User:Jtp wiki/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Bakersfield sound

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article to evaluate because it is the central topic of my research topic. Initially, I'm surprised at how short the article is, so I would like to further examine the content in the article.

Evaluate the article
All of the information provided in the article is relevant to the article topic. No information is out of date because the article discusses past events and also mentions more contemporary artists that have been influenced by the Bakersfield Sound. In terms of improvement, the article is lacking information on Merle Haggard, who is certainly very notable as an artist from the Bakersfield sound and is not mentioned enough. In fact, I would argue that there should be a subtitled section about Merle Haggard just as there is one for Buck Owens. What should also be added is more information about the Bakersfield Sound during its most popular period in the 1960s and 1970s. While the emergence of the subgenre is discussed in detail, there should be more information describing the genre in its heyday as well as its legacy. To discuss neutrality, the article is neutral and does a great job at avoiding bias. Also, the Bakersfield Sound isn't a particularly controversial topic.

In terms of source material, the links do work and the sources support claims in the article. The second source, allmusic.com, does not appear to be that credible of a source and information from that source seems to be too closely paraphrased to be proper. In general, a lot more in-text citation would be productive, as several facts have no origin cited. The source list could be improved by seeking more authoritative sources like country music history associations, for example.

On the talk page, other users echoed my same sentiments about the citations, saying that a lot more citations were needed. There's also some disagreement about the artists who pioneered the genre. The article is part of three Wiki Projects: WikiProject California, WikiProject Music/Music genres task force, and WikiProject Country Music.