The Albums wikiproject is a way of simplifying album pages so users can get the basic information fast.

Introduction

Anybody wishing to take part in WikiProject:Albums is welcome to do so. Feel free to ask questions on the talk page. Below is a basic guide to writing an article on a specific album of music; this is only a guide and you should feel free to personalize an article as you see fit, though others may change it to fit our standards.

When you create or find a new album page, please add {{msg:Album}}' to the top of the talk page and add a link to the page on List of albums. If the page has no infobox, you should also add a link to the page on Needs infobox. If the page has an incomplete infobox, note the missing details at Incomplete infobox.

Style

Do not reflexively disambiguate! When there is no other encyclopedic use of the album title, the article should reside at the normal name, i.e. London Calling, not [[London Calling (album)]]. In cases where disambiguation is needed, the terms (album), (EP) or (single) should be used, i.e. Insomniac (album). For multiple albums with the same title, either use the artist name or the year of release to distinguish the different albums, i.e. Down to Earth (Rainbow album) & Down to Earth (Ozzy Osbourne album), or Everything Must Go (1996 album) & Everything Must Go (2003 album).

Songs are placed in "quotation marks", album titles are italicized and artists are left alone, for example,

The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" comes from their 8th album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

On song linkages: Don't link to a song that has no article unless you believe that the song most certainly deserves an article and/or you are willing to write it.

Please try to add the year in parentheses after mentioning an album for the first time in an article or paragraph (unless the year is contained within the sentence) as in: "Nirvana's next album was the breakthrough classic Nevermind (1991)". Do not use piped links to "years in music" e.g. 1991, instead add (see 1991 in music) where you feel it is appropriate.

See Ireland Information Guide:WikiProject Music standards for more style suggestions.

Categories

For album articles, there are three "top-level" categories: Category:Albums by artist, Category:Albums by year and Category:Albums by genre. Each album page is then placed into two categories, "Category:<Artist name> albums" and "Category:<year> albums", which are then placed as sub-categories into the respective top-level category. For consistency, the artist name should be the same as the title of their article (in terms of punctuation, "&"/"and", use of "The", etc.) minus any disambiguating terms of course.

For example, Reign in Blood by Slayer was released in 1986, so it has the categories Category:Slayer albums and Category:1986 albums. Category:Slayer albums is a sub-category of Category:Albums by artist and Category:Thrash metal albums, which is a sub-category of Category:Albums by genre. Category:1986 albums is a sub-category of Category:Albums by year.

Table

Click edit to the right to view the source of this table to copy to other album pages!

Dirt
Album by Alice in Chains
Released	October, 1992
Recorded	???
Genre	Grunge
Length	57 min 35 sec
Record label	Columbia Records
Producer	Alice in Chains and Dave Jerden
Professional reviews
Q	2 stars out of 5	October 2000 (http://www.q4music.com/nav?page=q4music.review.redirect&fixture_review=121171&resource=121171&fixture_artist=146990)
Robert Christgau	Grade: B	link (http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Alice+in+Chains)
Alternative Press	Favorable	March 1993 p. 40) (http://www.buy.com/retail/proreviews/product.asp?sku=60110766&loc=109&PageFormat=7)
Vox	8 out of 10 (Very Good)	December, 1992 p. 63) (http://www.buy.com/retail/proreviews/product.asp?sku=60110766&loc=109&PageFormat=7)
Allmusic.com	4.5 stars out of 5	link (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB040402061702081566&sql=A9bsxlfde5cqy)
Entertainment Weekly	Grade: A	October 16, 1992 p. 76) (http://www.buy.com/retail/proreviews/product.asp?sku=60110766&loc=109&PageFormat=7)
Spin	Favorable	November, 1992 p.114) (http://www.buy.com/retail/proreviews/product.asp?sku=60110766&loc=109&PageFormat=7)
Alice in Chains Chronology
Facelift (1990)	Dirt (1992)	Jar of Flies (1994)

General

The table to the right is an example infobox, or albumbox. You can click on "edit this page" and copy-and-paste the markup to a different article, replacing the information with info on the album you choose to write about.

The table should be placed at the top of the article.

