Talking Heads Wiki:Manual of Style

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This article is equivalent to Wikipedia's Manual of Style and its sub-pages, which go into detail about the standards and formats of writing articles. Talking Heads Wiki is currently still fairly new, so these have not been well established yet, and may change over time. Unlike Wikipedia, this website is focused on a particular subject (Talking Heads) so works in a lot of different ways. It also differs in that Talking Heads Wiki isn't one of the most-used websites on the internet, and revolves around a community of fans without the pressure of spreading important education, such as medical or political topics.

Nonetheless, this website aims to be clean, accurate, and informative in a consistent way. It may not be as strict here as it is over on Wikipedia (for example, over there you wouldn't see sentences written as casually as this!) but there are still guidelines in place, and formats that should be followed. There may not be "rules" per say, but rules-of-thumb. Here you can find an overview of the different things to consider when editing on this website, particularly based on what type of topic an article is (a person, a band, an album, a song, an event, etc). There will also be an individual page for each of these types, which will go into more detail.

The main principles of Talking Heads Wiki

Talking Heads Wiki revolves around the band Talking Heads, with "Talking Heads" sometimes being used to inclusively refer to the careers of all four core band members - David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison - outside of the band itself. Information should be extensive and detailed, covering their careers before, after, within, and outside of the band. Their personal lives may be explored to the same extent as is allowed on Wikipedia, without being intrusive or leaking actual personal information. They should be treated equally, fairly, respectfully, and objectively. Although there is inevitable variety in the available information and interested contributors about different projects, an overall goal of the Wiki is to document their full careers, including all of the recordings, performances, and events that they've been involved in, regardless of whether it is a Talking Heads release or a solo guest appearance. Information should be written in a Talking Heads-centric way and where necessary provide links to Wikipedia pages for a more general-purpose set of information about a topic if it isn't directly related.

General guidelines

Advice:

  • It's okay to make typos, or other mistakes! Just try your best to look out for them, and fix any that you notice.
  • If you're not sure about whether something should be modified, ask others! Every page has a little "Discussion" button above it which is specifically for discussing changes to a page.
  • Wikipedia has a lot of guides to editing articles, and most of the time the same stuff can apply here.
  • There's a Visual Editor and a Source Editor, try both to see which one you prefer.
  • You can copy stuff from Wikipedia most of the time! It will probably need reformatting and rephrasing, but a lot of information is already out there and there's nothing wrong with using it!
  • Note that citations from Wikipedia will break when pasted here, so you'll need to remove and recreate them (if necessary, we're not as strict with obvious details but a lot of things should still be cited)

Grammatical rules apply similar to Wikipedia. There are various features that may differ across personal preference, but some things that this wiki features include:

  • Oxford Commas will be used wherever necessary.
  • Quotation marks should be double (") and not single ('), and punctuation should go outside. For example: *The song was described as "art pop", and* as opposed to *The song was described as 'art pop', and* or *The song was described as "art pop," and*.
  • Dates should be formatted as "October 8, 1980", or sometimes "1980-10-08" depending on context.
  • Standard title case rules should apply for which words to capitalize in a title (except for referring to a release whose official title does not follow these standards)
  • Within a regular sentence, titles should be referred to with italics, such as *Remain in Light*.

Other guidelines include:

  • The name of an article should be bolded in the opening sentence, like on Wikipedia.
  • Every article should include a link to its corresponding Wikipedia page at the top if one exists.

Notable differences from Wikipedia include:

  • Titles of songs and albums are both formatted in italics like Once in a Lifetime and Remain in Light. On Wikipedia, songs are in quote marks like "Once in a Lifetime", although albums are still in italics.
  • Full names (with middle names) should be reserved for a separate part of a person's article than the first sentence. For example, "Jeremiah Griffin Harrison" would be the bolded part at the start of Jerry's Wikipedia page, but here it should just be "Jerry Harrison" and then his full name should be in the infobox and biography section.
  • A lot of different things will be linked. For example, on Wikipedia there will be links to types of instruments like guitars. That isn't necessary here.
  • You don't need to describe stuff as though the reader will not know Talking Heads. For example, an article can mention a song name without specifying that it's by Talking Heads, and the band don't need to be referred to like "the American rock band Talking Heads".

People and bands

Who should have an article?

This website considers various criteria that would make people relevant enough for their own article, including (but not limited to):

What details to include

The details for a person or band will vary depending on how relevant they are. The details shouldn't stray too off-topic from Talking Heads but should still give an overview of who a person is. For example, Brian Eno's article should talk about his career with ambient music, Roxy Music, and production for a variety of artists. However, most of the article should detail his Talking Heads collaborations. For somebody who's less relevant, such as Arthur Russell, the article will be fairly small and should mostly specify the Talking Heads connections, with a link to Wikipedia for the off-topic information.

What details NOT to include

Like what is said above, articles should stay relevant to Talking Heads and only give an overview of a person or band, without going into detail about their own career history or personal life. A person's page should never intrude beyond the standards set out by Wikipedia, for example information like addresses or phone numbers should obviously not be leaked. Just like Wikipedia, there should be no speculation about somebody's private life beyond what they publicly share, such as sexuality. The page should be written neutrally and objectively, so the way a person is described shouldn't reflect any dislike or like towards that person. This goes without saying, but information should be true and verifiable, either with citations on this website or straightforward evidence on the surface of an internet search (such as somebody's birthday or birth location, unless there is a lack of documentation about something like that).

Format

The opening sentence should contain the person's name in bold, but unlike Wikipedia this should not be the full extended name with middle name unless it's a regular part of how people refer to them. For example, it should be **Jerry Harrison** instead of **Jeremiah Griffin Harrison**. The full name should go in the infobox or biography section. Include the birthdate (and deathdate if applicable) in the same way as Wikipedia, using a format like (born May 14th 1952) or (April 19, 1944 – June 24, 2016). Most descriptions can work the same way as a Wikipedia summary, but try to describe what makes them relevant to Talking Heads as early as possible into the summary. This may be brief and then elaborated on further down in their page. Every person and band should have an infobox and a photo where possible. The next section should be Connections and should list each "connection" to Talking Heads - which can include a lot of things, but for example it should include any of the things that are listed above as criteria for who would have their own article.

Sections for a musician may include sections such as Biography (or divided into sections like Early Life, Career, Personal Life, or whatever else fits their context). A discography section (just summarizing) is recommended for most artists unless they're barely relevant. For example, Brian Eno's page should include more details of his career, in a very summarized version of his Wikipedia page, and include his albums to the same extent that his own Wikipedia article does, both of which should include a Main article link to the Wikipedia article for his detailed discography. For somebody like Johnny Marr who is somewhat relevant to Talking Heads, it should likewise mention his albums (including with The Smiths) but not much more detail is necessary. For somebody like Paul Simon who is only slightly relevant to Talking Heads, it should pretty much entirely describe his performances with David Byrne without going into any real detail of his own career or listing his own discography.

Albums

What albums should have an article?

The following criteria would constitute an album having its own article:

There may be other situations where an album should have its own article, but if it isn't listed here it probably shouldn't have one.

Format

For now, album articles should have pretty much entirely the same format as Wikipedia. Differences will emerge in future, but it's okay to just copy an album page from Wikipedia (ensuring that formatting is updated, such as song titles in italics instead of quotation marks, and relevant links being added to people who don't have Wikipedia pages and irrelevant links being removed to things that don't have pages here. The structure of an album article varies depending on what the album is, but Remain in Light is a good reference of what an album article should look like. Unlike Wikipedia, all albums that have been released by Talking Heads or its members should aim to eventually be equally detailed - at least depending on available information to include, as there are understandably albums with less documentation available about their recording sessions or background.

Songs

Note: unlike Wikipedia, song titles are written in italics like Once in a Lifetime instead of quotation marks like "Once in a Lifetime".

What songs should have an article?

The following criteria would constitute a song having its own article:

There may be other situations where a song should have its own article, but if it isn't listed here it probably shouldn't have one.

Format

For now, song articles should have pretty much entirely the same format as Wikipedia - with the exception of Lyrics, which are not usually provided in full on Wikipedia but should be available here. For the most part, it's okay to just copy a song page from Wikipedia - ensuring that formatting is updated, such as song titles in italics instead of quotation marks, and relevant links being added to people who don't have Wikipedia pages and irrelevant links being removed to things that don't have pages here. The structure of a song article varies depending on what the song is, but Once in a Lifetime is a good reference for what a song article should look like. Unlike Wikipedia, all songs that have been released by Talking Heads or its members should aim to eventually be equally detailed - at least depending on available information to include, as there are understandably songs with less documentation available about their recording sessions or background.

Other releases

Generally speaking, for a release like an E.P. the same rules apply as albums and songs. A release by various artists, such as Dark Was The Night should have an article like any other album. Soundtrack albums should also work this way too, like Something Wild (Soundtrack).

Concerts

This hasn't been established yet, but there will be an article for every concert that features at least one member of Talking Heads performing at least one song. This is a pretty wide encompassing criteria, but we're going for total documentation here! So every Talking Heads concert, every David Byrne concert, every Jerry Harrison concert (including with Adrian Belew), every Tom Tom Club concert, every The Heads concert, every pre-Talking Heads concert that includes the members (The Modern Lovers and The Artistics, primarily), every festival appearance (like Heatwave Festival, 1980), every guest appearance (like David Byrne at Paul Simon's NYC concert in 2011). The article should include the personnel, setlist, and available media to whatever extent possible. Concerts vary significantly so it's hard to specify a format but this will be formalized in future.

Other events

Other events will mostly be documented in the same way as concerts.

Venues

A venue should contain data of all relevant performances/events that have taken place there, with links to each individual concert/event article. Standard details should be provided like on Wikipedia, including its location, opening date, capacity, and any notable history.

Books

Books by Talking Heads members, or about Talking Heads, will all have their own article in a standard Wikipedia format. Titles should be in italics.

Films and TV

There should be an article for any film or TV show that has featured any of the 4 core members of Talking Heads, whether they had an acting role, directing role, interview appearance, or soundtrack contribution. For example, all of the following count:

Other topics

To be established.

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