This is the Album article style guide, which documents recommendations by the members of Wikiproject Albums. It is intended only as a guide, to assist in writing well-developed articles.

Naming

The article name should be the title of the album, disambiguated if necessary. Do not pre-emptively disambiguate! When there is no other encyclopedic use of the album title, the article should reside at the normal name, e.g. London Calling, not London Calling (album). In cases where disambiguation is needed, the term (EP) should be used for EPs, (video) for video albums and (album) for other albums, e.g. Insomniac (album) and Gas Food Lodging (EP). For multiple albums with the same title, use the artist name to distinguish the different albums, e.g. Down to Earth (Rainbow album) and Down to Earth (Ozzy Osbourne album); though if there is a primary album, such as Thriller (album), then that would get the primary (album) disambiguation, and only the secondary albums, Thriller (Eddie and the Hot Rods album), Thriller (Lambchop album) need be disambiguated by band. For artists who release multiple albums with the same name, disambiguate by year, e.g. Weezer (1994 album) and Weezer (2001 album) (unless the albums were released the same year, in which case they can be disambiguated by some commonly accepted convention).

For split albums of which there is no single official title, use the two artist names separated with two spaces and a forward slash, such as Isis / Pig Destroyer. The artist that is on the A-side (or whose tracks come first on a CD) should be placed first in the article name. If two bands release more than one split together and occupy the same sides on each release, disambiguate normally by year, adding, for example, (2000 album). If the split has two titles, one per side, use the same forward-slash formatting, such as Jihad / Freezing Moon.

If the album title uses the Latin alphabet, the article name should be at that title. Translations of titles in languages other than English should not be used as titles unless such a translation is commonly used as a title for the album in the English-speaking world. For example, Født til å Herske, not Born to Rule, Swanesang, not Swan Song, but Chant, not Canto (because the album was marketed as "Chant" in most English-speaking countries).

If the album title does not use the Latin alphabet, the article name should be the transliterated form of the title using Latin characters. For example, Vrisko To Logo Na Zo, not Βρίσκω Το Λόγο Να Ζω (the name written in the Greek alphabet) or I Find the Reason to Live (the name translated from Greek into English), and Boku no Miteiru Fūkei, not 僕の見ている風景 or The Scenery I'm Looking At, but Common Jasmin Orange, not Qi li xiang, 七里香, or Seven Mile Fragrance (because the English name "Common Jasmin Orange" appears on the album cover along with the Chinese name). The original language title should appear in parentheses (brackets) in the opening line of the article following the transliteration.

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English).

Formatting

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

The Beatles' songs "Taxman", "Eleanor Rigby" and "Love You To" are from their album Revolver.

Links should only be created to song articles that don't exist if you believe that the song most certainly deserves an article.

Capitalization

For fuller information on this topic, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Capitalization#Composition titles. See also Wikipedia:Manual of Style (music)#Capitalization.

In titles of songs, albums, and band names in the English language, the Wikipedia standard is to capitalize:

1. The first word and last word in the title.
2. All other words except for:

• Coordinating conjunctions – and, but, or, nor.
• Prepositions shorter than five characters – of, to, in, for, on, over, with, than; but Through, About, During, Until
• Articles – an, a, the.
• The word to in infinitives.

Note that short verbs (Is, Are, Be, Do) and pronouns (Me, It, His) are capitalized.

In titles of songs or albums in a language other than English, the project standard is to use the capitalization utilized by that language, not the English capitalization. If you are unsure about the capitalization standards of other languages, check with a reliable third-party source, foreign-language Wikipedias or the appropriate WikiProject and language Manual of Style.

Dating

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 in music|1991]], instead add 1991 in music to the "See also" section if you feel it is appropriate.

Do not describe uncertain dates by using the season name, e.g. "released in winter, 1995". This can be ambiguous as northern and southern-hemisphere seasons occur at opposite times of the year. Instead, use the most accurate date possible, such as "February 1995" or "early 1995", if a more precise date cannot be verified.

