Too much Various Artists - Suggestions - Forums : Best Ever Albums

fabm0

Gender: Male
Age: 56
Location: valenciennes

Hello
I see there is 799 albums of Various Artists in the database.
I think it's too much, and it's also hard to find an album in this list.
I propose to make some rules.
For compilations like Nuggets or Woodstock, Various Artists is appropriate.
For Original Casts, we should use "Original Cast Recordings" (it's the case for some of them)
For Soundtracks, I think we should attribute album of a principal artist when it exists, or it is credited (according to Wikipedia or AllMusic for example), or use "Soundtrack" where there is not principal artist
Examples of albums:
The Bodyguard --> Whitney Houston
Saturday Night Fever --> Bee Gees
Titanic --> James Horner
Harder They Come --> Jimmy Cliff
Evita --> Madonna (it's actually the case)
I can submit others changes.
Best regards.
Fabrice

Guest

Disagree.

Norman Bates

Gender: Male
Age: 51
Location: Paris, France

fabm0 wrote:

I think it's too much, and it's also hard to find an album in this list.

Not if you search by album title.

albummaster
Janitor

Gender: Male
Location: Spain
Site Admin

I know there are a lot of albums by VA, but I think sub-dividing them is not the best way to deal with this. If the main issue is trying to find a particular album by VA, then it sounds like the problem is with the search functionality (whether that's in the chart editor or elsewhere on the site), and this could be improved.

Listmeister

Gender: Male
Location: Ohio

I was about to post this same suggestion, then where it says "make sure this topic hasn't already been posted" (yes, I take that seriously), here it was.

There are two advantages to breaking up the Various Artists set. 1. Searching is easier. One gets used to typing in name-of-artist, and then looking through the dozen or so albums until one finds the one one wants to put on one's chart. Having to completely change one's method in the middle of compiling can be frustrating.
2. Making lists. What are the 5 highest ranked Broadway Cast Albums? Actual compilations? Movie Soundtracks? Live multi-artist concerts? If the Various Artist group was broken up, this would be easier to find.

I'm not seeing the disadvantage of breaking up Various Artists, other than someone (I'll volunteer) will have to go through and sort them. Lethalnezzle just votes "disagree" but gives no reasons, and I can't think of any.

For these reasons, I support the fabm0 Initiative.

albummaster
Janitor

Gender: Male
Location: Spain
Site Admin

Listmeister wrote:

I was about to post this same suggestion, then where it says "make sure this topic hasn't already been posted" (yes, I take that seriously), here it was.

There are two advantages to breaking up the Various Artists set. 1. Searching is easier. One gets used to typing in name-of-artist, and then looking through the dozen or so albums until one finds the one one wants to put on one's chart. Having to completely change one's method in the middle of compiling can be frustrating.
2. Making lists. What are the 5 highest ranked Broadway Cast Albums? Actual compilations? Movie Soundtracks? Live multi-artist concerts? If the Various Artist group was broken up, this would be easier to find.

I'm not seeing the disadvantage of breaking up Various Artists, other than someone (I'll volunteer) will have to go through and sort them. Lethalnezzle just votes "disagree" but gives no reasons, and I can't think of any.

For these reasons, I support the fabm0 Initiative.

I think this can be accomplished via tagging (which is something on the horizon for BEA) e.g. albums can be tagged as soundtracks, musicals, live album, etc. I think the most important thing for the underlying database is that albums are credited to the correct artist (whether that is VA or whoever), so that when people are adding albums into their charts, it is as easy as possible to locate them.

If we started having albums credited to 'Soundtrack' (or whatever), that isn't logically right (I don't think). Tagging would definitely be the better way to deal with this.