Wikipedia:WikiProject Discographies/style
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Discography WikiProject style guide proposal(s):
The following is a series of suggested guidelines for the style and content of discographies. Please note that these guidelines are intended to apply only to artist discographies, not label discographies.
Content
Article-wide
Below is a list of general content that should be included in a discography:
- Lead section
- It is encouraged to avoid direct replication of the article's title in the lead—therefore, it is also recommended to avoid bolding of the title in the lead sentence.
- See WP:LEAD.
- Discography infobox
- A table-based list of official releases, in chronological order from earliest to latest.
- Each release is given its own row, with various pieces of information creating a series of columns.
- Separate types of releases (such as studio albums, live albums, extended plays, etc.) are generally split up into individual sections and tables.
- The optional listing of notable works not officially released, such as songs not released as singles but which nevertheless achieved significant chart positions, should be in a clearly separate section. That is, such songs should be in a section like "Other charted songs" and not under "Singles".
- Similar columns between sections and tables should ideally be kept at a consistent width.
- See WP:TABLE for help on making tables.
- References
- See WP:CITE as well as the section below detailing the sourcing requirements further.
- An External links section
- Categories
- Almost all discographies should be categorized by at least two schemes: Category:Discographies by artist nationality and Category:Discographies by genre.
- For discographies that do not fit this scheme, see subcategories of Category:Discographies (such as Category:Video game music discographies for lists of recordings from video game franchises.)
- Only place an article in Category:Discographies if it cannot be placed in an appropriate subcategory.
Per-release
For each release, the following information, data, and statistics may be included wherever available and applicable. In all cases it is assumed to be information regarding the original release, not re-releases or differing packages released in foreign territories.
- Requirements listed below with a † are not expected of singles, music videos, or any other releases featuring a single song.
- Title
- Earliest release date (year, month, and day, as specific as is available)†
- Dates should be spelled out as either "month-day, year" or "day-month-year" (or "month-day" or "day-month") according to the guidelines at WP:MOSNUM, in which dates will normally match the origin of the artist or band, if an English-speaking country. If the artist or band originates from a non-English-speaking country, please see WP:MOSNUM#Full date formatting.
- Single-song releases should not provide the full release date, only the year.
- See MOS:SYL.
- Record label†
- Catalog number (if notable)†
- This is generally provided along with the record label.
- Formats released†
- Peak chart positions
- It is generally discouraged to give an account of a release's entire chart history or trajectory; only its peak position is relevant.
- Where a release did not chart, but a column for a particular chart or territory exists since another release charted there, either an en-dash (–) or an em-dash (—) should be placed in the cell. There is no requirement to use one type of dash over the other, but they should be used consistently throughout the article and centered in their cells. Additionally, a legend at the bottom of the table should denote the meaning of the dash by saying something like
"—" denotes a release that did not chart. - Separate charts or territories should be represented by their own column; the artist or band's home country comes first, followed by an English-language alphabetical ordering of countries (with the option to prioritize English-speaking countries before others), then followed by international, multinational, or worldwide charts if available. In the case of multiple charts per country (such as the various Billboard charts), these should also be in alphabetical order of country-name then chart name.
- Column headers for chart positions should be an English-language abbreviation of the chart's country of origin, not the name of the individual chart. The exception to this rule, however, is in cases where two columns are from the same country, such as component or competing charts. In these cases, the column header should start with an abbreviation of the country, followed by an abbreviation of the chart name. In all cases, the column header should be wikilinked to the specific chart's page, or if the chart does not have a page, then to the country's page.
- In the case of multiple charts, "comprehensive" does not necessarily mean an exhaustive list of countries and charts the artist has charted on. A limit of approximately 10 separate charts is suggested, using any combination of country, component, or competing charts. There is no set inclusion criteria for which charts should and shouldn't be included, but a good rule of thumb is to go by the relative success of the artist on that chart.
- See WP:CHARTS and WP:INDISCRIMINATE.
- Sales figures. Reliable sales figures are not always available, so sources should be examined with some skepticism. It is not necessary to report a recording's sales figures in every market. Since no official organization tracks total sales, "worldwide sales" numbers are especially suspect and should not be added. Remember that units sold and units shipped are different items, sometimes reported imprecisely even by reliable sources. The numerical success of a recording is sometimes better explained in the text than in a table.
