Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of longest gaps between studio albums


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. postdlf (talk) 18:09, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

List of longest gaps between studio albums

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Reeks of original research... note the lack of references. And it is eye-wateringly trivial. TheLongTone (talk) 12:01, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Albums and songs-related deletion discussions.  Jupitus Smart  13:49, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Music-related deletion discussions.  Jupitus Smart  13:49, 13 July 2017 (UTC)


 * I doubt it's OR as it's got some references. Still of questionable notability. --Colapeninsula (talk) 13:51, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes, I agree, WP:OR wouldn't be the issue here - very little in the way of subjective values would be involved here, it's merely tracking the distance between two objective release dates, something that would be easy to source for something like music albums. The bigger issue would probably be whether or not it meets WP:LISTN/WP:NLIST. Sergecross73   msg me  14:34, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions. North America1000 14:18, 13 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Comment: hardly definitive either... in the last 12 months alone, both the Avalanches and Chuck Berry would need to be added to this list. Richard3120 (talk) 17:07, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Comment This could be a great list, but it lacks focus. It's def. a notable concept with real-world notability - here's some sources, , . But it needs a clear set of inclusion criteria (maybe 10 years?), or limit it to the top 50/100 gaps? There could be literally hundreds, if not thousands of bands with "big" gaps between albums. Off the top of my head, there's sixteen years between Swans releasing Soundtracks for the Blind, breaking up, reforming and then releasing My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky. And it's already been 11 years since Tool did 10,000 Days. I'm still waiting for the follow-up. Grrrrrr.  Lugnuts  Fire Walk with Me 17:50, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I agree with - the list could be a useful one, but very difficult to implement without some inclusion criteria. How do we know, or will we find out, if there are African or Asian artists that have had a gap of more than ten years between albums, especially if they're obscure and don't have their own Wikipedia articles? Even if you limit it to Western musicians, there are many that could fall though the gaps if you only think along the lines of rock or pop acts (e.g. Vashti Bunyan).


 * I'm never comfortable with lists like this being on Wikipedia because it's hard to be definitive about them. Still, that's not a reason for including them, and as says, subjectivity is not the issue (unlike the big problems with List of best-selling girl groups, which I've given up trying to police). Richard3120 (talk) 18:10, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
 * , - I think I may actually be leaning towards keep on this. It's actually a topic that (painfully) interests me, with  it being relevant to a number of band's I actively maintain here (Tool, A Perfect Circle, Third Eye Blind, etc.) If its kept, I'd work on inclusion criteria, maintenance, etc. WP:ALBUMS is moderately active as a WikiProject too, so I imagine we could get input from there if issues arise. Sources do cover this sort of thing, and I'm good at inclusion criteria setup/enforcement, so it seems possible. Even if its deleted, not very much work was put into this list, and its not the type of chart I'd set up for it, so unless consensus is this article should never exist in any capacity, I may start up a draft of a more policy/guideline compliant version anyways.  Sergecross73   msg me  18:25, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
 * It needs sources to start with, and I think the basic inclusion criteria would be 10 years+ and both the band/artist and the albums would need existing wiki articles.  Lugnuts  Fire Walk with Me 18:27, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I agree with all of that. I'm also not sure about the whole year/month/days format - it could get hard source things down to the day, especially considering we're going to be talking about albums initially released long ago. And for album's without release dates, (like Tool's situation) that are merely going "to present", it would require constant updating. (Every day you'd have to add one more day on.) Unless we didn't add artists who still haven't released the follow up album (like Tool), though, that'd be a shame, as that sort of thing gets a lot of coverage too. There's some kinks to be worked out, for sure, but I think its do-able from a practical and Wikipedia policy standpoint. Sergecross73   msg me  18:45, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I've just realised the list doesn't yet include the whole Chinese Democracy debacle, which you would have thought would be the first thing that springs to mind when compiling a list like this... Richard3120 (talk) 23:52, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Weak keep the article seems to suffer a case of WP:NOTDUP but the topic seems meritable with a clear inclusion criteria. Ajf773 (talk) 20:18, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, North America1000 04:21, 20 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I think... I'm going for keep on this one... sources should not be difficult to obtain (when an artist releases their first album in more than a decade, it tends to get a lot of press), but as says, it really needs focus and proper criteria for inclusion set in stone from the beginning – if  is willing to take this on, I don't think this is insoluble. Some cut-off point needs to be defined as well, and I suspect it will have to be more than 10 years... even with a 15-year gap we might end up with more than 50 artists on the list (apart from those already mentioned above, Pixies and TLC spring to mind). One other point I wanted to raise: would you include someone like Barry Gibb, whose two solo albums are 32 years apart but who obviously released a few studio albums in the intervening years with a certain other group? Richard3120 (talk) 05:12, 20 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Maybe that's the type of scenario where we'd handle it based on how sources usually cover it? If there's a lot of "Wow, this is the first Barry Gibbs release in 32 years!" RS comments out there, we'd include it, but if its commonly covered as "This is the first output from Gibbs in 4 years, since the Gibbs related "Album X" album came out" then maybe we don't add it? It is hard to say though. I'm not really familiar with the nuances of Gibb's career in particular, but in general, I mean, sometimes, artists break off and do solo stuff that is totally different, and others end up doing solo stuff that's basically interchangeable with their band's stuff. It's something we could hash out with inclusion criteria and talk page discussion I'm sure. Sergecross73   msg me  12:35, 20 July 2017 (UTC)
 * just to say I can certainly find RS that state "Barry Gibbs' first solo album in 32 years" -, . Richard3120 (talk) 13:47, 20 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Wow, yeah, and Billboard no less. Yeah, I'd include that, unless the inclusion criteria talks go in a different direction that I anticipate... Sergecross73   msg me  14:43, 20 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Keep Nearly forgot about this (and to actually !vote too...) Keep as long as the inclusion criteria for the band/artist and time-gap are set out.  Lugnuts  Fire Walk with Me 06:43, 20 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep - Conceptually, it meets Wikipedia's requirement's for a list. I was hesitant to say "keep" because this particular iteration is so poorly done - I'd do it entirely different in the ways of formatting, entries, sources, etc. Not sure if it'd be easier to just start from scratch. But I do intend on making such an article, and will develop inclusion criteria. So I may as well say keep. Sergecross73   msg me  12:25, 20 July 2017 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.