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what's in a song[]
Forgive me if we've already had this discussion and already set a precedent. When it comes to lists of characters songs — which we have included on character pages in their own sections i.e. Zoe and Olivia, or organized in their own spin-offs in Category:Song Lists — we should have some easily accessible guidelines so that folks know what is and is not included.
For a song to qualify as a particular character's "song," I feel that they should meet the following criteria:
- be that character's solo
- the character is featured in a duet
- the song is performed by a small group, but the character has a prominent part
So, for example, Grover appears in "ABC Hip Hop" but he's just part of an ensemble with no significant part, so it's not really a GROVER SONG the way "I, Grover" is. Now, does "ABC Hip Hop" belong on a list of songs Grover appears in? Sure, I think that could be a thing, but it should be separate from a list of songs that could be considered Grover's. (The current state of songs on Zoe#Songs probably qualifies for this type of list).
Hopefully that makes sense. Should we consider other criteria? —Scott (talk) 22:00, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
- Several years ago, some user kept adding irrelevant songs to the Big Bird songs page, including background stuff and songs that he appears for but are sung by someone else, so that led to me sectioning it off and adding introductory text to establish what to include. Elmo songs also features similar sections. — Jon (talk) 22:33, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
Additional performances[]
Separate but related note from above: when dealing with situations when a character has performed the same song more than once, I think we should have some guidelines about those, too. (Note that this does not include the same taped segment included as a repeat later). IMO, if the song has been done two or three, or even four or five times, it's okay to include each version. For example, David sings "My Name" at least twice on the show, but they're different performances, so I think we should include them both in a song gallery (which I'm currently working on). We should draw the line in cases where a character has done many, many versions as we see with all the Sorting Songs. Thoughts? —Scott (talk) 22:39, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
- I think it might make sense with that proviso. Basically if a song page already covers more clearly who sang in every version (Sorting Songs, "People in Your Neighborhood"), that wouldn't apply, but a first glance at "My Name" doesn't make that as obvious. Five feels like it might be too many to me, but that's mostly just from not actually seeing how it would look. -- Andrew 23:24, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
- Here's how it would look ;) I think it works out nicely. —Scott (talk) 23:33, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
- I think that's fine; every "Three of These Things" or their ilk would be overkill. When putting together Bob's list, it seemed like there was a lot of gaps in certain years and I realized it's because he would do new versions of old songs. So, I'm fine with adding those in (so it doesn't look like he didn't get a song that season). Maybe skip the "First" template? - Shane (talk) 23:33, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
- Yeah, I'm sold on this being workable without overcrowding. -- Andrew 00:26, 16 February 2023 (UTC)