This is a WikiProject, a collaboration area and open group of editors dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of a particular topic, or to organizing some internal Wikipedia process. Please see the Guide to WikiProjects and the Directory of WikiProjects for more information.

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. Its 'parent' project is WikiProject Music. 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

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

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) (AfD discussion - 2nd Nomination)
• 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)". If the song is in a foreign language and titled using the Latin alphabet, then, unless the song is commonly known by a translated name in the English-speaking world, the original foreign title should be used. This may require using accented letters which are not used in English. Examples: "Ein bißchen Frieden", "Je n'ai que mon âme", "Fångad av en stormvind".

[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

[edit] Template

[edit] Project tag

WikiProject Songs		SongsWikipedia:WikiProject SongsTemplate:Songssong articles
v • d • e This article is within the scope of WikiProject Songs, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of songs on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.  ???  This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.

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	40	40
	FL	2	2
	A	3	3
	GA	238	238
	B	383	383
	C	401	401
	Start	3335	3335
	Stub	16750	16750
	List	20	20
	Assessed	21172	21172
	Unassessed	17215	17215
	Total	38387	38387

[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 (band) songs and Category:1995 singles while Category:Blur (band) songs is in Category:Songs by artist, Category:British rock songs, and Category:Alternative rock songs.

Note: For consistency, the artist name in "Category:<Artist name> songs" should usually 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

See: Template:Infobox single

[edit] Infobox Song

See: Template:Infobox song

[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}}
  • {{1900s-song-stub}}
  • {{1910s-song-stub}}
  • {{1920s-song-stub}}
  • {{1930s-song-stub}}
  • {{1940s-song-stub}}
  • {{1950s-song-stub}}
  • {{1960s-song-stub}}
  • {{1970s-song-stub}}
  • {{1980s-song-stub}}
  • {{1990s-song-stub}}
  • {{2000s-song-stub}}
• {{single-stub}}

• {{anthem-stub}}
• {{beatles-song-stub}}
• {{blues-song-stub}}
• {{classical-composition-stub}}
  • {{opera-stub}}
• {{country-song-stub}}
  • {{1920s-country-song-stub}}
  • {{1930s-country-song-stub}}
  • {{1940s-country-song-stub}}
  • {{1950s-country-song-stub}}
  • {{1960s-country-song-stub}}
  • {{1970s-country-song-stub}}
  • {{1980s-country-song-stub}}
  • {{1990s-country-song-stub}}
  • {{2000s-country-song-stub}}
• {{electronic-song-stub}}
• {{folk-song-stub}}
• {{hip-hop-song-stub}}
• {{jazz-composition-stub}}
• {{metal-song-stub}}
• {{pop-song-stub}}
  • {{pop-standard-stub}}
  • {{1950s-pop-song-stub}}
  • {{1960s-pop-song-stub}}
  • {{1970s-pop-song-stub}}
  • {{1980s-pop-song-stub}}
  • {{1990s-pop-song-stub}}
  • {{2000s-pop-song-stub}}
• {{punk-song-stub}}
• {{RnB-song-stub}}
• {{rock-song-stub}}
  • {{rock-single-stub}}
    • {{1990s-rock-single-stub}}
    • {{2000s-rock-single-stub}}
  • {{1960s-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.

The full list can be seen at Category:FA-Class song articles

[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

• Allmusic gives very incomplete (but somewhat helpful) information on some charting singles on Billboard charts including Hot 100 and other singles charts (ie; R&B, country) in its articles for the artist and their album(s). Other general information (credits) listed per artists and songwriters in Allmusic is quite incomplete, has many errors, and is difficult to correct. (For a much more reliable source on Billboard charts of all genres dating back to 1944, refer to Joel Whitburn's books published by Billboard Publications).
• top40-charts.com has been listed in WP:BADCHARTS, and should not be used as a source.
• 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)