Talk:Sparks (band)

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	Sparks (band) has been listed as a good article under the good-article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a review.
Article Milestones Date Process Result May 17, 2006 Peer review Reviewed May 17, 2006 Good article nominee Listed October 22, 2006 Peer review Reviewed Current Status: Good article (bands)

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Contents 1 Good Article 2 Cleanup! 3 History Rewrite 4 Influenced by Steve Reich, maybe 5 Album stubs 6 Quick notes 7 Popular culture section

[edit] Good Article

I've just nominated this for good article status, which I think it deserves. Hopefully get some more eyes on it KaptKos 10:48, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

After reading, checking image copyright and 1 minor format using <br clear=all> if have promoted to GA status. Well done to all who contributed to the article Gnangarra 12:56, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup!

Okay, this needs work. I can't handle it. For starters, the discography... hardly any of the links actually lead anywhere, and with the exception of Kimono My House (which has the wrong cover), they all lead somewhere totally unrelated (see Indiscreet, Interior Design, and... well, let's just say Balls leads exactly where it's expected). The links section could use a bit of weeding and condensing. The article itself is not very comprehensive; for one thing, it doesn't mention anything about working with Giorgio Moroder.

C'mon. These guys are about to release their twentieth album. Give 'em the royal treatment.

---

I just fixed the album problem (accidentally following the Balls link not remember what else besides a Sparks record is called that)... I wish I knew more about Sparks, otherwise I'd help expand the article.

[edit] History Rewrite

Just completed an initial rewrite of the history section. Please correct my bad spelling/grammer and factual insccuracies as well as expand everything, espicially the mid/late 80s early 90s bit as I can find next to nothing on this period.

Suggestion for what to do next appreciated. I think a reputations section, influences and influence on sections, collaboration as well as tidying up the discographies and getting some pics/clips are all in order.

Please help - you know these guys deserve a proper article --KaptKos 15:01, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

excellent rewrite kaptKos, the atricle is looking so much better now. I've corrected the date of Terminal Jive from '81 to '80. Also I think this line needs attention :"The follow up albums, Indescreet, produced by Tony Visconti, and Propaganda, with Winwood returning as producer", as it makes it sound like Indescreet was released before Propaganda. Jason

I've just redone the line myself by cutting & pasting the original sentence, so that the sentence is maintained in KaptKos own words. Jason

My mistake, I rearranged the comment on the album covers so they flow like your edit--KaptKos 09:46, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Influenced by Steve Reich, maybe

Just added some stuff bout the use of repeated lyrics on recent albums and seems to me this is highly influenced by Steve Reich, but I haven't come across any refs for this. If someone could come up with something along these lines that would be cool, I'll drop a line on Reich talk as well KaptKos 09:37, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Album stubs

All albums now have stubs. Please expand and correct as you see fit--KaptKos 10:33, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Quick notes

First of all, Weird Al's new album has a song which is reportedly a Sparks style parody. I haven't heard anything by Sparks myself, and I don't know yet if there's any official word from Al on this (he usually confirms the style parodies when asked), so I'll leave it up to someone else to decide if it's accurate and worth noting in the article.

Second, does the first sentence in the article really need a footnote/citation? It's just a general description like those found in the beginning of articles for countless other groups and singers. - Ugliness Man 13:13, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

First: A Sparks in Popular Culture (or something similar) section could be created to accomodate this sort of thing. I've removed some stuff like this before as when its in the main body it just looks like trivia (and it would be invariably unreferenced)

Second: Having a reference for a statement is better than not, regardless of where it occures. Isn't it?--KaptKos 13:54, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

I finally got my copy of Straight Outta Lynwood today. What's significant about this album is that it's the first time that he's mentioned the artists which he paid tribute to in pastiches. In the past, he always thanked those who gave permission for parodies and for use of portions of unaltered lyrics in his polka medlies, but, for example, Devo didn't get thanked for "Dare to be Stupid" and Talking Heads didn't get thanked for "Dog Eat Dog".

Anyway, the point is, among the many names listed under "special thanks to" are "Ron & Russell Mael". Not only that, but in the animated video for the song "Virus Alert", one of the keyboard players has a mustache that looks pretty much the same as Ron's. I'd call this a confirmation that "Virus Alert" is indeed an explicit Sparks pastiche. - Ugliness Man 17:41, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Popular culture section

Tidied up this section as per Wikipedia:Manual of Style, removed the wiki link from "Virus Alert" as it redirects to "Straight..". Also added ^{[citation needed]} tags. This article is very well sourced, any detail added to it, as should be the case with all wiki articles, needs references to is sources, see Wikipedia:Citing sources. These must be external sources - do not use circular references to other wiki articles, any unsourced material will be removed--KaptKos 10:06, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

How exactly am I supposed to "cite" the liner notes of the CD? I don't have a scanner. - Ugliness Man 10:35, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

If you haven't already read Wikipedia:Citing sources as I suggested above, maybe now would be a good time. Citing liner notes works pretty much like citing journals (magazines, professional journals etc). You don't have to scan the notes and upload them. The source you will ref is widely available, I don't, and probably won't, have access to it but I know other beside you do, therefore I know if you fake or misinterperate the info in the source someone else can refute or correct your changes. Also the more sources the better, if you google "Weird Al" +sparks you'll also find plenty which you can ref. The point of this is that sourced info has greater validity/staying power than unsourced. Check out the journal sources refs for Mojo or Record Collector in the article for the liner notes and the Online newspaper edition(Scotsman, Independant etc) sources for anything you find through google. Drop a line here if you need any help--KaptKos 11:53, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Section should be removed IMO. Neither of these 'facts' are worth mentioning. - Coil00 09:45, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree regardless of what I said above, I'm sick of these crappy sections. If the detail is worth mentioning in should be incorporated into the main body, these are not worthy, IMO, of being in the main body, therefore they should not be included anywhere in this article. Stick them in Weird Al and The Gilmore Girls if you must--KaptKos 10:10, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Weird Al is considered by many to be a pop culture compass of sorts. At least a few artists, including Nirvana, have stated that they felt they "made it" when Al chose them as a parody target. For such a relatively obscure band to be given a nod from a grammy-winning satirist, known largely for lampooning the likes of Madonna, [[Michael Jackson] and Eminem (with their blessing and support), is at the very least noteworthy.

And returning to the increasingly circular debate of a citeable source, there's an article on MTV.com in which he unambiguously identifies the subjects of each of the pastiches on the new album, including the Sparks tribute... unfortunately, the way the website is constructed (it's pretty much one big Shockwave interface), it's impossible to get a direct link URL to that article, so it appears that will have to join the long list of things we're going to pretend don't exist due to technicalities. - Ugliness Man 14:53, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Weird Al stuff belongs in the Weird Al article, not in the Sparks article. If we were to include every public mention or reference made to an artist in their article, well, then wikipedia would just be collection of irrelevant lists. - Coil00 15:21, 11 November 2006 (UTC)