User:Jordywalsh/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Emo rap

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose to evaluate the article on Emo rap because it appeared in the list of c-class articles related to in music genres and I was interested in the challenges related to documenting a movement that's still very much in progress but also kind of in flux since three of its major figures have passed. The still-young legacy of this genre is deeply complex when it comes to considerations of genre combinations, genre influence, and intellectual property (at least one of these artists has been sued for sampling without permission). Additionally, the social dimensions of this subject are difficult to ignore with regard to mental health and addiction. Allegations of violence and domestic assault against XXXTentacion further complicate the way that we understand this genre.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

Lead section

 * Does the lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * The lead sentence is good and clearly states what the article is about.
 * Does the lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * The lead section is missing some gestures toward the history and controversy of the genre.
 * Is the lead concise or is it overly detailed?
 * The lead is brief, perhaps a little too brief — a quick gesture to the genre's notability might round it out.

Content
A good Wikipedia article should cover all the important aspects of a topic, without putting too much weight on one part while neglecting another.


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Some of the content feels a little bit off-topic, particularly the "precursors" part of the history section. Much of this feels more like analysis than history, searching for previous overlap between the two genres rather than tracking the rise of a particular subgenre.
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Yes overall — although for a phenomenon that has developed mostly over the past 5 years, I suspect there are major historical milestones missing between 2020 and 2022.
 * Other notes:
 * In the "Influences" section, it appears that the article relies a little heavily on genre labels rather than aesthetic descriptions — this leads to a list of labels and artist names that might not feel very informative to those not in the know.

Tone and Balance
Wikipedia articles should be written from a neutral point of view; if there are substantial differences of interpretation or controversies among published, reliable sources, those views should be described as fairly as possible.


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Yes, for the most part, although there are a few claims that feel like analysis and go without citation: "Swedish rapper and member of the Sad Boys collective, Yung Lean, released 'Ginseng Strip 2002' and the highly influential mixtape Unknown Death 2002, which many have regarded as cementing Yung Lean as the 'father of emo rap'". A few lines like this feel a little biased and might be rephrased to sound more neutral.
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?
 * The lengthy precursor section feels like it may be suggesting that this genre is a direct extension of previous interactions between hip-hop and emo instead of a distinct type of fusion with its own aesthetic/thematic identifiers. But otherwise, the article is framed in a balanced manner.

Sources and References
A Wikipedia article should be based on the best sources available for the topic at hand. When possible, this means academic and peer-reviewed publications or scholarly books.


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * The article draws from a number of secondary sources, mostly music publications and culture websites. It doesn't appear as though any academic or peer-reviewed sources have been cited, but I suspect that there might not be much peer-reviewed material out there given the recency of the genre as a phenomenon. Still, it might be worth looking into some academic accounts of emo rap to see if any work has been done more recently (particularly with regard to any citable social analysis — has any work been done with regard to the genre's treatment of gender or sexuality?)
 * Are there better sources available, such as peer-reviewed articles in place of news coverage or random websites? (You may need to do some digging to answer this.)
 * Some of the sources cited seem a little unreliable (some personal blogs and student newspaper articles from several years ago) that could be refreshed.

Organization and writing quality
The writing should be clear and professional, the content should be organized sensibly into sections.


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Overall, the article is easy to read and very direct. Sometimes, however, lists of artists or external references can feel more distracting than informative — perhaps some of these lists could be supplemented with descriptions of some of these core aesthetic/thematic traits.
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?
 * For the most part, yes. I might suggest a separate subsection within the history section to demarcate the passing of many of the genre's central figures — these descriptions take up a lot of the latter part of the history section and the article ends up feeling a lot more about the deaths of those figures than the genre itself. Other separate "controversy" or "reception" sections might also be useful for readers to get a sense of the genre's impact. I also wonder if there are worthwhile sources out there that might allow for more description of the genre's visual and fashion aesthetics.

Images and Media

 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * The article features a few images of the genre's leading figures and a media upload of one of its representative songs. The images are perhaps not absolutely necessary, but they break up the text nicely and give the reader some faces to attach to the many names listed in the article.
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * The caption for one of the songs could possibly direct the listener toward the representative characteristics of the genre rather than just identifying it as the most successful release.

Talk page discussion
The article's talk page — and any discussions among other Wikipedia editors that have been taking place there — can be a useful window into the state of an article, and might help you focus on important aspects that you didn't think of.


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * Some conversations have been had over the naming of the article ("Emo rap" vs. "Emo hip hop") and how to address the deaths of some of the artists detailed. Other conversations focus on which artists should be included or left out.

Overall
The article establishes a good foundation of information regarding the genre, including its aesthetic inventions and lyrical themes. The history section of the article, however, feels a bit imbalanced, with a great deal of space dedicated to precursors and over half of the following section dominated by the deaths of many of the genre's leading artists. Additionally, the article feels a little slight with regard to the description of the actual genre aesthetics, reception, and controversy related to Emo rap.