- Certifications of shipments or sales by recording industry associations. Certifications for countries whose peaks are not shown should also be left out of the per-release listing, per WP:INDISCRIMINATE.
- Any further notes or comments of notable interest that relate to the artist or band's overall body of work†
What should not be included
- Tracklistings, B-sides, or any other description of the tracks on a release which is the subject of a separate article. In such cases the relevant article should be linked.
- Bootlegs, unless officially released.
- Unofficial releases of any kind. For example, The Grey Album would not be included in the The Beatles discography or Jay-Z discography.
- Leaked material.
- Non-original or previously-released material used on soundtracks, trailers, commercials, or any other compilation releases.
- Un-released material unless notable enough to include.
- Non-musical releases or works.
- Releases by other artists as a tribute or cover.
Citations and references
General references
For the establishment of the general releases in a discography – that a certain release exists, was released in the first place, and is a part of the artist's body of work – general sources, as opposed to in-line citations, are sufficient. For additional non-contentious facts such as release date, record label, and catalog number, general sources are also acceptable.
In-line citations
Any surprising or contentious notes beyond the aforementioned should be sourced using in-line citations. For data such as peak chart positions, sales, and certifications, in-line citations are preferred. Whenever a single citation applies to an entire set of data, such as a single chart or certifying body, in-line citations should be presented in the column header, rather then each cell.
Sources
Only reliable sources should be cited as sources of information. Discogs, for example, should be avoided, since it is user-generated and therefore not considered reliable. See WP:RS for more information on sources.
Useful resources
- General
- Chart positions
Chart recommendations are maintained at WP:Record charts. The list of charts to specifically avoid is located at WP:BADCHARTS, while a list of reliable sources for chart positions and certifications is located at WP:GOODCHARTS.
Samples
The following examples are from Nirvana discography and The Prodigy discography, meant to show different examples of an album table and a singles table, respectively. Both tables have been adjusted slightly for the purposes of demonstration. To view the wikicode, click [edit] above.
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | Certifications | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [1] |
AUS [2] |
AUT [3] |
FIN [4] |
NLD [5] |
NZ [6] |
NOR [7] |
SWE [8] |
SWI [9] |
UK [10] | ||||
| Bleach | 89 | 34 | 26 | 24 | — | 30 | — | — | — | 33 | US: 1.7 million[11] | US: Platinum[12] | |
| Nevermind |
|
1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | US: 10 million[13] | US: Diamond[14] UK: 2× Platinum[15] |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | |||||||||||||
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [16] |
AUS [17] |
FIN [18] |
GER [19] |
IRL [20] |
NOR [21] |
US [22] | ||||
| "One Love" | 1993 | 8 | — | — | — | 3 | — | — | Music for the Jilted Generation | |
| "No Good (Start the Dance)" | 1994 | 4 | 45 | — | 4 | 3 | 7 | — | ||
| "Voodoo People" | 1994 | 13 | 24 | — | — | 7 | — | — | ||
| "Poison" | 1995 | 15 | — | — | — | 3 | 5 | — | ||
| "Firestarter" (featuring Ricky Nelson) |
1996 | 1 | 22 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 30 | The Fat of the Land | |
| "Breathe" | 1996 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 1 | — | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | ||||||||||
Fair use materials
It is generally discouraged to include copyrighted materials in discographies, even when Fair use is claimed. Fair-use material is generally not considered to be essential to the reader's understanding of a discography, and so is typically only cosmetic in nature. This includes but is not limited to album covers, audio samples, and promotional photos. See WP:NFC for clarification on the policy.
Ignore all rules
Every artist is different, and therefore no two discographies will be exactly the same. Therefore, if there is a reasonable justification for deviating from the above guidelines to most accurately or appropriately document an artist's body of work, then ignore all the rules and go with what's best for the article. It is our goal to provide information in the best way possible, so a strict adherence to the guidelines listed above may not always be the best way to accomplish our goals. In an ideal situation however, any deviations from the guidelines should be with a clear purpose that is unique to the particular artist and situation in question. See WP:IAR for more information on ignoring the rules.