages) for details.

[edit] Capitalization

Further information: Wikipedia:WikiProject_Albums#Capitalization

[edit] Template

[edit] Project tag

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Songs, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to songs on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

Please add {{songs}} along with the importance and quality of the article. You can do this by putting |class=X (where X is Stub, Start, B, A, GA or FA) and |importance=X (where X is Low, Mid, High or Top). Note that the parameters and values are case sensitive. Very few song articles have been tagged with {{songs}}. Many articles still need to be graded based on quality.

Importance isn't currently implemented. Is this functionality required?

Please see Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment for explanation of terms. The project is currently rating articles based on their class for use by the Version 1.0 team and others, including this project itself. Importance is a parameter of potential use to the project itself, possibly in determining which articles are top contenders for future collaboration. However, as the specific importance of articles varies between projects, it is less of a priority right now than determining the quality of the articles which fall within the scope of this project.

[edit] Progress

Song articles		Importance
		None	Total
Quality
	FA	34	34
	A	3	3
	GA	100	100
	B	258	258
	Start	1556	1556
	Stub	15308	15308
	Assessed	17259	17259
	Unassessed	9675	9675
	Total	26934	26934

[edit] Infobox conversions

For single or song articles with old-style, subst'ed or incorrect infoboxes, please add {{newinfobox|type=single}} or {{newinfobox|type=song}} to the talk page. As a regular maintenance task, please convert the infoboxes to the new style. Check Category:Song articles needing single infobox conversion and Category:Song articles needing song infobox conversion for articles needing attention.

[edit] Categories

Song articles should be placed into two categories, a subcategory of Category:Songs by artist ("Category:<Artist name> songs") and a subcategory of Category:Songs by year (a subcategory of Category:Singles by year for singles). Other than Category:Songs by artist, "Category:<Artist name> songs" should be placed into at least two other subcategories, a subcategory of Category:Songs by country and one or more subcategories of Category:Songs by genre.

For example, "Country House" by Blur was released in 1995, so it is in Category:Blur songs and Category:1995 singles while Category:Blur songs is in Category:Songs by artist, Category:British songs, and Category:Rock songs.

Note: For consistency, the artist name in "Category:<Artist name> songs" should be the same as the name in the title of the article (minus any disambiguation).

Note: Please do not place song articles directly in Category:Songs or Category:Singles.

[edit] Infobox

Again, similarly to the Albums project, you can use {{Infobox Single}} for the singles. Use {{Infobox Song}} for album tracks and B-sides. For standards, use {{Infobox Standard}}. There are also specialist infoboxes : {{Infobox anthem}} (national anthems), {{Infobox ESC entry}} (Eurovision entries) and {{Infobox Hymn}}.

[edit] Infobox Single

{{Infobox Single <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Songs -->
| Name           = 
| Cover          = 
| Cover size     = 
| Border         = 
| Caption        = 
| Artist         = 
| Album          = 
| A-side         = 
| B-side         = 
| Released       = 
| Format         = 
| Recorded       = 
| Genre          = 
| Length         = 
| Label          = 
| Writer         = 
| Producer       = 
| Audio sample?  = 
| Certification  = 
| Last single    = 
| This single    = 
| Next single    = 
| Misc           = 
}}

[edit] Infobox Song

This documentation is transcluded from Template:Infobox Song/doc. (edit | history)

[edit] Code

“Perfect Blue Buildings”
Song by Counting Crows
Album	August and Everything After
Released	September 14, 1993
Recorded	In some house on some hill
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	5:00
Label	Geffen
Writer	Adam Duritz
Producer	T-Bone Burnett
August and Everything After track listing
"Mr. Jones" (3) “Perfect Blue Buildings” (4) "Anna Begins" (5)

{{Infobox Song <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Songs -->
| Name           = 
| Cover          = 
| Border         = 
| Caption        = 
| Type           = 
| Artist         = 
| alt Artist     = 
| Album          = 
| Published      = 
| Released       = 
| track_no       = 
| Recorded       = 
| Genre          = 
| Length         = 
| Writer         = 
| Composer       = 
| Label          = 
| Producer       = 
| Tracks         = 
| prev           = 
| prev_no        = 
| next           = 
| next_no        = 
| Misc           = 
| Audio sample?  =
}}

[edit] Details

Name 

This field should contain the name of the song. This field is compulsory.

Cover 

You should not use the album cover, as this is not compliant with our fair-use criteria.

Border 

Type "yes" in this parameter to add a 1 px border to the cover image

Type 

If you want to add something more descriptive than "Song" use the "Type" field.

Tracks 

There are two ways to create a track listing; either a "full" album track listing or a partial one. The full track listing is done using the "Tracks" field (simply list the tracks using #'s). The partial method is using the prev, prev_no, next, next_no and track_no fields. This is for previous and next tracks. It'd be better to use "Tracks"; both should not be used.

