Several Wikipedians have formed this collaboration resource and group dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of Latin music and the organization of information and articles on this topic. This page and its subpages contain their suggestions and various resources; it is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians interested in the topic. If you would like to help, please join the project. No knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese is required to join the project.
In the music industry, "Latin music" has a broad definition due to music journalists, musicologists, and other music sources having different views of what makes an artist or a recording "Latin". For the purpose of simplicity and from past discussions, the Latin Recording Academy's definition of "Latin music" is used as the basis for the project's scope while Billboard and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)'s definitions are used as supplements. Therefore, the Latin music project scope mainly focuses on the following:
Instrumental Latin music genres and compositions by Ibero-American musicians.
Criteria for inclusion
Biographies
A biography that has met the notability requirements outlined at WP:BIO may be included within this project if it meets one of the following criteria.
For vocal artist and bands:
Records in Spanish, Portuguese or any dialect or language of any out of the countries of Ibero-American.
For instrumental musicians, the project covers any of the following:
Predominantly performs Ibero-American rhythmical elements, instrumentations, and genres, possibly including a variety of musical styles, and arrangements.
Musicians of Latin heritage or a composer of Ibero-American heritage may also be included so long as they do not lend themselves to confusion (for example, they perform music that has Greek elements and are thus not included in the project scope because the nature of the work does not correspond to any Latin genre).
For reference on which types of music is covered by the project, refer to the Category Definitions page at the Latin Grammy website which includes the categories that allows instrumental music.
Composers, songwriters, producers, and any other music executives or personnel involved with the Latin music industry falls under the project scope as well.
Recordings
A recording that has met the notability requirements outlined at WP:NMUSIC may be included within this project if it meets one of the following criteria.
For vocal recordings:
51% or more of its content recorded in Spanish, Portuguese or in languages or dialects in Ibero-America or any combination of these languages.
Spanish or Portuguese-language versions of a song originally recorded in another language may be included in the project scope if said version meets WP:NSONGS.
Spanish- or Portuguese-language cover versions of a song recorded in another language may also also included in the project if the cover version meets the standards at WP:SONGCOVER.
For instrumental music, any recording containing works by Ibero American authors and composers (no matter who plays) or it is interpreted by Ibero American artists, even though the work is authored by someone other than an Ibero American, can be entered provided it meets one of the following:
Have recognized Latin rhythms such as genres from Ibero-America.
Be performed by a musician of Latin heritage .
Or have been composed by someone of Ibero-American heritage and does not lend itself to confusion (for example, a song that has Greek elements but was composed/interpreted by a Latino may not be accepted, because the nature of the work does not correspond to any Latin genre).
In the case of classical music, due to the nature of the genre, works recorded in Latin, German, English, Italian, French or any other language may, at the discretion of either the article's main contributor(s) or consensus at the article's talk page be included provided that the composer is of Ibero-American origin.
For a more in-depth look on which types of instrumental recordings are covered by the project scope, refer to the Category Definitions page at the Latin Grammy website.
For titles of Spanish- and Portuguese-language recordings, when the appropriate naming under existing guidelines is unclear, the project's suggestion is to use capitalization found on most English-language reliable sources rather than the capitalization utilized by either language. If there are no English-language reliable sources available, then use the capitalization found on either Spanish or Portuguese-language reliable sources instead. See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalization) § Works of art and Wikipedia:Article titles § Foreign names and anglicization
Before starting a new article! - Notability is a concern that must be adhered to. See Wikipedia:Notability (music) for more information. Need help starting a new article? See Wikipedia:Article wizard it will help you through the process of submitting a new article to Wikipedia.
I.
Use references. This is an encyclopedia, so remember to include a ==References== section listing websites, newspapers, articles, books and other sources you used to write the article. New articles and statements added to existing articles may be deleted if unreferenced or referenced poorly. See Wikipedia:Verifiability, Wikipedia:Cite_sources and Wikipedia:References for more information.
II.
Use proper spelling and grammar. This is a very important aspect of an article. "We want to learn editors to write proper" There are helpful guidelines in regards to styles. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (music) for more information.
III.
Use footnotes. Take advantage of the footnote ability Wikipedia has, instead of including html links inside the context include them as footnotes. See Wikipedia:Footnotes on how to use them.
IV.
Write a good lead. Be sure to write a lead that concisely summarizes the entire article into one or two paragraphs, which make sense to someone who may know nothing about the subjects in question. See Wikipedia:Lead section for more information.
Keep it simple. Remember that the average reader should be able to comprehend the erudition. Although you should use a broad vocabulary of regular, non-technical terms, do not provide such a quantity of locutions as to impel those who aspire to derive serviceable information from the article to consult a dictionary.
VII.
Use images if possible. Images enhance articles greatly, but only use them when they are necessary, and ensure that their copyright status has been specified and we are allowed to use it on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia:Images
When adding the WikiProject Latin music template to an article’s talk page, consider including a template for one of these related WikiProjects as well: