Versus Means Different Things

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When an Artist Name or Track Title has the form X vs. Y (or v or vs or versus) there are three possible meanings it can have. It is important to determine which case applies, and to follow the relevant Style Guideline specified in Versus Style. The three cases are:

1 — Two artists collaborating

This is just another way of saying

"Artist A & Artist B"

or

"Artist A (feat. Artist B)".

This case is handled by Featuring Artist Style.

Example

Juno Reactor and Don Davis' work on The Matrix Revolutions soundtrack.

The tracks where they collaborated are listed using FeaturingArtistStyle, once with the variant (vs. Don Davis) rather than (feat. Don Davis)

  • Artist: Don Davis
  • Title: Tetsujin (feat. Juno Reactor)
  • Artist: Juno Reactor
  • Title: Navras (vs. Don Davis)

2 — One artist remixing another

Usually this means a later artist has remixed an older song.

This case is handled by Remix Style.

Example

Need a good example without a lot of conflicting database entries here. (It's Like That is not a good example)

3 — Two tracks mixed together to make a "new" song

Also known as a Mash-up, this means that two pieces of music by different artists are mixed together, over each other, or otherwise combined into a single track (usually by a third artist). These are usually unofficial and unsanctioned by the original artists, and sometime it's impossible to find out who mixed/mashed the tracks together.

This case is handled under VersusStyle.

Example

A Henry Rollins spoken word monologue has been mixed over Nine Inch Nails' "A Warm Place" and can be found on P2P networks as

"Henry Rollins vs. Nine Inch Nails" - A Warm Place

or

"Henry Rollins vs. Nine Inch Nails" - I Know You

Note: This isn't actually entered into MusicBrainz currently.