The date an album was leaked onto the Internet is not notable unless it results in some other action that is notable, such as being directly responded to by the musical artist or their management, or the leak itself receiving broad media coverage. Do not add leak dates to articles unless a notable consequence of the leak can be properly sourced to the same regular, reliable media sources that would be expected for any other content in the album's article. A website which announces album leaks but contains no other content, such as diditleak.co.uk, is not an appropriate source under the requirements of WP:RS.

Disambiguating links

When linking genres and other terms in the article, be sure it points to the appropriate music-related article and not a disambiguation page. For example, rock should point to rock music and not rock; alternative should point to alternative rock and not alternative, a disambiguation page. Use piped links if necessary. Other terms to look out for are: pop music, band (musical ensemble), LP (gramophone record) and several more.

Linking to source material

Albums streamed on a licensed website (such as Radio3Net) or hosted on an official website, such as an official Myspace page or a band's or record company's own website, may have a link placed in the External links section according to Wikipedia guidelines. There should be a note regarding the media used ("Adobe Flash"), and that it may not be available in all regions ("streamed copy where licensed"). Care should be taken that the site is hosting the music legally; that it does not meet any of the criteria for links to be avoided; that, as a minimum, the site is accessible by the main English regions North America, UK and Australia; and that the link is formatted appropriately. Suggested formats are:

• Live at Leeds (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)
• Live at Leeds (25th Anniversary Edition) (Adobe Flash) at Myspace (streamed copy where licensed)

It is recommended that "<!-- This is a licensed stream for the album, which is allowed under Wikipedia polices -->" is placed beside the link, and that a comment is made in the edit summary such as "External links: [[WP:ELYES]]#2; [[WP:MUSICSTREAM]]"

Wiki tags

In compliance with WP:LEAD, the area preceding the infobox of album articles is reserved for Wikipedia-related tags and templates when applicable. Hatnotes and disambiguation links should be the first component of the article; if the reader has arrived at an article by mistake, navigational aid should be the first thing they see. Maintenance and other template messages should be placed immediately proceeding hatnotes.

Infobox

After a single line break, with no additional spacing from either the top of the text box or a Wiki tag, is where the album infobox code belongs. To avoid unknowingly using an incomplete or improper album infobox, it is recommended to copy and paste directly from the template documentation linked above and not from another album article that may not be using the template correctly.

Lead

In the first sentence of the article, the title of the album should be bolded and italicized. If the article title is merely descriptive, and not the name of the work of art, do not use bold typeface (see List of Metallica demos). Also to be mentioned are the artist's nationality, the artist's genre, release date and record label—wikilink when possible. If the album has an extended subtitle that's not being used in the page name, or an alternatively used title, the lead is an appropriate place to mention this (see The Beatles (album), Hellbilly Deluxe 2). It is generally accepted to chronologically number studio albums in discographies where this would be applicable (Nirvana's debut album, Bob Dylan's fourth studio album, etc.).

It's important to remain brief in the details here as further information should be found later in the article body. Depending on the article's length, it's recommended to write one-to-four paragraphs in the lead section. Try to summarize and capture the important details about the album that will catch the reader's attention.

The following is a list of possible sections that could be included in an album article. Because not all albums are the same, it would be difficult to create a uniform list of mandatory sections. Only create sections for which information is available. For example: if there is only enough information to write a single sentence regarding an album's title, consider merging with a relevant section such as artwork or lyrics. If there is enough information about an album's title to write a well-sourced detailed piece using multiple paragraphs, then it may be worth designating it's own section. Feel free to express your creativity and ignore all of the rules at any time you wish!

Background

It should not be assumed that the reader is familiar with the artist's history and/or previously released albums. If it's necessary to put these items into context for the reader to further his understanding of later content in the article, a background section is suggested. This section should discuss previous occasions in the artist's history and important events that had an impact on the album. For a band or musical ensemble, this could include the gaining and loss of group members or a notable changing of record labels. What did the artist do between this album and the last? Did the artist create a solo project that may have impacted the recording of this album? See Adore (The Smashing Pumpkins album) and In Utero (album).

