Talk:Tears for Fears

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"TFF"

Abbreviations like "TFF" are not encyclopedic (or, encyclopaedic) in tone, and have been considered inappropriate by consensus for some time. Currently, it only occurs three times in the article. I must say, in this case I find it understandable, and many editors might get confused about the use of apostrophe in terms like "Tears For Fears' hit single" as opposed to the simple "TFF's hit single".

But, since I'm here, noticing this, and since there are only three of them, I'm going to change them into Tearses for Fearses. ;) Y'know what I mean . . . the correct name. Anyway, I'm going to do that, but I'm not going to watch this article draconianly, or perhaps I mean like a dragon, ready to roar with flames at the next person to use "TFF". Certainly if this were a FAN SITE, I'd be using "TFF" all the time myself. I am frequently too lazy to type "Pink Floyd", and refer to them as "PF"!

--Ben Culture (talk) 22:42, 13 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Done. But ah, hell ... I had to re-edit my edits, because I hadn't realized the article is titled and consistently uses "Tears for Fears" instead of "Tears For Fears". HOW can that be a band name? Is that an English thing? Or were they being peculiar?? Fucking ridiculous!

--Ben Culture (talk) 22:55, 13 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Belated response, but it's an English thing. We don't tend to capitalise prepositions in names. - Cheers, Burwellian (Talk) 23:45, 15 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Pink Floyd? - Oh I'm sorry, condolences. I am not aware of a veritable source to establish the correct text of the band's middle name; indeed it is quite likely that that capitalisation was fluid for many years. Also I don't think grammatical conventions can be applied to such instances as-> musical group names in isolation from other text. Cheerio. Fuckwitt (talk) 11:00, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Records

I've reverted again the change by an IP editor that changes the figure of 30 million albums to being 30 million records. As explained each time;

the source cited specifically says "albums"
"albums" does not equate to "records".
changing this figure to "records" ignores the singles, 12" and EPs that the duo have sold, and is therefore misleading.

Please stop changing it. --Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 10:44, 6 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Escape Orbit seems to be right here.

An "album" is a collection of songs, regardless of format. Songs from the Big Chair is an album, whether on CD, MP3, LP, cassette, etc. If it is on LP, is is also a "record".

An individual song, sometimes sold as a single, might also be a "record" (as a 45) or not (MP3, cassette single, etc.).

The source says "Their six studio albums have sold over 30 million worldwide..." Saying "records" rather than "albums" here makes no sense that I can see. - SummerPhD^v2.0 16:00, 6 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Pictures

Editor Gentlecollapse6 replaced the lead picture. I appreciate that the current one is not brilliant, but I reverted this change for the following reasons;

It is very dark. You can barely see Orzabal's face.
Smith's face is out of focus and little more than a few smudges.
Despite Gentlecollapse6's claim to the contrary, it is of a lower resolution.

So over all not an improvement I think. The only thing going for it is it is more recent. --Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 12:23, 21 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

IMO, both pictures kinda suck. That said, the blue smudge that replaces Smith in the darker picture is not sufficiently offset by the sharper but occulted view of Orzabal's face. Given the rather poor quality of both photos, I think the age question is moot: if you can't see their faces, you really can't argue that changes to their faces over time matter much.

I'd say stick with the brighter one and hope something better turns up. - SummerPhD^v2.0 16:37, 21 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

How did they get their name?

I am sure I once read in a magazine many years ago that they got their name from the "Tears as replacement for fears" theory. If anyone knows about this and can supply some reliable sources, it could go in the article. Vorbee (talk) 16:41, 17 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Seeds reissue

No mention of the Seeds of Love boxset?

Also Roland said they scrapped half of the new album, not all the songs. Jules TH 16 (talk) 22:43, 6 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Where did they get their name?

I was just listening to Hayley Westenra's cover of Both Sides Now and noted the line "Tears and fears and feeling proud." Does anyone know if Joni Mitchell had anything to do with this band's name? --Coolcaesar (talk) 18:59, 29 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This is covered in the second paragraph in the History section of the article. Arthur Janov, a psychologist, wrote a book proposing that patients sat in a chair and shouted, screamed etc, as a way of catharsis for past problems. The book is called Primal Scream Therapy, and one of the lines in the book states "...all we have now are tears for fears." Hence why the single Shout, from the album Songs from the Big Chair. The joy of all things (talk) 22:02, 29 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The way you explain it makes it very clear, but that's not in the History section of the article, which merely mentions primal therapy. At some point the article should be edited to express that point. Thanks for the clarification. --Coolcaesar (talk) 05:56, 1 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Band members

I just wanted to make an observation on the individuals we have credited as being members of Tears for Fears on this page.

On page 6 of the accompanying booklet to the Super Deluxe Edition of The Seeds of Love there is the following comment from Curt Smith on Ian Stanley's departure from the project:

"To be honest, if I remember correctly, Ian wanted to be a third member of the band, and that was never going to work. He placed too many demands, I think. He wanted more input and to basically take the same as Roland and me. We didn't want to have a third member of the band - it's hard enough just the two of us! Because we'd been in a band before Tears For Fears, we had no desire to be in one again."

This would seem to imply that Stanley and Manny Elias were never actually band members, despite their much greater presence on the first two albums than the session musicians that accompanied Roland Orzabal and Smith (when the latter was present) from The Seeds of Love-onward, in which case they should arguably be removed from areas of the page where they are cited as being members (i.e. the infobox).

Any thoughts? Sburbridge92 (talk) 20:17, 27 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It could be that there needs to be a distinction made between members, and "touring members", i.e. those in the band for extended periods when they perform live, but not during writing and recording. This is common enough on other articles. But sources will be needed, of course. --Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 11:38, 28 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, at the moment this is all too haphazard. And I would actually question the need for a band members section. They have been a duo except for the period in the 1990 when Orzabal took the name in the 1990s for his solo work. Karst (talk) 09:26, 13 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For should have capital F?

I think Tears For Fears (as is the case on band website and a number of album covers, rather than Tears for Fears? 92.22.15.103 (talk) 19:38, 19 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Songs for a Nervous Planet - Category?

Songs for a Nervous Planet is categorized as a studio album on the main page but as a live album on the page for TFF discography. What is it?

It seems to me it is an EP+Live album. Berserkur (talk) 20:15, 6 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It is a live album that carries a handful of new studio recordings, just like Styx's Return to Paradise or the Fixx's React. 18 of the 22 tracks are live recordings, ergo, live album. 2A00:23C8:501:8E01:D943:7C53:2B45:66BD (talk) 22:31, 6 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]