Colors

Album cover

Upload a copy of the album cover (under fair use). Ideally the image should be at least 200px-225px wide. Images larger than 225px should be resized down when included in the table, using the following code for example,

[[Image:<Image Name>.jpg|225px|Album cover]]

Details

Try to fill in as many of the details as you can. The Released date should refer to the earliest known date. Similarly, Record label should refer to the label the album was originally released on. Where significantly different versions have been released (featuring alternate track listings) e.g. US vs UK, the later release date and/or record label should be mentioned in the article. Recorded should include details on where and when the album was recorded. If you can't find out some details, leave the section blank or with "???" to make it easier for someone else to fill in later.

Professional reviews

Please note that the table should only include professional reviews -- that is not a precise term (and should, perhaps, be interpreted broadly), but please use your best judgement and do not include reviews from people or groups whose judgement our audience has no reason to respect. See below for some sources of professional reviews. The first bit of info should be the name of the source (most commonly a magazine like Rolling Stone -- note that magazines are italicized); due to their proliferation and dubious value, lists (e.g. Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Punk Rock Albums of the Early 1980s) may not be included. The second bit should be either a rating (e.g. 4 stars out of 5) or the word favorable or unfavorable (possibly allowing for ambivalent, mixed, extremely favorable and more, but keep it short and simple). The third bit is preferably a link to the actual review on an official page; it may also be a summary of the review located elsewhere (if the original publisher doesn't include it online). If there are no online sources, you may not include a link at all. The link should display as the date of the review being published, preferably including the page number -- even if there is no link, this information should still be included. If you can not find the date of publication, the word link will suffice.

Chronology

The chronology section should link to the previous album on the left and the next album on the right. For first albums the left and middle boxes should be merged. For final albums (as opposed to latest) the middle and right boxes should be merged, otherwise the right hand box should be left blank.

Article Body

The basics should be in the first paragraph: title, artist, release date, record label and a word or two about genre and critical reception

Describe history, trivia, themes (musical or lyrical), a consideration of its specific influences, specific followers, where it fits in its genre and what leanings it may have toward others, reasons for the order of tracks (if any), etc. Also, synthesize the general critical reception of the album, being as detailed as possible. Be sure to note minority opinions as well, properly attributed (preferably with an external link). Also, any way the album affected the cultural consciousness of a society or culture.

There are various methods for writing this; it should be the bulk of the article. In the course of writing these, it has become apparent that there are two distinct styles of articles (that are actually opposite ends of a spectrum), either of which may be appropriate, depending on the album in question.

• Include a paragraph on each song, describing its critical reception and relevance to the article as a whole. This may be more appropriate for concept albums, however loose, or albums written by people known for their songwriting. See Ziggy Stardust or Aquemini for examples.
• Focus on the album as a whole, mentioning specific songs only inasmuch as one song provides an example of a topic of interest to the entire album. This may be more appropriate for albums that are largely musical, without lyrics to explain, such as much of prog rock (i.e. Styx, Deep Purple, King Crimson), dance music (Donna Summer, Paul Oakenfold, 'N Sync) or other symphonic bands like Metallica or Pink Floyd. See Highway 61 Revisited or The Violent Femmes for examples.

Add a paragraph or two on how the album fits in the development of music. What sound similar to? What inspired the artists? Who listened to this album, then started a band of their own and became famous ten years later? An example from Ziggy Stardust is below.

The glam rock sound on Ziggy Stardust comes from early pioneers in the field of gender-bending, heroin-drenched hard rock powered by climactic guitar riffs and bass-heavy beats. Bands like Mott the Hoople (Mott the Hoople - 1969) and T. Rex (Prophets Seers & Sages the Angels of the Ages - 1968) helped to create the sound of glam rock, contributing a heavy metal and folk aspect, respectively, along with Deep Purple's (Deep Purple - 1969) metallic prog rock. Bowie mixed this early combination with the frenetic proto-punk of the Stooges (The Stooges - 1969) and the contemplative, dark and melodic proto-punk of the Velvet Underground (White Light/White Heat - 1967). Dark psychedelia, like the Doors (The Doors - 1967) and early concept albums like Tommy (1969; the Who) influenced the lyrical direction of the album.

