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December 3

Biz kids voice

Is the voice of the Biz witch Kymmie Mason or is it Catherine Thompson, who voices capitalest peg and biz quiz host? N.I.M. (talk) 00:34, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Third party applications for Imdb data

I consider the Internet Movie Database user ratings to be very useful in determining whether a film is worth watching.

I find the listings of top films by genre especially useful in locating good films, but it is quite limited when there is such a rich trove of data.

Are there any free websites/services that incorporate the Imdb user ratings for films in a more expanded dataset? I would like to search, for instance, for something like "western films made in the 1980s with an Imdb rating greater than 7.0".

Any leads would be great. 83.70.241.114 (talk) 03:25, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think you can do that on their advanced title search page: [1] which is linked to from their advanced search page [2], which is linked to from a tiny link that just says "search", right at the bottom of the main page. (Pretty sure this will do the job - it has the example "Want to get a list of comedies from the 1970s that have at least 1000 votes and an average rating of 7.5 or higher?") 213.122.45.84 (talk) 05:07, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

facepalm* I've been using that site for a decade and never come across that page. It's perfect, thanks. 83.70.241.114 (talk) 16:44, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What is a LEP Version of a CD

Amazon has some new entries for "LEP Version" of CDs? What is meant by LEP? It seems to indicate that the liner notes are left out, but there's no real explanation. Is it like the old days of record cut-outs? Are they bootleg versions? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.224.196.192 (talk) 04:04, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Longer/Extended Play ? StuRat (talk) 04:15, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It stands for "Limited English Proficiency". These are copies intended for "markets" where English is not the first language. Therefore the liner notes are either simplified or left out altogether. And by the way StuRat, if you don't know the answer, don't guess. --Viennese Waltz 08:38, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Collapsed off-topic comments. 86.164.31.131 (talk) 21:13, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That was on offensive comment, and you should either retract or at least say "please". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:55, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No it wasn't, and I will do neither. --Viennese Waltz 13:18, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for revealing your true character to us. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:56, 4 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Seriously, "if you don't know the answer, don't guess", when someone has posted what is clearly both a guess and very far from the right answer only 11 minutes after the question was asked, is not offensive. We are not Yahoo Answers. Sometimes someone posts an informed guess on a topic they know a lot about, after waiting long enough for people who actually know or can find references to have a go. That's not what happened here. If you're going to further berate or attack Viennese Waltz's personal character, please do it on the talk page. 86.164.31.131 (talk) 11:13, 4 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps Viennese Waltz is incapable of recognising a question mark. This indicates that the answer is a guess. VW - if you can't stay civil, stay off the RD. Exxolon (talk) 20:51, 4 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This discussion only exists because he wrote "... if you don't know the answer, don't guess". It was quite direct, but not inappropriate and certainly not offensive. No worse than people being told to "shut up". -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 21:06, 4 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A question mark does not turn a guess into an answer. But in fairness StuRat's answer was not completely off the wall, he was presumably drawing a parallel to LP records. He probably would better off saying so instead of presenting his answer as though it were a complete wild-ass guess. APL (talk) 05:35, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Nothing more to add really, except to reiterate that with a question like this there is absolutely no point in guessing. Thanks to 86.* and Jack for their support. --Viennese Waltz 09:58, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You could have just said "That would seem plausible, but the actual meaning is X" - but you preferred to act like a jerk. I'm with Bugs - this is very revealing about your true character. Exxolon (talk) 13:43, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

To be clear, hints about other editors' "true character"s are commenting on the editor, not the content. We have a WP:No Personal Attacks policy. We do not have a WP:Don't say anything offensive policy, or a WP:Do not criticise unhelpful behaviour policy. Viennese Waltz was very clearly commenting on Sturat's behaviour, in a fairly mild reproof. You and Bugs are commenting on Viennese Waltz's character. Again, if you think this is unacceptable behaviour, take it to the talk page: people will no doubt greatly enjoy days of discussion. Do not attack an editor's character on the public pages (or anywhere else, but come on guys!). 86.164.31.131 (talk) 17:17, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, my answer was a guess, but an educated one, based on the parallel with LP's, as was said before. Since many Q's here have historically gone unanswered, or not been answered until the OP was no longer watching, I thought it was justified, and I did clearly identify it as a guess, with the question mark. Viennese Waltz' comment did come off as a bit rude, and a "please" would have cured that, as Bugs suggested. Keeping things cordial here is at least as important as avoiding guesses. If we just look at the amount of space taken up here by my guess versus the discussion based on the somewhat rude reply, you can see where rudeness wastes more space, time, effort, and goodwill. StuRat (talk) 19:42, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(a) I agree that cordiality is a high value here, always to be encouraged. (b) Guessing is not encouraged (this is, after all, a reference desk) - but it's not a cardinal sin either if done sparingly. (c) What is definitely NOT OK is people impugning other editors' characters. It might be understandable on an issue of very great moment, although still not condonable. It certainly is not understandable in regard to the absence of the word "please". Had Viennese Waltz used that word, there would have been no objections to his post. But because he didn't, his post somehow becomes "offensive"? Really, folks, that is the greatest over-reaction I've seen here in a very long time. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 20:47, 5 December 2010 (UTC) [reply]

