Duplicate Artists

[Bork]

Yes and no. I hear what you are saying here, but I believe using whatever happens to be printed on the artwork as the rule is faulty (and no, I am not talking about the cases where NO artist info is printed on the cover). It is currently not done that way in the case of the many artists that sometimes does and sometimes doesn't credit their backing bands on the cover, and in the case of Jimi Hendrix, if he had just gone along and called it Jimi Hendrix and the Experience instead that would get all his albums listed on the same page, as there is no factual difference in the way the band works. When two artists collaborate on an album (with equal stature, not just someone sitting in on a song or two) I believe it correct to keep that as a separate entry, such as in the case of Friday Night in San Francisco by Al di Meola, John McLaughlin & Paco de Lucia, or Mermaid Avenue by Billy Bragg & Wilco. That is a very different situation compared to someone happening to give credit to their backing band. I agree, though, that in some situations it will be a tough call, but it is better than having three different entries for Prince.

[albummaster]

OK, I think we can do something here, but to clarify what the 'rules' should be:

1. Where a solo artist is also a member of a group, the band and the solo artist should be treated separately e.g. solo albums by John Lennon shouldn't be listed under The Beates.

2. Where a solo artist releases albums under slightly different pseudonyms (e.g. the John Mellencamp example earlier on in this thread), their albums should be combined and be listed under the same 'parent' artist (since this is really the same solo artist).

3. Where an artist is separate in their own right to the backing-band that they perform with, the main artist should get all of the credit.

4. When two or more artists are credited separately on an album (with equal stature, not just someone sitting in on a song or two), the artist should be listed/treated as its own separate entity and the individual artists will NOT be credited separately e.g. Friday Night in San Francisco by Al di Meola, John McLaughlin & Paco de Lucia, or Mermaid Avenue by Billy Bragg & Wilco.

Sound alright so far? Well, that was the easy part!

There are exceptions to these 'rules' and we need to clarify what to do here because they could cause problems further down the line with the consistency of the site if we start to go down this route.

People like Richard James etc perform under very different names (should all of their albums be listed under their real name, or their 'best known' name e.g. Aphex Twin?)

A similar example is Gorillaz - should projects like this, where they do not use the person's name (Damon Albarn), but are a single person's project, still appear under the solo artist's name or should they be listed separately as their own entry?

A slightly different example here is Cat Stevens and Yusuf Islam where the performing name is completely different but he is still performing under his 'real' name (and not a 'group' name). People would expect to see his whole discography in one place (listed under one of the names - but which one?!). However, I'm not sure if that is true with Gorillaz or Aphex Twin where the group name is not named after the performer.

[RFNAPLES]

And what about:
Jimi Hendrix (and The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
Band of Gypsys (that's Jimi on the cover)
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[RFNAPLES]

Perhaps we should call the rules "guidelines" instead, so we don't forget that rules are meant to be broken. Sometimes common sense is better.
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[Bork]

I agree that this is pretty tricky and there probably aren't any right answers. Technically I guess The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys could be called bands and should be listed as such, but everyone I know refer to these albums as Jimi Hendrix albums. Allmusic.com lists all the albums in the discography of Jimi Hendrix, and I believe when anyone but the best informed fans search for these albums, the first place they would look is under H for Hendrix (or J for Jimi on this site).

I agree with all four points in albummasters post. That, I believe, would be the most clear for anyone using the site, and the most fair to the statistics of the artists.

I don't know anything about Richard James/Aphex Twin so I can't really help out there. I am guessing, though, if an artist chooses to record under several different names and none of them is clearly the dominant one, there isn't much to do other than list under the different names. This is tricky, though, and the same problem might arise with bands (for instance The Animals and Eric Burdon and the New Animals). I believe that needs to be handled on a case by case basis. In the case of Gorillaz, I don't believe it right to list albums under something other than what they release it under just because they happen to have been christened something else (not, for instance, listing Cat Stevens under Stephen Demitri Georgiou is obvious). The one problem I am really stumped on is the Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam example. Not sure how to handle that one, but I guess when in doubt, leaving it to what is printed on the cover ain't a bad fallback plan.

In the end, it won't be perfectly organized with no room for errors, but it will be clearer and more comprehensive than leaving it to what is printed on the cover because there are SOME examples where there is doubt on how to handle it.

[albummaster]

OK, just added the capability to handle this. Take a look at Jimi Hendrix now: http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?b=4647

Let us know if this is along the right lines. We'll then seed the rest of the database once we've ironed out any kinks... (this is the only artist that has been updated so far, so everything else on the site as it was before)

[RFNAPLES]

Great! Go to it.
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[Bork]

That is excellent.

[LaineJ]

There is one site for Warning, but the two albums on the site is by two different bands with same name!

[albummaster]

thanks - this is now fixed