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Geoff's Blog
Credit where credit is due for composers
Geoff Leonard
31
March 2011
Credit where credit is due for composers. Or not, according to Soundunwound.com, the new encyclopedia of music website from IMDb and Amazon.
The other day I attempted to correct a listing of "Elizabeth Taylor In London", which was, according to them "by Elizabeth Taylor". Accordingly it appears in her discography, but not in John Barry's because he was "only" the composer on her album. He duly gets a composing credit on her album, along with conductor Johnnie Spence. More...
My correction was rejected because "John Barry is not the performing artist on this release. Elizabeth Taylor does perform. Barry belongs in the credits."
I wrote further in support of my correction, and received the following reply:
"As it is set up now, the “by” section on SoundUnwound is for the artists performing on the record, not the composers, conductors, songwriters, or anyone else. We know that classical music and scores make this nomenclature very complicated, but we desire to be consistent across the site. We would not list Hillary Lindsey as an artist on the Carrie Underwood record, even though Hillary wrote most of the songs.
The correct way to list a composer on SoundUnwound is in the credits of the album. If the album was performed mainly by one symphony or orchestra, they would be credited as the main artist on the release, otherwise, it would be considered various artists. As Elizabeth Taylor is prominently featured on both the tracks and the album cover of this album, it is correct to list her as the artist in conjunction with the name of the group performing".
I wrote back as follows:
"I appreciate what you say about the artist getting credit and of course in the example you give it makes perfect sense for Carrie Underwood to get the "by" line since it's her album.
You say you want to be consistent across the site, but I think you have to make an exception when it comes to soundtracks, which are not just song compilations.
Let me explain why. Film soundtrack albums have traditionally been referred to as "by" the composer, even though in virtually every case they are not the performer of the score. If you were to remove their names and replace with the name of an orchestra (in the rare case of it being known - in these cases most are unnamed and comprised of studio session musicians), or even "various artists", if it contained a song or two, none of the film music composers would have a discography at all!
Have a look at some of the greats like Ennio Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith & John Williams. Currently Soundunwound correctly shows hundreds of items in their respective discographies. Why? Because in all cases the titles in question have "by Jerry Goldsmith" or "by John Williams". Not only that, I'm absolutely certain that in the majority of cases the information was generated automatically when the ASIN (Amazon's unique code) was added by the contributor.
To give you a current example, if you look up, say, Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows Part One on Amazon.com you will find it listed as "by Alexandre Desplat" - which is exactly how it appears on Soundunwound. So unless you can persuade your parent company, Amazon, that they are listing soundtracks incorrectly, you will always have soundtracks being added to Soundunwound as "by" the composer.
Obviously in the case of Elizabeth Taylor in London, for whatever reason, the title in Amazon.com shows as "by Elizabeth Taylor", though it's clearly primarily a musical soundtrack. When I bought the CD via Amazon.co.uk, the "by" line was John Barry - as, indeed, it still is:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elizabeth-Taylor-London-John-Barry/dp/B000BNX5LC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300962437&sr=1-1
If this exchange has achieved anything I hope at least it will have prompted you to examine your own policies, which, in the case of soundtracks, appear to be unworkable".
Now, I appreciate they want consistency, but taking this approach to film soundtracks seems nonsensical. I would not want to be the person who explains to, say, James Horner, that his entire discography will shortly disappear because he was not the performing artist on any of the albums!
To date I have received no response. Soundunwound.com has great potential but commonsense must prevail.
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