Talk:Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (album)

Suspicious notability
CommanderWaterford has tagged this article as potentially not meeting Wikipedia's notability guidelines for musical recordings. Given the guidelines laid out in Wikipedia's standards, I believe this suspicion is justified, though in the end unwarranted as I argue below. Because it is unlikely that harsh noise recordings will (ever) be certified gold, make it onto a nation's recording artist charts, or be nominated for a major music award, the standards for notability are difficult to meet. However, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania article does cite at least two sources of media (not blogs, which are of questionable credibility) that mention the work or remark on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's notability. Further, one of the cited works is a peer-reviewed academic dissertation in which Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania receives a nearly chapter-long treatment, and in which the influence of the recording on other noise artists is noted several times. Last, much of the harsh noise community communicates the significance of a work through underground publications, namely zines. This is especially the case in the 1990s when Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was first released. Zines are often self-published, yet are serious and reliable media for discourse in underground music scenes. For these reasons, I would argue that the suspicion that Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is not notable should be allayed. Yet, I would agree that additional sources from other noise zines should be added to the article's citations to further support this claim. Joeyvandernaald (talk) 18:35, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Suspicion of unreliable sources
CommanderWaterford has flagged this article as containing sources that may not be reliable. Though no justification was included in the present talk page for this flag, I suspect that CommanderWaterford added the flag because two blogs are cited in the article as references. Indeed, Wikipedia does not regard blogs as credible sources for citation so this flag is on the surface warranted. Yet, it's important to note how the blogs are being used as references in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania article. The two blogs are used to support the claim that the album is influential and notable among fans and critics. Bloggers' commentary is itself primary source evidence that fans see the release as notable. Further, given the lack of media for communication and commentary about noise music (a considerable amount of discourse about noise music exists on blogs and message boards), blogs, like zines, are valuable sources of evidence in regard to the acclaim or notability of particular work of underground music. --Joeyvandernaald (talk) 18:48, 28 April 2021 (UTC)