No Artist Style

Recordings that have no artist should be filed under the SpecialPurposeArtist [no artist]. This would be appropriate for silence, bird song etc.

• This is an OfficialStyleGuideline.

Example

Radio talk on Bounce FM in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Rationale

Some recordings just don't have a performer of discographic relevance credited. For them the SpecialPurposeArtist no artist is to be used. Note that artists can record noise they did not produce themselves but still release it under their name. For them this artist is not to be used. It is also not to be used for FictitiousArtists.

Discussion

i don't think that [noartist] is appropriate for silence. First, we must distinguish digital and non-digital silence. In the case of non-digital silence, there may be small artifacts and background noise in the silence which are, in fact, part of the composition. This is, believe it or not, the premise behind a very famous piece of entirely 'silent' music (i.e. there are no notes in the score) called 4'33" by John Cage. If this piece were filed under [no artist] that would be a mistake. if such a track appears on an 'album' i think it should be credited to the album artist, since it was clearly their choice to place the silence there--even in the case of digital silence, the presence of a silent track affects the proportions of the album, or of a set of tracks which form one piece, much as rests in a piece of music are still part of that piece of music, and thus are rests written by that composer--when Beethoven writes rests, they are Beethoven's rests, and when Haydn writes rests they are Haydn's rests--the same goes for silent tracks, one only has to look beyond the single-track conception of what constitutes the musical work to see this.

• It won't be filed under [no artist] if it's on a normal album of that artist. This is only used for VA albums or entire albums without an artist - and only if needed. --Shepard