Wikipedia:WikiProject R&B and Soul Music

Some Wikipedians have formed a project to better organize information in articles related to R&B, soul music, and funk music singers, musicians, bands, songs, and record labels.

This page and its subpages contain their suggestions; it is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians. If you would like to help, please inquire on the talk page and see the to-do list there.

Scope
A significant number of articles on important and influential R&B and soul-related persons or organizations, both past and contemporary, are small, underwritten stubs, fancruft, or non-existent. R&B and soul music, more so than any major music genres, have poor coverage in the Wikipedia. Hip-hop generally fares better; whether hip-hop will be included as part of this project is a subject open for vote. The purpose of this project is to expand, copyedit, and/or create these articles.

I understand that this is going to be a big task, one that not one person can handle by themself. Also, I realize that there are a lot of articles to be made, which is why I will try and organize the project in steps and waves, so that we take care of everything, but we don’t try to do too much at one time.

R&B can stand for either rhythm and bass or rhythm and blues.

Navigation

 * Assessment
 * Taskforces
 * To-do list
 * Collaboration
 * Members

Parentage

 * WikiProject Music
 * WikiProject Music genres
 * WikiProject on R&B and Soul Music

Similar Projects

 * WikiProject Classical music
 * WikiProject Computer music
 * WikiProject Electronic music
 * WikiProject Metal
 * WikiProject Hip hop
 * WikiProject Punk rock
 * WikiProject Jazz

Related Projects

 * WikiProject Musicians for guidelines and assistance on articles about musicians and musical groups
 * WikiProject Albums for guidelines and assistance on articles about musical albums
 * WikiProject African Diaspora
 * WikiProject Mariah Carey
 * WikiProject The Supremes

Structure
In general, this project will follow the rules set up on the WikiProject Music page. Here are just a few added notes:


 * Do not create links for articles for albums, songs, or persons that do not exist, unless an article is seriously needed and you can create that article. When you do create an article for a song, person, or album, be sure to run a search and link your article on any other Wikipedia pages where it should be linked.


 * Try to be as concise as possible. The article should cover all phases of the group's career (even unpopular ones), but it should do so in as few words as possible. Try to include only important and major facts and group information; simplification and directness are important.

Specific to articles on solo performers/persons

 * Follow the same basic Wiki biographic format for the person. Be sure to mention their ethnicity, exact repertoire, record label, and significance.


 * The body of the article should focus on the performer’s career, including only significant personal information (marriages, offspring etc) and avoiding trivia (favorite food/color). If the person was in a major group, discussion of their participation in the group should be brief and focus on the person’s major contributions to the group.

Specific to articles on groups/bands/acts
Articles for performers should adhere to the following format:


 * The header should contain the band name, any important abbreviations or aliases, nationality, genre repertoire, year and place of creation, year of disbanding, record label, significance, and all members of the group. If there were more than ten members, list all founding members and any important successors.


 * The body of the article should focus on the group, including how the members met, how they started the group, and the inner workings of the act itself. Personal details about individual members should be mentioned only if they affect the group or its members.

Template/Examples
The articles on Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and The Supremes are in the direction we want to push the other articles towards.

Use this example page as a guide to creating and/or cleaning up articles for each act. It contains editing directions and a style guide: /Example Page

Phase one: cleaning up present articles

 * Three articles are close to ready for being featured. These three need to be slightly revised to follow the format similar to the other music articles and the template.


 * The articles for R&B and soul music need formatting, link cleanup, and expansion. Other major genres in serious need of attention:
 * Doo wop
 * Funk


 * The article for List of number 1 R&B hits (USA) should be divided up and edited to match List of number-one hits (United States). The basis for the re-write is at List of number 1 R&B hits (USA)/temp.


 * Sound samples should be uploaded to both artist and genre pages.

In need of major improvement

 * The following pages are those of acts who need their pages expanded and/or corrected to follow the template, as they stand now:
 * Al Green: NED
 * Curtis Mayfield: IRSNED
 * George Clinton: RSED
 * The Delfonics: IRNED
 * Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes: IRSNED
 * Junior Walker & the All Stars: IRSNED
 * New Edition: IRSED
 * P-Funk: IRSND
 * Sam Cooke: RSED
 * Smokey Robinson: IRSNED
 * Martha & the Vandellas: RSE
 * Danity Kane: RSN
 * FAME Studios" IRE
 * Etta James: RSED
 * Barry White: IRSNE
 * The Spinners: IRSD
 * Philippé Wynne: IRSNED
 * Change (band): IRSED
 * I = needs image (photo in addition to album cover), R = needs references/fact-checking, S = needs sound samples, N = needs neutralizing/points-of-view attributing, E = needs major expansion, D needs full discography

(if you find more related articles that need cleanup, add them here).