Recording, production

Who is the producer? What other works of art is this producer know for? Keep the list of other works short, as the producer will likely have his own article with a more complete list. Has the producer previously worked with this artist before? Where was the album produced, and how long did it take to record? Were there any unique or standout recording techniques used during production (such as Phil Spector and his famed use of an echo chamber)? Was the cost of recording especially high or low?

Release, promotion, marketing

The date an album was leaked onto the Internet is not notable unless it results in some other action that is notable, such as being directly responded to by the musical artist or their management, or the leak itself receiving broad media coverage. Do not add leak dates to articles unless a notable consequence of the leak can be properly sourced to the same regular, reliable media sources that would be expected for any other content in the album's article. A website which announces album leaks but contains no other content, such as diditleak.co.uk, is not an appropriate source under the requirements of WP:RS.

Musical style, writing, composition

There is rarely enough information for songs and singles to all have their own individual articles (see WP:NSONGS). It is recommended to merge already existing articles for songs that have little more than an infobox and a music video description into a relevant album article.

Artwork, packaging

Touring

Concert tours are rarely notable enough to warrant stand-alone articles (see WP:NMG#Concert tours). Instead, information about notable tours and festivals should be incorporated into either the artist's page, or the album article for which the tour is supporting. Do not list all dates here, instead mention the range of dates (ex. June–September 1992). Aspects of concerts to be mentioned could include: financial and commercial success, other bands on the tour, stage set-up (lights, props, backdrop, etc.) and notable on-stage guest appearances.

Critical reception

A section should be dedicated to an overview of the critical reception of the album, as documented by reliable secondary sources such as reviews, books, or reputable articles that discuss the album. Be sure to note minority opinions as well, properly cited. Also, the way that the album affected the cultural consciousness of a society or culture should be included to further establish notability.

Professional reviews may include only reviews written by professional music journalists or DJs, or found within any online or print publication having a (paid or volunteer) editorial and writing staff (which excludes personal blogs). The standard for inclusion always is that the review meet Wikipedia's guideline for reliable sources and that the source be independent of the artist, record company, etc. A list of some sources of professional reviews is available at WP:ALBUM/REVSIT. Lists can be considered as another source of reviews as to notability but due to their proliferation and the dubious value of some lists (e.g., Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Punk Rock Albums of the Early 1980s [a fictional example]), they are to be held to a higher standard. Lists should not be a simple enumeration but to be cited should include prose.

The bulk of the information should be in prose format, though the text may be supplemented with the {{Album ratings}} template, as a summary of professional reviews in table form. The template is not to be a substitute for a section in paragraph form, since a review can not be accurately boiled down to a simple rating out of five stars, or a phrase like "unfavorable". If an article is lacking a reception section in prose, but the information is presented in table format, add | noprose = yes to the {{Album ratings}} template to flag the section for expansion.

Include no more than ten reviews in table form. When choosing which reviews to include, consider the notability of the review source and keeping a neutral point of view. For older albums, try to include not just contemporary but also some more recent reviews.

Accolades

Accolades are prestigious awards given to an album by publications and associations. This could include an album of the year award or some other kind of recognition. Care should be taken when adding accolades. Some album of the year lists are given alphabetically, in which case the numerical ranking will have no true value, and others are compiled by user submissions instead of the publication's staff members.

Track listing

A track listing should generally be formatted as a numbered list.

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 including artist, song, and album)
2. "Complete song title" (Doe, Kelly Kalamazoo) – 3:24
3. "Complete song title" (Doe, Kalamazoo, Smith, David Whitman) – 2:34

In more complicated situations, a table or the {{Track listing}} template may be a better choice. If a table is used, it should be formatted using class="wikitable", using column headings "#", "Title" and "Length" for the track number, the track title and the track length, respectively (see Help:Table).