Recorded 

This field is for the place that the song was recorded

[edit] Article content

[edit] Main body

Write a description of the song. Write the basics first (this is often the information contained in the infobox). Then write about the music and lyrics, its influences and its effect on culture (with citations, of course). Because the entire article is about the song, it is recommended that there be no section headers with titles such as "Song information" or "About the song".

Stick to factual material. Do not include "original research" such as opinions about a song, or interpretations of the lyrics or even statements about what the song is "about", unless they can be provided in the form of quotes that can be cited from sources with some authoritative insight (such as the songwriter or a notable performer). Other websites are available for people who want to give subjective interpretations of songs.

[edit] Single track listings

If this song is a single include track listings for the single's different formats.

[edit] Lyrics and music videos

Do not include the song's entire lyrics or embed the song's music video in the article unless you are certain they are in the public domain. Most lyrics and music videos will be copyrighted so we cannot legally put them in an article. It may be acceptable to use small portions of a song's lyrics or music video in the main body to illustrate a point. Lyrics and music videos that are in the public domain may be entered at Wikisource. Links to external websites that provide lyrics and music videos belong in the "External links" section.

Per Wikipedia policy, please do not link to websites that are in violation of the artist's own copyright. See Wikipedia:Copyrights#Linking to copyrighted works.

[edit] Charts and succession

Songs that are popular enough to appear on prominent record charts should have a "Chart performance" section. This section describes the song's history on the record charts and usually includes a table showing the song's peak chart positions. If a song is a number-one single, a succession box can also be included in this section. For help researching a song's chart history see the chart listings section below. For more information about displaying chart information in table format, see the Music Project's guidelines for chart tables.

[edit] External links

Include such things stated below on the external links:

• chords
• lyrics - Only officially licensed lyrics should be linked to per Wikipedia:Copyrights. Sites which provide officially licensed lyrics include MTV.com, CMT.com, and Yahoo Music.
• parodies
• tabs/sheet music
• anything else relevant

[edit] Stubs

If the article is a stub, please use one of the following stub templates at the bottom of the page:

• {{song-stub}}
  • {{anthem-stub}}
  • {{single-stub}}
  • {{beatles-song-stub}}
  • {{blues-song-stub}}
  • {{country-song-stub}}
  • {{electronic-song-stub}}
  • {{folk-song-stub}}
  • {{hip-hop-song-stub}}
  • {{pop-song-stub}}
    • {{pop-standard-stub}}
  • {{metal-song-stub}}
  • {{punk-song-stub}}
  • {{rock-song-stub}}
    • {{1970s-rock-song-stub}}
    • {{1980s-rock-song-stub}}
    • {{1990s-rock-song-stub}}
    • {{2000s-rock-song-stub}}
  • {{show-tune-stub}}
  • {{worldmusic-song-stub}}

[edit] Key Signature

Songs should contain Musical features such as chorus or verse key signature, recording techniques used, musical techniques, etc.

[edit] Models

The following is a list of featured articles on songs and singles. These are articles that the community as a whole have judged as being some of the best articles on Wikipedia. They can serve as excellent examples for articles on singles and songs.

[edit] Members

To add yourself as a member, put the userbox labeled {{User WikiProject Songs}} on your user page.

This user is a member of WikiProject Songs

To see who has joined the project, see Category:WikiProject Songs members.

[edit] See also

List of notable songs: an editable list created as part of the Missing encyclopedic articles WikiProject.

Requested Articles; an editable list of requested song articles , to fulfil or add your own.

[edit] Resources

[edit] Chart listings

• All Music Guide has a complete list of all charting singles on Billboard charts including Hot 100 and other singles charts (ie; R&B, country) in its articles for the artist and the album.
• top40-charts.com has an extensive database of charts from 2000 onwards but beware of the popups. Has been known to give false information.
• ARIA has end-of-year Australian charts from 1989 onwards and a list of certifications at the end of each year for singles and albums (platinum and gold).
• songfacts.com lists U.S. and UK chart positions on their database of songs see this article on Hotel California as an example.
• Oz Music Charts has a list of number-one hits in the U.S., UK, and Australia dating back to the 1950s.
• everyhit.com has top-forty positions for UK singles from 1952.
• the Database of Popular Music has an extensive database of songs and includes hits by year for both UK and U.S.
• Randy Price has compiled the Cash Box magazine Best Selling Record charts from 1950 on.
• Chartstats.com Archive of weekly UK singles charts runs since 1952.

[edit] Track listings

• freedb is a GPL'd database of CD recordings, listing track titles, durations, and more.
• List of online music databases (some free, some not)