In need of minor improvement
These articles only need a few minor fixes. No articles in this section should need major expansion or POV editing.
 * Beth Rowley: R
 * Boyz II Men: S
 * James Brown: S
 * Jodeci: S
 * The Marvelettes: RS
 * T-Pain: IRS
 * Mary Wells: RS
 * The Miracles: RS
 * Misha B: S
 * Solomon Burke: S
 * Little Richard: S
 * I = needs image (photo in addition to album cover), R = needs references/fact-checking, S = needs sound samples, D needs full discography

Sufficiently improved

 * The Jackson 5
 * Marvin Gaye
 * The Supremes
 * The Isley Brothers
 * LeToya Luckett (now a good article)

Phase two: creation of new articles
This will be a listing for important acts or figures who do not presently have articles.
 * Shai - ✅
 * Soul 4 Real - ✅
 * Jimmy Liggins - ✅
 * Steve Guyger - ✅
 * Big Joe Maher - ✅

R&B and Soul Music related article
WikiProject R&B and Soul Music Place this tag on top of all R&B or Soul related article talk pages:

Member
You may wish to put this on your userpage after you join. You can add it by copying and pasting the following code User R&B and Soul Music wikiproject. This template also adds you to Category:WikiProject R&B and Soul Music members. If you don't wish to use this userbox but still wish to be on this category then just add to your user page.

R&B and Soul Music Award
reason
 * If you notice an editor making excellent edits to a R&B or Soul related article, add this to his talk page using:


 * Thanks to our fellow User:Tom Morris there is an alternate version of the barnstar, accessible through:

Welcome
Welcome messages to be used for editors of hip hop related articles. ~ produces:

You may find useful to use this other template if the user is non- [ registered]  ~ produces:

Recruiting
We also need new members for this project, if you want to call your wiki-friends, go ahead, and use this template.

Would you like to tell many people in non-member talk area, so you can use. produces:

You can also use, it produces A special thanks goes to  Mi r a n da   who designed this banner.

Useful templates
Templates:


 * Infoboxes:

Stubs:
 * Infobox Musical artist &mdash; Infobox for a band/musician. Syntax is on its main page.
 * Infobox Album &mdash; Album infobox. Syntax found on its talk page or at WikiProject Albums.
 * Infobox Single &mdash; Song infobox. Syntax found on its talk page or at WikiProject Songs.
 * infobox record label &mdash; Record Label infobox. Syntax found on its talk page.
 * Within the project
 * R&B-album-stub &mdash; Place on stub R&B/Soul music albuns articles.
 * R&Bsoul-band-stub &mdash; Place on stub R&B/Soul music bands, duo or group articles.
 * R&Bsoul-bio-stub &mdash; Place on stub R&B or Soul biography articles.
 * R&Bsoul-band-stub &mdash; Place on stub R&B/Soul music bands, duo or group articles.
 * RnB-song-stub &mdash; Place on stub R&B/Soul music song articles.
 * R&Bsoul-stub &mdash; Place on general articles about Rhythm and blues or soul music.
 * General
 * musician-stub &mdash; Place on stub musician articles.
 * music-producer-stub &mdash; Place on stub producer articles.
 * record-label-stub &mdash; for record label stubs
 * Australia-record-label-stub for Australian record label stubs
 * Canada-record-label-stub for Canadian record label stubs
 * Europe-record-label-stub for European record label stubs
 * US-record-label-stub for United States record label stubs

Tools

 * Main tool page: toolserver.org


 * Checklinks - Edit and repair external links
 * Dab solver - Quickly resolve ambiguous links.
 * Peer reviewer - Provides hints and suggestion to improving articles.
 * Article list for Wikiproject R&B and Soul Music, sortable by quality, importance, review status, impact score, etc.

External watchlist

 * Wikiproject Watchlist - WikiProject R&amp;B and Soul Music