WIKIPEDIA:WIKIPROJECT CHRISTIAN MUSIC STRUCTURE

This is an essay on style. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on how to format and present article content within their area of interest.

This information is not a formal Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.

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Some Wikipedians have formed a project to better organize information in articles related to Christian music. WikiProject Christian Music is a project, created to help assemble editors interested in Christian music. The aim of this project is to standardize and improve articles related to Christian music and its sub-genres, as well as to create missing articles.

WikiProject Christian music is designed to improve:

Articles and lists about Christian music, Christian music artists, etc.
Biographies of Christian artists and groups.
The "standard" of Christian music articles.

This page contain their suggestions on Christian music article templates.

All articles must cite their sources. This is Wikipedia policy and beyond the control of this project, see Verifiability, Reliable sources. A discussion of Christian music oriented sources is at Wikipedia:WikiProject Christian music/Sources.

Proposed structures

For the latest on the structure of an article about an artist, see Wikipedia:Featured Music Project.

Solo artists

The proposed structure guideline for individual Christian artist is the following:

{{Infobox Musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Musicians -->
| Name                =
| Img                 =
| Img_capt            = 
| Img_size            = 
| Landscape           = 
| Background          = "solo_singer", "non_vocal_instrumentalist", "non_performing_personnel"
| Birth_name          =
| Alias               =
| Birth_date          = {{birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}}
| Birth_place         =
| Death_date          = {{death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date 1st)
| Death_place         =
| Origin              = [[City]], [[State/Province]], [[Country]] (only if different from birth place)
| Instrument          =
| Voice_type          =
| Genre               = [[Christian music|Christian]]
| Occupation          =
| Years_active        = {{Start date|year}} - {{Start date|year}}
| Label               =
| Associated_acts     =
| URL                 = 
| Notable_instruments =
}}

'''Christian artist name''' is a (nationality) [[Christian music]] singer (songwriter, keyboardist, etc.).

==Early years==
This is an OPTIONAL section to discuss early life (where they were born, went to school, etc).
If there is not enough info to make a section, it should be included under ==Music career==. 
This information must be accompanied by verifiable sourcing. No [[POV]]'s.

==Music career==
Some info about how he or she started, major relevant events, and general artist bio related to the music (personal bio is included below).

If there is enough information, the following sub-headings may be considered:
===Discography===
====Albums====
{{Infobox Discography
 | Type          =   <!-- "Studio/EP/Live/Compilation/...", see codes below -->
 | Name          =   <!-- "Name" or "[[Name]]" (album or EP/single) -->
 | Other info    =   <!-- added between parentheses after Name (album or EP) -->
 | from Album    =   <!-- ONLY FOR EP/SINGLE: added after Name -->
 | Released      =   <!-- "1992" or "[[11 February]] [[1992]] -->
 | Format        =   <!-- "LP/CD/..." -->
 | Label         =   <!-- "Name" or "[[Name Records|Name]]", comma if many -->
 | Writer        =   <!-- "Songwriter name" or "[[Songwriter name]]" -->
 | Producer      =   <!-- "Producer name" or "[[Producer name]]", comma if many -->
 | Director      =   <!-- "Director name" or "[[Director name]]" for music videos -->
 | Chart position=   <!-- "#1 U.S." or "#12 UK" or such -->
 | Sales         =   <!-- "3 million sold as of 2005" or such -->
 | Certification =   <!-- "Gold" or such -->
 | Tracks        =   <!-- " "One", "Two", "Three" ", etc. -->
 | Bonus tracks  =   <!-- "Four" (Japan edition) -->
 | Singles       =   <!-- " "Single", "Other Single" ", etc. -->
}}
===Videography===
====Music videos====
====Film appearances====
====Television appearances====
====Other video appearances====
===Awards===
====Awards Wins====
====Award Nominations====
===Music===
The style of music, important albums, etc should be expressed here.
This is also OPTIONAL with the same condition as above.
===Influences===
List artist’s influences only if found in verifiable print. Must state that the artist considers another artist or subject matter to be an influence. You may also list influence on other music styles, popular culture, or other noteworthy items if found in verifiable printed materials.

