Wikipedia:Featured Music Project

The Featured Music Project is an attempt to produce a large number of featured articles on musical artists and to improve the content and organization of existing articles in this area. The Featured Music Project seeks to improve the Featured Article Candidates process through the promotion of specific standards for featured articles on musical artists.

The set standards of the Featured Music Project are not meant to be an exhaustive set of criteria. Passing a Featured Music Project review is only the first step on an article's journey to become featured. The FMP review signifies that the article meets all basic standards, and is a good candidate to be reviewed in more detail. This means that all elements of a good article are in place, and that there are no serious flaws in an article. The next step is a peer review, where the entire article will be examined for more specific problems and issues. The last step is the featured article candidacy, which will involve the last little bit of tweaking that the article requires.

How can you help the Featured Music Project?
Articles on musicians, bands and other musical groups should be evaluated according to the below criteria, according to the guidelines set forth on the FMP Evaluation page. This evaluation should be recorded on a subpage specifically devoted to evaluating that article, and should work towards the article achieving as many of the guidelines listed below as possible. Once the article has passed at least five out of the eight categories, it should be listed on the FMP Status page. That page will attract some attention and constructive feedback for the article, in preparation for a full peer review and eventual featured article candidacy.

About these criteria
These guidelines cover most articles on non-classical musical performers. They are guidelines, rather than prescriptions: given the diversity of the area, some of the guidelines may not apply to certain articles.

All references to 'performers' cover both groups of performers and, where appropriate, individual performers.

Articles on performers:
 * who never recorded do not need a discography, and probably do not need a sales section;
 * who recorded very little may need a correspondingly small discography; in any case, information on any known recorded works should be easy to find in the article;
 * who worked largely outside of the mainstream music industry may contain little relevant information about sales; the lack of commercial success should be noted, and any relevant information on concert sales and related matters should be easy to find in the article; and
 * about whom very little is known, whether historical or modern, may need special consideration.

Lead
Typically, the lead:
 * L1: is from two to three paragraphs long;
 * L2: covers all of the major aspects of the subject, and might include content related to all of the primary sections of the article body, including biographical information, musical style, legacy, influences, sales, and other achievements;
 * L3: indicates some or all of the ways in which the performers are notable, and should document the ways in which the performers satisfy one or more of the WP:MUSIC criteria; and
 * L4: includes a free-use image on the right-hand side that is representative of the topic.

An article is generally considered to pass this category when it is of appropriate length and summarizes the article contents, which includes establishing the most notable aspects of the topic.

Comprehensiveness
Typically, an article:
 * C1: has a focus that is appropriate to its title;
 * C2: succinctly summarizes the performers' lives, without going into unnecessary trivia (an article on a group may focus on the group's career together, rather than on the lives of the individual members; an article on band members may focus on their lives and their contributions to the band's career);
 * C3: contains appropriate coverage of the performers' musical style, influences and legacy (an article may cover musical style by including, where necessary, information on instrumentation, vocalization and production, and comparing and contrasting the performers with their peers; it may cover influences by including appropriately sourced information on the performers' stylistic development and relation to other performers; and it may cover legacy by including appropriately sourced information on performers that have been influenced by the topic of the article); and
 * C4: includes the appropriately cited opinions of people such as music critics and scholars; these opinions may be both positive and negative.

An article is generally considered to pass this category when it covers the topic's entire history and contains adequate information on all aspects of the topic.

Sales
Typically, an article:
 * S1: contains information on sales (if sales are largely or entirely irrelevant, make it clear why);
 * S2: contains information on if, when, where and to what degree the performers have appeared on a music chart (if the performers have charted in many countries, consider splitting off more detailed information to an appropriate subarticle; the main article should include data relevant to the home country and a few countries of special importance to the performers, generally including at least the US and the UK);
 * S3: includes information on digital downloading, concert sales and any other verifiable method of measuring popularity, where appropriate; and
 * S4: is written in summary style, unless there is insufficient material for one or more subarticles.

An article is generally considered to pass this category when it contains coverage of sales appropriate to the topic, in that the reader can easily come to a conclusion regarding the topic's relative popularity.

Pictures

 * P1: The article should have several freely usable images, all of which must be clearly tagged with appropriate documentation on each info page.
 * P2: The article should have few or no fair-use images, which, if used, must include rationales on their info pages for the specific use on the article in question.
 * P3: Images should document notable aspects of the topic.
 * P4: Images should have captions that provide useful information.

An article is generally considered to pass this category when it has several pictures with appropriate captions, all of them appropriately tagged and with fair use rationales as needed.

Audio
Sound samples should:
 * A1: be in ogg format;
 * A2: be appropriately tagged, usually as fair use and with appropriate fair use rationales;
 * A3: represent the performers at significant points in their careers;
 * A4: have captions that provide useful information; and
 * A5: use the standard audio template (template:listen and/or template:multi-listen item).

An article is generally considered to pass this category when it has an appropriate number of sound samples uploaded and properly integrated into the article.

Discography
Typically:
 * D1: an article has a "Discography" section, consisting of a simple and clear list of recorded works;
 * D2: the discography uses appropriate annotation and in a format that meets with ordinary consensus;
 * D3: the discography includes all recorded works; frequently recorded performer(s) has a subarticle, with the main article containing only the normal studio albums and singles, with live albums, compilations and other works on the subarticle (performers who recorded very little may need a reduced or absent discography section); and
 * D4: the discography provides one to three relevant, useful facts about each recording, such as record label, chart data and/or year of release.

An article is generally considered to pass this category when the topic's discography is amply comprehensive in the main article in question.

Format/Style

 * F1: The article should be concise and precise, and should explain everything necessary to understand the concepts presented. The article should not contain any violations of the neutral point of view policy, and should not use weasel words; opinions should be specifically cited to those who hold them.
 * F2: The article should contain an "External links" section and may include a "See also:, if appropriate. External links should include the performer(s) homepage, if such exists, and should not generally include fansites; however official or otherwise extremely and unusually important fanclubs and similar sites may be appropriate. External links to sites that do not contain useful information beyond that covered by the article should not be included.  "See also" sections should not exist, or should be very small.  No links that are (or could be placed) elsewhere in the article body should be included in the "See also" section.
 * F3: No section header should be totally empty, or have very little text, or contain a large section of lists or list-like material. Paragraphs should be of an appropriate length.
 * F4: The article should follow all general stylistic guidelines. See also: Wikipedia music standards
 * F4a: The article should not contain any unclear pronouns.
 * F4b: The article should not start sentences with "there is" or "there are".
 * F4c: The article should not use the passive voice except where necessary.
 * F4d: The article should not use vague, or dangling modifiers.
 * F4e: Titles should be placed appropriately in italics or quotes. Italics are for albums, symphonies and other long-form works.  Quotation marks are for songs and other short works.  The titles of albums, compositions and songs should be capitalized, except for prepositions, conjunctions and articles of five words or less and that do not appear at the beginning of the title.
 * F4f: The article should be appropriately wikified to all useful articles, and should not contain gratuitous links to irrelevant articles, including days of the year and years. Links to "years in music" should not be hidden as ordinary year links.

An article is generally considered to pass this category when it is written in generally coherent English, has an acceptable structure and an appropriately limited number of external links and see also links, and is wikified correctly, and has no "Trivia" or similarly inappropriate sections.