Track names should be in quotes in the track listing and in the rest of the article. A track that is a medley of multiple songs should be inside one set of quotes, like this: "Song 1/Song 2". Untitled tracks should be listed as Untitled (without quotes). If a track has an article of its own, the track name should link to that article.

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 or entire first name is necessary to disambiguate it, as in the Gallagher brothers of Oasis, or Brad and Brett Warren of The Warren Brothers). If all songs were written by the same person or team, this can be stated at the top as "All songs were written by Gordon Gano." If several songs were written by the same person or team, this can be stated as "All songs were written by Gordon Gano, except where noted."

Track lengths should be included for each track. Use a spaced en dash (–) rather than a hyphen (-) as a dividing horizontal punctuation mark before the track length. (Note that they may both look the same in the edit box.) You can insert it from the special character list below the edit box (see Help:Special characters) or copy and paste it from here. You can also add it by writing – HTML entity to the edit box (like this "–") but this makes the code less readable. If you think that this is too difficult, you can still use a hyphen, and hope that someone is going to change it into a dash. This holds true both in "Track listing" and "Personnel" sections. See also Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Dashes.

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

The track listing should be under a primary heading named "Track listing". If there are significantly different track listings for different editions, these can be listed under sub-headings. If the album was released primarily on CD and spans multiple discs, these should be listed separately under sub-headings named "Disc one", "Disc two" and so on. Albums originally released primarily on vinyl or cassette should similarly list the tracks of each side separately under sub-headings named "Side one" and "Side two".

Track listing examples

The following examples all show the track listing for Before These Crowded Streets by Dave Matthews Band, using each of the methods discussed above.

Personnel

A personnel section should be included under a primary heading "Personnel" and should generally be formatted as a bulleted list of names and forms of participation, with spaced en dashes between the two (see track listing section). The names should always be linked if an article exists. The forms of participation (for example instruments) should be written in lowercase, delimited by commas, and linked on the first occurrence only. Remember to pipe the links if needed, for example "percussion" to percussion instrument and "keyboard" to keyboard instrument.

• Johnny Poe – guitar
• Sally Morris – glockenspiel, guitar, organ, kazoo
• Mike Dee – producer

If the number of participants is longer than 20, the list should be divided with Div col.

Charts

If an album has successfully charted on any country's top albums charts, such as the U.S. Billboard 200 or the UK Albums Chart, a section should be made displaying the chart information. If an album charts in only one or two countries, a table may not be necessary.

WP:GOODCHARTS is a list compiled of charting information that can be referenced. Each ranking should have an associated reference to the chart it is taken from or the searchable archive where the information can be obtained.

Certifications

An album that achieves a certain amount of sales or shipments to retailers within a country receives an award in the form of a certification. An album's certification can be worked into the body of the article, or a table can be created if an album has achieved multiple certifications.

Release history

Albums are often released on different dates, on different labels, and on different formats in different regions. This information can be included in a table. Note that the infobox should only include the first release date and label.

References

Placing a {{Reflist}} template at the bottom of the article will collect all of the inline citations that have been placed within <ref> </ref> tags. It is recommended to use citation templates that automatically format the reference correctly. In situations where print media such as books and magazines are heavily used, a shortened footnotes reference system is suggested. In situations where too many large citations makes editing a difficult task, a list-defined reference system will collect the bulk of the reference coding at the bottom of the article.

Take care in identifying reliable sources that are added to articles. User generated websites and other wiki-type websites such as Discogs or Rate Your Music should never be used as sources. Social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter should rarely be used. If the information on sites such as these is truly noteworthy, established publications will likely write about it. For a suggested list of good sources for album articles, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Albums/Sources.

External links

Album articles may contain an external links section of links to relevant external resources about the album. Links to resources about the artist rather than the album do not need to be included here, as these should be linked from the artist's article instead. Links to individual reviews shouldn't be included here; instead, add prose describing the reviews to a "Reception" section and link the reviews in citations. Appropriate links may include links to chords or lyrics for the tracks on the album. Note however that lyrics may be protected by copyright, and external resources that reprint lyrics may be violating that copyright, in which case they should not be linked.

