Wikipedia:WikiProject Musicians/Categorization/draft

The Musicians WikiProject aims to organize and categorize the articles about musicians within Category:Musicians and its many, many sub categories.

Please use the following guidelines when organizing articles. To discuss these guidelines, or to ask for help in applying them, please use the talk page. If you can think of additional situations that need to be covered, please discuss them.

The gold level
There are three pieces of information that should normally be included in a category for an article about a musician: the musician's nationality, the genre that the musician plays, and the musician's instrument.

The general rule is that these three pieces of information should be used to put the article into one category. For simplicity, we'll call this categorization the "gold level". If you only use two pieces of information out of the three, it would be the "silver level" and if you only use one out of the three, that would be the "bronze level". Let's take some real-life examples of the "gold level":
 * Category:French classical flautists
 * Category:Canadian rock drummers
 * Category:British jazz guitarists

That gold level category, added to the article, is all you need for it to be correctly classified under these guidelines. The category system is designed so that you can move between articles of musicians through the category tree easily using nationality, or genre, or instrument - e.g.
 * from Category:British jazz guitarists to Category:American jazz guitarists via Category:Jazz guitarists;
 * from Category:British jazz guitarists to Category:British classical guitarists via Category:British guitarists;
 * or from Category:British jazz guitarists to Category:British jazz pianists via Category:British jazz musicians.

If you want to know more about how the system is designed, or if you categorize an article correctly but get a "redlinked" category such as Category:Fooian heavy metal clarinetists, see below under.

Multiple gold levels
You can have more than one gold level category per article, if the article requires this. For example, someone who is a notable jazz trombonist and classical trombonist, or someone who is a rock drummer and a rock singer, or someone who has / had two nationalities. In these cases, it would be correct to have Category:British jazz trombonists and Category:British classical trombonists, Category:Mexican rock drummers and Category:Mexican rock singers, and Category:French pop accordionists with Category:Canadian pop accordionists.

Don't put gold, silver and bronze levels for the same instrument on the article
Articles correctly categorized at gold level should not also be in categories at silver level or bronze level for the same instrument. This is because the gold level category does that work for you: the category is connected to the relevant silver and bronze levels in the category structure. So, if you have an article about someone from the country of Foo who plays the buzzbaw in the yellowbop genre, just add Category:Fooian yellowbop buzzbawists, and not any of the following parent categories:
 * Category:Fooian buzzbawists – silver level category
 * Category:Fooian yellowbop musicians – silver level category
 * Category:Yellowbop buzzbawists – silver level category
 * Category:Buzzbawists – bronze level category
 * Category:Fooian musicians – bronze level category
 * Category:Yellowbop musicians – bronze level category
 * or even the even higher levels of Category:Musicians, Category:Yellowbop, Category:Buzzbaw, Category:People from Foo, or Category:People.

This is because Category:Fooian yellowbop buzzbawists is a sub-category or a sub-sub-(etc)-category of all of these parents, and the general Wikipedia guideline for article categorization is that you don't put an article in a parent category if it's in a sub-category: see give the reference...

Does it matter if there is only one article in a gold level category?
Not really, as long as the gold level is part of this scheme, since whilst Wikipedia generally dislikes small categories, there is an exception for small categories that are part of an established category structure such as this: see reference. In any case, more articles can be written and added to that category over time. For some suggested exceptions to the gold level structure, see.

The silver level
This is where you can add two out of nationality, genre and instrument, but not all three, either because the article is within an exception to gold level classification, or because the article lacks the information about one element. Whilst gold level categorization is the aim, sometimes articles won't have all the information you need and so silver is the best you can do for now. If you can improve the article by adding information as well as sorting out its category, that's great. If gold level classification is impossible (e.g. there are no sources listed and articles on associated people/bands/albums etc don't help with context) do the best you can: Category:Italian flautists, Category:Canadian drummers, Category:American pop musicians will do for now. However, you should consider add an note to the talk page of the article, suggesting that the missing information be added so that the article can be correctly classified.

If information is there but difficult to apply in gold level form, do what you can and consider adding it to the list on the talk page of WP:MUSCAT where other editors can make suggestions.

The bronze level
This is where the article falls within an exception to gold level classification, or is simply too incomplete to allow you to add more than one out of nationality, genre and instrument. If it's the latter, the article would need some considerable improvement: do what you can, and consider leaving messages on the talk pages of the article and of WP:MUSCAT.

Warning note about singers
The guidelines below apply to singers, but with two exceptions of long-standing:
 * if you need to refer to a singer's "instrument" when creating or sorting categories, sort as "Vocals" rather than "Singer";
 * singers are treated as performers by style, not performers "by genre", should you ever find yourself needing to create such a category (see below).