Ziggy Stardust was a monumental album in music history. Its sound has changed the way heavy metal, punk music, hard rock, glam rock and prog rock sound. The direct progenitors were later glam musicians like the glam-metal of Alice Cooper (Billion Dollar Babies - 1973), the glam-disco of Labelle (Nightbirds - 1974) and the glam-pop of Gary Glitter (Touch Me - 1973). Heavy metal began with bands like Blue Cheer (Vincebus Eruptum - 1968) and the Yardbirds (Five Live Yardbirds - 1964); in the post Ziggy Stardust world, heavy metal evolved towards glam metal bands like Mötley Crüe (Too Fast For Love - 1981) and Van Halen (Van Halen - 1978) through the occult bands of the mid to late 1970s, like Blue Öyster Cult (Tyranny and Mutation - 1973) and Black Sabbath (Sabotage - 1975), and metallic prog rock like Yes (Tales From Topographic Oceans - 1974). Ziggy Stardust (along with other notable albums, such as The New York Dolls - 1973) also combined the two types of proto-punk, the energetic power of the Stooges and the avante-garde lyrical and musical aspects of the Velvet Underground, resulting in early punk musicians like Elvis Costello & the Attractions (My Aim Is True - 1977), Adam & the Ants (Kings of the Wild Frontier - 1980) and Graham Parker (Howlin' Wind - 1976) before the first wave of true hardcore punk music, with the Jam (In the City - 1977), the Clash (The Clash - 1977) and the Ramones (The Ramones - 1976), as well as the more artistic punk of Patti Smith (Horses - 1975) and Television (Marquee Moon - 1977). In the 1990s, shoegazing and Britpop bands like Suede (Dog Man Star - 1994), Morrissey (Viva Hate - 1988) and My Bloody Valentine (Isn't Anything - 1988) showed a strong Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie influence.

Track listing

(Note: Particularly for rap albums, it is helpful to list which members of a group (or guests) rap on which verses as well as mentioning sampling sources.)

1. "complete song title" (John Doe, Brian Smith) - 4:23
   • First Verse: Name of rapper
   • Second Verse: Name of rapper
   • Samples: Name of sample source (preferably, artist, song, album)
2. "complete song title" (Doe, Kelly Kalamazoo) - 3:24
3. "complete song title" (Doe, Kalamazoo, Smith, David Whitman) - 2:34

• Note the standard method of attributing songwriters--write (and link) the full name the first time it appears, and then just give the last name (unless the first initial is necessary to disambiguate it, as in the Gallagher brothers of Oasis). If all songs were written by the same person/team, this can be stated at the top as in "(all songs written by Gordon Gano)"

Personnel

(names and instruments, link to instrument on first occurrence)

• Johnny Poe - guitar
• Sally Morris - glockenspiel, guitar, organ, kazoo

External links

• [chords]
• [lyrics]
• [parodies]
• [anything else relevant]

External links

The following sites provide reviews that you can use in album tables:

• Rolling Stone (http://www.rollingstone.com) (5-star scale)
• Q magazine (http://www.q4music.com) (5-star scale)
• Popmatters (http://www.popmatters.com) (no formal rating)
• All Music Guide (http://www.allmusic.com/) (5-star scale)
• New Musical Express (NME) (http://www.nme.com/reviews/) (10-point scale, at bottom of review)
• Robert Christgau (http://www.robertchristgau.com) (grades on a A, B, C, D, F scale)
• Canoe.ca (http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicReviewsAlbums/home.html) (apparently collects reviews from Canadian newspapers, including Toronto Sun and Winnipeg Star)
• Buy.com (http://www.Buy.com) (has no reviews, but does have a "professional reviews" link on the left side of album pages -- it contains brief excerpts from reviews from magazines like Mojo and NME, which do not have searchable online databases, and also includes the date and page of the review]
• iq451.com (http://www.iq451.com) has no reviews but has clickable links to many reviews, some of which are professional

see also Ireland Information Guide:Filmographies and Discographies

see also Ireland Information Guide:WikiProject Songs