==Personal life==
Location of artist and family if only published in verifiable places!
For groups of more than one person, keep this section limited or nonexistent 
(details should be on the respective group member's article).

==See also==
*[[Article A]]
*[[Band B]]
*[[Music genre C]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.ChristianArtistSite.com Official site]
*[http://www.RecordLabelSite.com Site to artist's record label.]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Name, First Name}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Singers]]
[[Category:American Christians]]
[[Category:Performers of Christian music]]
<!-- Put more categories here. -->

Groups or bands

The proposed structure guideline for Christian music groups is the following:

{{Infobox Musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Musicians -->
| Name                = 
| Img                 = Replace this image.svg
| Img_capt            = 
| Img_size            = 
| Landscape           = 
| Background          = "group_or_band", "cover_band", or "classical_ensemble"
| Alias               = 
| Origin              = 
| Genre               = [[Christian music|Christian]]
| Years_active        = {{Start date|year}} - {{Start date|year}}
| Label               = 
| Associated_acts     = 
| URL                 = 
| Current_members     = 
| Past_members        = 
}}
'''Christian artist''' is a (nationality) [[Christian music]] group (band, choir, etc.).

==Early years==
This is an OPTIONAL section to discuss early years of the group before noted success occurred (where they were formed, how they were established, etc). If there is not enough info to make a section, it should be included under ==Musical career==.

==Music career==
Some info about how they started, major relevant events, and general group bio related to the music (personal bios should be included on the individual artists pages or in the ==Members== section below). If there is enough information, the following sub-headings should be considered:
===Origins===
===Success===
===Impact===
===Name and personnel changes===

===Music===
The style of music, important albums, etc should be expressed here.
This is also OPTIONAL with the same condition as above.
===Influences===
The effect the group has had on the music industry (specifically Christian music or as a whole).
You may also list influences on other music styles, popular culture, or other noteworthy items.
==Members==
A brief discussion of current group members. Personal bios should be included in this section if there is not enough information for an individual artist pages.

==Discography==
===Albums===
{{Infobox Discography
 | Type          =   <!-- "Studio/EP/Live/Compilation/..."-->
 | Name          =   <!-- "Name" or "[[Name]]" (album or EP/single) -->
 | Other info    =   <!-- added between parentheses after Name (album or EP) -->
 | from Album    =   <!-- ONLY FOR EP/SINGLE: added after Name -->
 | Released      =   <!-- "1992" or "[[11 February]] [[1992]] -->
 | Format        =   <!-- "LP/CD/..." -->
 | Label         =   <!-- "Name" or "[[Name Records|Name]]", comma if many -->
 | Writer        =   <!-- "Songwriter name" or "[[Songwriter name]]" -->
 | Producer      =   <!-- "Producer name" or "[[Producer name]]", comma if many -->
 | Director      =   <!-- "Director name" or "[[Director name]]" for music videos -->
 | Chart position=   <!-- "#1 U.S." or "#12 UK" or such -->
 | Sales         =   <!-- "3 million sold as of 2005" or such -->
 | Certification =   <!-- "Gold" or such -->
 | Tracks        =   <!-- " "One", "Two", "Three" ", etc. -->
 | Bonus tracks  =   <!-- "Four" (Japan edition) -->
 | Singles       =   <!-- " "Single", "Other Single" ", etc. -->
}}
===Music videos===
===Film appearances===
===Television appearances===
===Other video appearances===

==Awards==
===Awards Wins===
===Award Nominations===

==See also==
*[[Article A]]
*[[Band B]]
*[[Music genre C]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.ChristianArtistSite.com Official site]
*[http://www.RecordLabelSite.com Site to artist's record label.]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Groupname}}
[[Category:Singers]]
[[Category:Christian musical groups]]
<!-- Put more categories here. -->

Albums

The proposed structure guideline for Christian music albums is the following:

{{Infobox Album <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Albums -->
| Name        = album name
| Type        = "studio", "live", "greatest", "compilation", "soundtrack"
| Artist      = Artist name
| Cover       = cover image
| Released    = {{Start date|year|month|day}}
| Recorded    = 
| Genre       = [[Christian music|Christian]]
| Length      = 
| Label       = 
| Producer    = 
| Reviews     = {{Rating|4.5|5}} <!--- list of rating sites available at WP:ALBUM#Review sites. --->
| Last album  = 
| This album  = 
| Next album  = 
}}
'''''Album title''''' is a (nationality) [[Christian music]] album (DVD, video, etc.) released in (release year) by (Artist Name) on (record label).

==Track listing==
A track listing should generally be formatted as a numbered list.

#"Complete song title" (John Doe, Brian Smith) – 4:23
#*First verse: Name of rapper
#*Second verse: Name of rapper
#*Samples: Name of sample source (preferably, artist, song, album)
#"Complete song title" (Doe, Kelly Kalamazoo) – 3:24
#"Complete song title" (Doe, Kalamazoo, Smith, David Whitman) – 2:34

==Personnel==
Generally formatted as an unordered list of names and instruments, delimited by en dashes (see track listing section). Instruments should be written in lowercase, and linked on the first occurrence only. Remember to pipe the links if needed, for example "percussion" to percussion instrument and "keyboard" to keyboard instrument.

#Johnny Poe – guitar 
#Sally Morris – glockenspiel, guitar, organ, kazoo 

==Certifications==
An album's certification can be worked into the body of the article, or a table can be created if an album has achieved multiple certifications.

For more information and help on certifications, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Albums/Certifications.

==Awards==
===Awards Wins===
===Award Nominations===

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
Album articles may contain an external links section of links to relevant external resources about the album. Links to resources about the artist rather than the album do not need to be included here, as these should be linked from the artist's article instead. Links to individual reviews shouldn't be included here, but links to professional reviews can be included in the professional reviews section of the infobox. Appropriate links may include links to chords or lyrics for the tracks on the album. Note however that lyrics may be protected by copyright, and external resources that reprint lyrics may be violating that copyright, in which case they should not be linked.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Name}}
[[Category:Christian music albums]]
[[Category:Albums by artist]] - find appropriate subcategory
[[Category:Albums by year]] - find appropriate subcategory
<!-- Put more categories here. -->

Track names should be in quotes in the track listing and in the rest of the article. A track that is a medley of multiple songs should be inside one set of quotes, like this: "Song 1/Song 2". Untitled tracks should be listed as Untitled (without quotes). If a track has an article of its own, the track name should link to that article.

Note the standard method of attributing songwriters—write (and link) the full name the first time it appears, and then just give the last name. If all songs were written by the same person or team, this can be stated at the top as "All songs were written by Kirk Franklin." If several or more songs were written by the same person or team, this can be stated as "All songs were written by Kirk Franklin, except where noted."

Track lengths should be included for each track when possible. Use a spaced en dash (–) rather than a hyphen (-) as a dividing horizontal punctuation mark before the track length. (Note that they may both look the same in the edit box.) You can insert it from the special character list below the edit box (see Help:Special characters) or copy and paste it from here. You can also add it by writing – HTML entity to the edit box (like this "–") but this makes the code less readable. If you think that this is too difficult, you can still use a hyphen, and hope that someone is going to change it into a dash. This holds true both in "Track listing" and "Personnel" sections. See also Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dashes). |-

Joining the WikiProject

It is hoped that the Wikiproject Christian music 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.

If you feel that you can make a positive contribution to the project, become a member by joining the . If you don't know what to write or where to begin, or if you have doubts or ideas on how to improve an article, please address the project's discussion forum.

Proposed structures

Solo artists

Groups or bands

Albums

Joining the WikiProject

Proposed structures

Solo artists

Groups or bands

Albums

Joining the WikiProject

Videos

Websites

Encyclopedia

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