Navbox

If the artist already has a navbox, add it after the external links section but before the list of categories. If the artist has a significant collection of releases and/or related articles, and does not yet have an existing navbox, the documentation for creating this template is in the above link. Because this tool is a navigational aid, it is not recommended to add releases that do not have existing articles.

Categorization

Per WP:CATEGORY, an album may be categorized by a characteristic (such as producer, composer, record-label, etc.) only if it is a defining characteristic of the album (i.e. reliable, secondary sources commonly and consistently define the album as having the characteristic—not just mention it in passing or for completeness).

• Year-of-release is normally a defining characteristic for every album. For other characteristics, if an album is defined by a particular characteristic, then it is likely that the object of the characteristic (e.g. "albums produced by X") will be notable in that capacity and qualify (per WP:NOTABLE and WP:MUSIC) for its own Wikipedia article: if such an article does not exist, then the characteristic is probably not defining.
• Where a team of people is credited for a characteristic (e.g. composer, producer), the official credit must not be split into multiple categories for individual team members.^[1] So, for example, if Y is a member of an album's production team X, categorization may not be as 'albums produced by Y'; 'albums produced by X' might however, be included as a related category of 'albums produced by Y', or the album might be categorized directly as 'Y' (perhaps in addition to 'albums produced by X').
• For an example of where a characteristic might warrant split-categorization, consider an album that is defined as being "a world-wide commercial success"; in this case, as there is no world-wide sales certification body, several categorizations may be made per appropriate national or regional sales certification bodies.
• Characteristics that commonly define one class of album might not define another class of album. E.g. 'conducted-by' commonly defines classical-music albums but rarely, if ever, defines rock-music albums. 'Produced-by' sometimes defines pop- and rock-music albums, but rarely defines classical-music albums. Large record-label companies don't often qualify as a defining characteristic of an album; small, specialized record-labels however, may.
• If the above seems to disallow grouping articles as you think they should be, consider using an alternative mechanism such as a list-article (see WP:CLN).

Current categories

The major "top-level" categories are as follows:

Artist name and date of release

Each album should be placed in the two categories, Category:<Artist name> albums and Category:<year> albums, which should be sub-categories of the respective top-level category. Note that all albums are required to be subcategorized by date into the most specific category that you can find under Category:Albums by year or Category:Albums by decade. (For our purposes, album dates are determined by release, not recording. Thus, A Love Supreme belongs under Category:1965 albums, as it was released in February of that year and not Category:1964 albums, even though it was recorded on December 9 of that year.) If you cannot determine the exact year in which an album was released, that article should also be placed into the maintenance category Category:Album articles without a by-year category. All albums should also be subcategorized by artist. If there is no category for that artist, then one should be created—these artist categories are themselves categorized by artist nationality and genre. For consistency, the artist name should be the same as the title of their article (in terms of punctuation, "&"/"and", use of "The", etc.) In exceptional cases, album by artist categories should be omitted—the most common case being various artist compilations, which will not be credited to any one artist. Note that split albums should be categorized by the contributing artists, though.

For example, Reign in Blood by Slayer was released in 1986 so it has the categories Category:Slayer albums and Category:1986 albums. To add it to these categories, you would place the following code at the bottom of the article:

[[Category:1986 albums]]
[[Category:Slayer albums]]

Category:Slayer albums is a sub-category of Category:Albums by artist, Category:Albums by American artists, which is a sub-category of Category:Albums by artist nationality 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.

Note that albums are only categorized according the artist who is credited with the release. Consequently, Kind of Blue is categorized under Category:Miles Davis albums and not Category:John Coltrane albums, even though Coltrane is a sideman appearing on that recording. Similarly, Led Zeppelin II is categorized under Category:Led Zeppelin albums and not Category:Robert Plant albums as Plant was a member of Led Zeppelin at the time—the latter category is only for his solo work. (Note that it is appropriate to make Category:Led Zeppelin albums a subcategory of Category:Robert Plant albums, as Plant appears on all Led Zeppelin recordings, but it is not appropriate to categorize Category:Miles Davis albums under Category:John Coltrane albums as Davis had several dozen releases without Coltrane's involvement.)