Music "artists" who didn't sing/play their material

I heard a long time ago that Bananarama were such a band, but I've found nothing online that corroborates with this. Is there any evidence of popular music "artists" who actually neither sang nor played (nor wrote) the material attributed to them? Is there any list of such artists on WP?--Leon (talk) 08:16, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The "unique" style of Bananarama's singing certainly suggests that they were the ones singing on their records - personally, I've never heard the story that they didn't. Ghmyrtle (talk) 12:08, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Milli Vanilli and some members of Boney M. famously didn't sing on their records. Both of these acts had the same manager, Frank Farian. --Viennese Waltz 08:30, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Monkees allegedly never played on any of their records or television performances. Songwriters Boyce and Hart were the real musicians behind the scenes. In fact the only actual musician in the Monkees was Mike Nesmith. I'm not sure about the singing.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 10:17, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

So far as the Monkees are concerned, that's a bit of a misconception. Peter Tork was a folk musician who played clubs before he was cast in the series. As the series went on, and later after the TV shows ended, all four played and sang on the Monkees records, and all toured playing their instruments and/or singing (though supported by other musicians). Much of the myth about the non-musicianship of the Monkees was created by the British music press aiming to compare them unfavourably with the Beatles - though, in fact, many if not most pop records of the time were largely performed by session musicians. Ghmyrtle (talk) 12:03, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This depends on the music genre. In Rock music, it is common that the artists create their own songs (and, as a result, it seems incorrect when someone does not do so). Tango is different, most performers do not create their own songs (or create just a limited number). As a consequence, there are specialized artists in tango: performers and composers. It is thus common that a same song is performed by many artists, but unlike rock music there isn't an "original" and a "cover" version, all versions may be equally legitimate (notwithstanding that some versions may have more popular reception than others). But in short, to critizise tango performers for not writing their own songs would be as out of place as critizing a rock band for lacking a conductor like those of orchestras. MBelgrano (talk) 11:48, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah no-one mentioned tango. The OP's question was precisely about the "incorrectness" you refer to in rock/pop music. No point in bringing tango into it. --Viennese Waltz 13:15, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I mentioned Tango as an example, the original question starts from an asumption that is not as universal as he thought (that most artists write their own songs, with just some infamous exceptions). He may not find the list he requests because in some cases the entries may be so controversial, but in others were simply accepted that way at their genre or time period. MBelgrano (talk) 13:33, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Erm, I didn't think I was that unclear, I was mostly referring to the performance of music, hence why I put "nor wrote" in brackets. I was mostly interested in that bit.--Leon (talk) 14:30, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It has only been common in rock music since the 1960s - started, primarily by the Beatles, and later followed by others as the vogue for self-expression in music took over. Before then, most singers, either of rock and roll or "classic" singers such as Sinatra, had no role in writing their material (although of course there were exceptions such as Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly), and many of them played no instrument either. Ghmyrtle (talk) 12:12, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Guys, the question is not about musicians who didn't write their own music; there's been nothing unusual about that for centuries. The question is about musical acts that didn't really do any of it (composing, singing, playing, etc.) besides looking nice. I don't know of any more examples besides those already mentioned, but the OP might be interested in our article on Gorillaz for a vaguely related topic. Matt Deres (talk) 19:33, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There are also numerous examples of "bands" formed to promote a record put together by an entirely different set of musicians. One example, off the top of my head, were B. Bumble and the Stingers, where a touring band was formed in the early 1960s out of an existing band who were unconnected with the session musicians who made the recordings released under their name. And a precursor of Gorillaz, of course, were the Archies. Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:56, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A more recently uncovered example is the Belgian punk rock singer Plastic Bertrand, who - it emerged this year - did not sing on any of the early records released under his name, including the 1977 hit "Ça plane pour moi". Ghmyrtle (talk) 12:15, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Wombles (band), on the other hand, did write and perform all their own songs, despite being fictional characters played by interchangeable musicians. 81.131.6.177 (talk) 21:10, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not really "interchangeable" - the music was all written by Mike Batt, and session guitarist Chris Spedding and drummer Clem Cattini performed both on the records and on-stage in Womble costumes. Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:56, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Especially in the 1960's, it was common to bring in "professional" musicians to play on albums even if the band would play live. Though each could play musical instruments, the Beach Boys didn't actually play the instruments on many of their albums (though they did sing; those are their harmonies). See The Wrecking Crew (music), who 'actually' played on most of the Beach Boys best known works, as well as providing backing musicians for much of the major pop acts based in California in the 1960's. Likewise, though many Bob Seger albums are credited to "Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band", much of his songs and albums featured other backing musicians instead, notably the Swampers. In the 1980's and 1990's, expecially because of the Video age, some musicians and singers got "written out" of bands because they didn't have the right look; often the hot chick lip syncing in the video wasn't the one actually singing. See Martha Wash, who was definately NOT the woman in the video to Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now). --Jayron32 06:11, 4 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

...also "Ride On Time" by Black Box, who featured model Catherine Quinol miming to sampled vocals by Loleatta Holloway. Ghmyrtle (talk) 14:41, 4 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A good spot to mention Marni Nixon. Pepso2 (talk) 03:32, 7 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

wolfgang gartner song

Can someone please find me some progressive house songs or remixes by wolfgang gartner? N.I.M. (talk) 18:09, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Have you checked his myspace page? -- kainaw ™ 18:32, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Every time i try it i get a server error thing. N.I.M. (talk) 18:44, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Still probloms, someone please list me his progressive house songs or provide a link to one asap, i would like some progressive stuff by wolfgang gartner, because i heard he does progressive, but i'm not sure, and when i type in wolfgang gartner progressive house on youtube, it brings up his electro works but nothing progressive by him. N.I.M. (talk) 19:27, 4 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]