Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Shawn Patterson (composer)


 * 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 no consensus. Stifle (talk) 14:29, 15 November 2022 (UTC)

Shawn Patterson (composer)

 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

Does not appear to be notable beyond his writing credit on "Everything Is Awesome". Getting a Washington Post interview is big, but it explicitly calls him an unknown and also I'd consider it a primary interview. Beyond that you've got ASCAP (is that even considered a reliable publication?) and everything else is just for the awards he was nominated for without any in-depth coverage of the actual guy. Interestingly, the article was first created with all the current tags in place except for notability, and unfortunately the article improvements since have mostly been the couple dozen majorly unsourced paragraphs of prose and the list of TV credits. QuietHere (talk) 10:27, 24 October 2022 (UTC) Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Liz Read! Talk! 19:17, 31 October 2022 (UTC) Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Star   Mississippi  01:41, 8 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Bands and musicians, California,  and Massachusetts. QuietHere (talk) 10:27, 24 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Redirect: to Everything Is Awesome; not seeing anything save for primary sources, interviews, and other sources that do not count towards notability. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ravenswing (talk • contribs) 16:42, October 24, 2022 (UTC)
 * Keep per WP:COMPOSER#1, he has credit for writing or co-writing either lyrics or music for a notable composition, and there is also significant in-depth coverage of his career in WaPo that is much more than an interview: ‘Everything Is Awesome’ for Shawn Patterson, the most unlikely of best original song Oscar nominees that can further develop the article. Additional bio/career details in the Boston Globe: Shawn Patterson’s ‘LEGO’ song awaits Oscar fate and The Independent: The Lego Movie song 'Everything is Awesome' written during an 'ugly' divorce, more honors and a performance: ASCAP Honors Top Film & TV Composers at 2015 Ceremony (Billboard). Beccaynr (talk) 00:41, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm not seeing where the sources you posted say anything about the subject. The only real detail in the Globe piece is that the subject grew up in Athol.  What we get from the Independent piece is that he co-wrote the song when he was going through a divorce ... well, we get that from Patterson, actually.  From that Billboard piece, we get that Patterson was one of the ones who received a "PRO’s Composers’ Choice Award," an award of so little prominence it's not mentioned in the "Awards" section of the ASCAP article: . Since you cite WP:COMPOSER, that does hold that "Where possible, composers or lyricists with insufficient verifiable material to warrant a reasonably detailed article should be merged into the article about their work."   Ravenswing      02:05, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
 * , can you access the WaPo article and the extensive coverage of his career? e.g. he was a "former plastic-factory laborer", "began as a production assistant on the “Alvin and the Chipmunks”" (at age 24), "wrote a song about how everything was awesome amid withering divorce proceedings", "started playing music as a teenager and practiced up to 10 hours a day", "intense study and brief stints in music school", "odd jobs that occupied his days and nights" (with details), "In 1990, he settled in L.A.", "first official sale was “Rock the House,” a rap written for a 1991 Chipmunks album" then "another P.A. job at Spumco, the fledgling animation house that produced “The Ren & Stimpy Show.”", "In 2010, Adult Swim’s “Robot Chicken” hired Patterson" [where he scored] "the series’s final three seasons", "wrote songs for guests such as Kesha and the RZA" and then was recruited by Chris McKay for the LEGO Movie, and the article adds details about the success of the song. Beccaynr (talk) 02:20, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I can, actually. And I just don't trust the article to be independent; every paragraph is interspersed with a paragraph of quotes from Patterson, and I don't get a sense that it's genuinely independent, instead of being wholly reliant on Patterson's own words.  Even if we were to set that aside, the GNG requires multiple sources providing significant coverage to the subject.  Where are the others?   Ravenswing      02:26, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Per WP:N the article needs to meet either the general notability guideline (GNG) below, or the criteria outlined in a subject-specific notability guideline (SNG), and he meets WP:COMPOSER, and the award nominations and awards support WP:ANYBIO. The Washington Post is a respected news outlet, and the article is not styled as a Q&A or regurgitation of what he says about himself, and appears to include information about his career that would be subject to fact-checking. It also offers some commentary about him. Beccaynr (talk) 02:37, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
 * For what it's worth, I would like to reemphasise what I already said about this above. Like Ravenswing, I'm not convinced this interview, despite being from the prestigious and clearly reliable Washington Post, is anything more than a primary source. As explained on WP:INTERVIEW, the primary-vs-secondary line can be very fuzzy generally, but here it just looks too close to the primary end of that spectrum for me to trust it. And again, the Post writer calls our guy an unknown. No qualifiers (e.g. "relative unknown"), no past tense, just that he is not a well known figure (at least at the time of writing). If that's not a statement of non-notability, then I don't know what it means. QuietHere (talk) 08:14, 27 October 2022 (UTC)
 * He became well-known by the press coverage, awards, chart placements, etc, so there appears to be no need to disregard secondary coverage and the clear pass of the SNG, based on commentary (which is not a primary source) about his past career in one of the national media sources that helped make him well-known. The WP:COMPOSER guideline asks for verifiable information to build an article, which is amply provided by WaPo and other sources. Beccaynr (talk) 11:47, 27 October 2022 (UTC)
 * The Daily Beast also notes his past career, in addition to a Q&A interview, which further shows there is verifiable information about his career to develop the article. Beccaynr (talk) 12:31, 27 October 2022 (UTC)
 *  Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 *  Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.


 * Delete, or redirect if it could be considered helpful as noted above. No real source establishing the notability of the composer, just of the work. --WhoIs 127.0.0.1 ping/loopback 02:43, 8 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Keep Grammy nominated . Also, well-known for Lego movie anthem. A lot of coverage exists, , , . HCIhistory (talk) 09:16, 8 November 2022 (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.