Warning note about previously unsorted bronze level categories
If you find a bronze level category (Category:(genre) musicians or Category:(X-instrument)ists) that has not had silver and gold level categories created for it, think first whether the full force of the guidance about applying gold level categorization really needs to be applied. Examples of where it may not be appropriate might include:
 * where the instrument is very limited in geographical scope, e.g. it is a traditional instrument found in a handful of countries and so sorting players of the instrument by nationality would be redundant. Consider, though, whether categorization by genre is appropriate, or enough.  Consider also if it would be better to connect to an additional parent category, that of the appropriate Category:Fooian musicians with something on the category page such as "This category contains X-instrumentalists from Foo, Upper Foo and the People's Democratic Republic of Foo."
 * the genre is very limited in geographical scope and so sorting musicians who play in that genre by nationality would be redundant. Consider, though, whether categorization by instrument is appropriate, or enough. Consider also if it would be better to connect to an additional parent category, that of the appropriate Category:Fooian musicians, again with an appropriate explanation on the category page.
 * the instrument is only ever played in one genre, and so sorting by genre would be redundant. (Note that this example does not apply to the vast majority of what might be called Western classical / orchestral instruments, which have often been played in other genres.) Consider whether it would be better to connect to an additional parent category, that of the appropriate Category:(Genre) musicians with something on the category page such as "This category contains "This category contains X-instrumentalists who universally play in the (genre) genre".
 * the genre does not easily lend itself to categorization by instrument. This may be the case with some contemporary music styles, for example hip-hop, which is considered in more detail below.  Consider whether categorization by nationality would be enough.

However, the bronze level category Category:Fooian musicians should always be sorted into silver and gold levels (where not inconsistent with the above) even it contains few musicians. If this is not done, these musicians will never be found along their colleagues from other countries who play the same instrument/genre.

If in doubt whether categorization of a particular field is appropriate, please discuss the matter on the WP:MUSCAT talk page.

Stage 1
As noted earlier, there are three elements in the gold level categorization and these fit with three parent categories: Category:Musicians by nationality, Category:Musicians by genre and Category:Musicians by instrument. The gold level category structure only works properly if the correct intersections are made for each nationality, genre and instrument at silver and bronze level.

Again, let's take the gold level example of Category:Fooian yellowbop buzzbawists. For this category to be correctly placed, it needs to be part of three silver level categories: Category:Fooian yellowbop musicians, Category:Yellowbop buzzbawists and Category:Fooian buzzbawists. (How this is all done will be explained later.) Each silver level category will contain various gold level categories that include the silver level's "missing" element - i.e.


 * the silver level Category:Fooian yellowbop musicians will contain all the gold level categories for all the instruments played by Fooian yellowbop musicians
 * the Category:Yellowbop buzzbawists will contain all the gold level categories for all nationalities of yellowbop buzzbawists
 * the Category:Fooian buzzbawists will contain all the gold level categories for all the genres of Fooian buzzbawists.

In turn, the silver level categories need to end up as part of the bronze levels – although there's an intermediate level between silver and bronze, for tidiness, as explained in a moment. So, in our example:
 * the silver level Category:Fooian yellowbop musicians will be an indirect subcategory of two bronze level categories Category:Fooian musicians and Category:Yellowbop musician – "indirect" because of the intermediate level
 * Category:Yellowbop buzzbawists will be an indirect subcategory of Category:Yellowbop musicians and Category:Buzzbawists, and
 * Category:Fooian buzzbawists will be an indirect subcategory of Category:Fooian musicians and Category:Buzzbawists.

And then, to finish off the structure:
 * the bronze level Category:Fooian musicians will be a sub-category of Category:Musicians by nationality
 * Category:Yellowbop musicians will be a sub-category of Category:Musicians by genre
 * Category:Buzzbawists will be a sub-category of Category:Musicians by instrument

and these three are all sub-categories of Category:Musicians, which is the top level of categorization within the scope of this WikiProject.

Stage 2
As each bronze level category holds two different silver level type (e.g. Category:Buzzbawists is the parent category for buzzbawists from every country and also for buzzbawists of every genre) the two different silver levels could get mixed up on the category page, making it hard to navigate. To avoid this, we use an intermediate level to collect the silver levels together first, before we add the intermediate level to the bronze level. Continuing with our example:
 * Category:Fooian yellowbop musicians should be a subcategory of the intermediate levels Category:Fooian musicians by genre and Category:Yellowbop musicians by nationality
 * Category:Yellowbop buzzbawists should be a subcategory of the intermediate levels Category:Buzzbawists by genre and Category:Yellowbop musicians by instrument
 * Category:Fooian buzzbawists should be a subcategory of Category:Buzzbawists by nationality and Category:Fooian musicians by instrument

Connecting the intermediate levels to the bronze levels:
 * Category:Fooian musicians by genre and Category:Fooian musicians by instrument are both sub-categories of Category:Fooian musicians
 * Category:Yellowbop musicians by nationality and Category:Yellowbop musicians by instrument are both sub-categories of Category:Yellowbop musicians
 * Category:Buzzbawists by genre and Category:Buzzbawists by nationality are both sub-categories of Category:Buzzbawists

Stage 3
Do we need intermediate levels between gold and silver levels? These are the three possible intermediate levels, and they only have one parent - the silver level:
 * Category:Fooian buzzbawists by genre
 * Category:Fooian yellowbop musicians by instrument
 * Category:Yellowbop buzzbawists by nationality

This level is optional for WP:MUSCAT purposes, and editors legitimately disagree on its use. It is agreed that intermediate levels should always be created when they serve a purpose in keeping the gold levels together in the silver level to prevent them being confused with other categories from different trees outside WP:MUSICIANS such as sub-nationality. See Category:American singers by genre, which serves a purpose in keeping together a group of related categories that would otherwise be very difficult to locate among the rest.