Previous discussions have formed the consensus that a category for an artist's albums should be created even if they have only released one album (irrespective of whether they are likely to release more in the future). Please ensure that every category you create belongs to at least one other category, otherwise, it cannot be navigated to and will be listed at Special:Uncategorizedcategories.

Album type

Albums should not be directly categorized by type, so categories such as Category:Remix albums and Category:Video albums should be diffused to keep from getting too large to navigate.

Note that only studio albums are placed in categories of albums by year—other album types have their own by-year schemes: Category:Compilation albums by year (which also contains Category:Greatest hits albums by year), Category:EPs by year, Category:Remix albums by year, Category:Soundtracks by year, and Category:Video albums by year. There is also a scheme for categorizing Christmas albums by year: Category:Christmas albums by year.

Artist nationality

Album articles should never be categorized directly under Category:Albums by artist nationality—this is only a container category for other categories such as Category:Albums by Canadian artists. Subcategories of this scheme will usually only contain categories themselves: for instance, Category:Rush (band) albums is a subcategory of Category:Albums by Canadian artists; it is not necessary to place individual Rush album articles such as Roll the Bones into Category:Albums by Canadian artists, as they are all subcategorized in that scheme already.

Sales certification

Albums can only be categorized by certification if they have actually received that certification from a sales certifying body. References must be provided in the body of the article to support the presence of these categories. Certifications may be included by using {{Certification Table Top}}, {{Certification Table Entry}}, {{Certification Table Summary}}, and {{Certification Table Bottom}}, which can also automatically categorize the album, but this is not required.

Genre

Usually, albums will not directly be categorized by genre—this is accomplished by way of categorizing the album by artist and that category by genre. For instance, Pet Sounds is not categorized directly under Category:Pop rock albums, because it is in Category:The Beach Boys albums and that is categorized under Category:Pop rock albums. This article does belong in Category:Baroque pop albums, though, as the album by artist category is not under it. Most Beach Boys albums were not baroque pop, but they were all pop rock. To use another example, all Joan Baez albums are categorized as folk albums, since Category:Joan Baez albums is a subcategory of Category:Folk albums by American artists (note that the latter category is an intersection of both Category:Folk albums and Category:Albums by American artists.) The album One Day at a Time featured country music material, so only that album is categorized under Category:Country albums by American artists. Baez' music cannot be characterized as country, so it is not appropriate to categorize all of her albums this way.

As mentioned above, there is a scheme for categorizing the intersection of an album's artist nationality and genre: this serves the purpose of diffusing very large artist nationality categories such as Category:Albums by American artists and very large genre categories such as Category:Rock albums by creating Category:Rock albums by American artists. Even this category is large enough to be diffused with subcategories such as Category:Folk rock albums by American artists. It is neither necessary nor desirable to create intersection categories for every genre and artist nationality—let the general principles of categorization on Wikipedia guide you in determining whether or not one of these intersection categories needs to exist.

Language

All albums can be categorized by language. For albums lacking vocals, Category:Instrumental albums exists. Note that an album can be in an indefinite amount of language categories.

Ordering of categories

Be sure that the categories are sorted properly. Use the {{DEFAULTSORT:}} magic word to control the alphabetization on the category page. For example:

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinks, The}}
[[Category:1964 albums]]
[[Category:The Kinks albums]]

Note that albums should be alphabetized using the first letter of the title, while artists should be alphabetized as last name, first name.

Redirects

Finally, note that consensus has determined that everything written here about categorizing album articles applies to redirects about albums as well. These can—and should—be categorized in the same fashion as full-fledged articles. Note that Category:Redirects from albums exists to contain such redirects.

• Missing encyclopedic articles/List of notable albums
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Discographies
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Songs
• Wikipedia:Record charts