Set me straight on correct punctuation of posting album titles and artists

[meggy]

Here's what I do when posting artist's and album names, which I'm pretty sure is incorrect punctuation:

Ann Peebles / I Can't Stand The Rain.
1. Should you capitalize the word "The", because it's part of a title? I thought I remembered somewhere along the line that's what you do, but I see other rules where you don't capatlize anything less than four letters.

2. Except in this case the actual title of the release is fully capitalized as part of the artistic format of the album as in" I CAN'T STAND THE RAIN. Now what?

3. What if as part of the artistic format of the album the title appears as all lower case. Do you post it exactly as it appears on the product or Cap the first letter of each word because it's a title?

I know it doesn't really matter much but I'm more curious than anything.

Thanks.

 

[KeninDC]

I tend to defer to high school English class if I'm not using the actual title, quirks and all. So, I'd type - I Can't Stand the Rain.

Kurt Vile's new LP is call "b'lieve i'm goin down" in all lowercase. But I prefer "B'lieve I'm Goin Down."

But what's the rule on "is"? Cap or non-cap? It's only two letters. Looks weird in caps.

 

[sKiZo]

I Don't Believe it Matters ...

The only consolation price for "the" for me is putting it at the end of the title so I don't end up with 1000 titles starting with "The" in my htpc catalog.

 

[usedto]

But what's the rule on "is"?

To quote someone who is known to most of us:

It depends on what your definition of "is" is.

 

[meggy]

^ Spot on.

 

[bobsvinyl]

"In title case, do not use capital letters for:

• Articles (i.e., a, an, and the)
• Prepositions (e.g., at, under, near, upon, by, of)
  (NB: This includes to as part of an infinitive verb, e.g., to run.)
• Conjunctions (e.g., and, or, but)

The first word of the title is written with a capital letter regardless. For example:

• The Last of the Mohicans
  
• Have you seen "About a Boy"?
  
  "

 

[GuyK]

"In title case, do not use capital letters for:

• Articles (i.e., a, an, and the)
• Prepositions (e.g., at, under, near, upon, by, of)
  (NB: This includes to as part of an infinitive verb, e.g., to run.)
• Conjunctions (e.g., and, or, but)

The first word of the title is written with a capital letter regardless. For example:

• The Last of the Mohicans
  
• Have you seen "About a Boy"?
  
  "

This is what I was taught many years ago, but when posting I generally type the title as spelled on the album.

 

[noogies]

Bob's got it.

 

[4-2-7]

I generaly do it like Bob's post for the name and title.

A bands name
Pearl Harbor and the Explosions
Neil Young and Crazy Horse

Titles
Live at the Cellar Door
Dark Side of the Moon

Name and title together

Thin Lizzy: Vagabonds of the Western World

Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Yes: Close to the Edge

 

[Jeffery]

Album titles in italics, song titles in quotes, capitalization as above.

 

[old_tv_nut]

This is a style issue, rather than a pure grammar issue. Different style manuals might differ. Professional organizations (like SMPTE and IEEE) have their own style guides that often do not coincide with general academic style guides, and definitely not with each other. Added to that, I don't believe AK has a formal style guide. In this case, you should look for the least confusing way to do it and distinguish between the elements of album title and song title for the reader. I like Jeffery's suggestion, except that using "title case" vs. "as printed on the album" is an artistic choice to me. I note that the name of the Disney attraction "it's a small, small world" is deliberately used by them as all lower case, but editors have control of their newspapers and print it as they see fit.

 

[harman/kardon]

This thread makes me pretty insecure.

 

[Hyperion]

It's no big deal Chris, there are lots of right ways to do this, but it really is quite arcane, so nobody is in that much authority to call a certain method absolutely correct or not. In my humble opinion of course.

And agree Bob's post is very good.

 

[meggy]

Yeah, Bob's post seems about right.

 

[harman/kardon]

"In title case, do not use capital letters for:

• Articles (i.e., a, an, and the)
• Prepositions (e.g., at, under, near, upon, by, of)
  (NB: This includes to as part of an infinitive verb, e.g., to run.)
• Conjunctions (e.g., and, or, but)

The first word of the title is written with a capital letter regardless. For example:

• The Last of the Mohicans
  
• Have you seen "About a Boy"?
  
  "

I will try to use these rules from now on in tybrad's "One Word Song Title Transference"!

 

[noogies]

I wouldn't really sweat it, Chris. I mean, this is the INTERNET for goodness' sake. Besides, you write better than a lot of people whose first language is English.

 

[oldgringo]

I wouldn't really sweat it, Chris. I mean, this is the INTERNET for goodness' sake. Besides, you write better than a lot of people whose first language is English.

+1, Chris!

Fwiw, I use Bob's quoted rules, as a general guide; but tend to override that with either 'album cover' usage or a 'consensus' from different 'official' chart listings or even 'YouTube' [if "'Official' or 'Original' Version" is quoted ]; but ignoring 'personalised/personalized' versions. It's not as time consuming as it sounds.

Cheers, og

 

[c.coyle]

The only things that drive me nuts are long block (block long?) paragraphs. This is the bible:

 

[c.coyle]

Sorry, duplicate post.

 

[dcmfan]

Another good practice is to spell the title in full the first time you reference it and then abbreviate it from then on.

Writing "Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" is a pain the first time but it's more clear than encountering SPLHCB in the middle of a post.

I dunno about the rest of you, but my brain gets stuck sometimes.