Step 1a – from gold to silver without intermediate gold-silver levels
Now, how to create the category tree itself for the gold level Category:Fooian yellowbop buzzbawists. Firstly, check correct use of lowercase, correct nationality adjective (there are some unusual ones), correct name for instrumentalists and that this is in the plural. Then decide whether you need intermediate levels between gold and silver levels. For now, we say no. Then add the following entries to the new page for Category:Fooian yellowbop buzzbawists:


 * <--- note the use of the name of the instrument, not the instrumentalist; note the capital letter (B and b are sorted in different places)
 * <--- again note the capital letter

Step 1b – from gold to silver with intermediate gold-silver levels
As above, except we add the intermediate category name ("by instrument" / "by genre" / "by nationality"), not the silver level category name.

Create links in the intermediate categories to their silver categories as follows:
 * In Category:Fooian yellowbop musicians by instrument, add
 * <--- note the use of the space in an intermediate category to put it at the top of the list of sub-categories.


 * In Category:Fooian buzzbawists by genre, add
 * <--- use the space


 * In Category:Yellowbop buzzbawists by nationality, add
 * <--- use the space

Then continue.

Step 2 – from silver to intermediate level

 * In Category:Fooian yellowbop musicians add the following:


 * In Category:Yellowbop buzzbawists add the following:


 * In Category:Fooian buzzbawists add the following:

Step 3 – from intermediate to bronze level

 * In Category:Fooian musicians by instrument add:
 * <--- with the space


 * In Category:Fooian musicians by genre add:
 * <--- with the space


 * In both Category:Buzzbawists by nationality and Category:Buzzbawists by genre, add:
 * <--- with the space


 * In Category:Yellowbop musicians by nationality add
 * <--- with the space
 * <--- with the space


 * and in Category:Yellowbop musicians by instrument add:
 * <--- with the space
 * <--- with the space

Congratulations! The final step will be to ensure that, you create Category:Fooian musicians, Category:Buzzbawists and Category:Yellowbop musicians if any are missing. Check comparable categories for examples, but be sure to include Category:Musicians by nationality, Category:Musicians by instrument or Category:Musicians by genre, as appropriate.

Category overlap
What about things like Category:Heavy metal musicians and Category:Rock musicians. Both are bronze level categories, but clearly Heavy metal musicians are a sub-set of Rock musicians, so Category:Heavy metal musicians should be a sub-category of Category:Rock musicians. That's fine, no problem, make it a sub cat of Category:Rock musicians the same way you normally would.

This also applies to Category:Scottish musicians which is a bronze level in its own right, but also a sub cat of the bronze level Category:British musicians. The same goes for Category:Bass guitarists which is a sub category of Category:Guitarists.

The next question is whether the sub categories should also be built into the structure. Generally, the answer is yes, in addition to being a sub cat of Category:American rock musicians, [:Category:American heavy metal musicians]] should also be a sub cat of Category:American musicians by genre and Category:Heavy metal musicians by nationality. The applicability of this is a matter of opinion, but generally, unless the over lap is very strong and very obvious (e.g., Category:Six string guitarists as a subset of Category:Guitarists), the more-specific subcategory can be placed in the structure. Otherwise, you can simply leave it as a sub-category of the category already in the structure (Category:Guitarists in the previous example).

This is a template used to add a classification box to the top of a page based on the subject's nationality and profession. It shows up quite a bit on musician pages and even musician categories. The template itself is fine, but one of the arguments, Supercategory, tends to conflict with the guidelines for third-order categories because the template automatically puts pages directly into second order NI categories, instead of NI by genre. Therefore, on category pages where this causes a conflict, please simply remove the (optional) Supercategory argument to resolve the conflict.

Category:Singer-songwriters
Once again, these types of categories are common and don't conflict with the guidelines. Don't try to fit them in the structure, just leave them as a sub-category of the appropriate Singer category.

Other pre-order categories
There are a lot of categories that look like a pre-order category, for instance Category:American musicians by ethnicity. These are not officially maintained by this project at this point, but where such categories do exist, feel free to work them into the structure the same way you would with the others.

Hip hop categories
There are some special considerations concerning hip hop categorization:
 * Don't create "by instrument" categories-- it makes sense for other genres, but not hip hop.
 * Singers who frequently sing for hip hop songs can go in Category:Hip hop singers.
 * Put hip hop performance poets in Category:Slam poets
 * Try to avoid putting things directly in Category:Rappers – opt for a more specific category of rapper (e.g Category:French rappers, Category:Women rappers, etc).
 * DJs go in Category:Hip hop DJs, and producers in Category:Hip hop record producers.