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Andy Webb View Drop Down
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Points: 13298 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Biography Writing Team
    Posted: July 04 2013 at 14:16
Hello all!

For those of you who frequently suggest bands to the archive, you know the pain of having to wait weeks and weeks at a time for a band to be added. In many cases, these bands may already be cleared and are just waiting for a biography to be written. The Genre Teams have a lot on their plate and often biographies are forgotten and thus bands sit in a cleared list just waiting to be added.

This is where you come in!

Biographies do not need to be written by team members, and often biographies written by members can be very helpful, and thus we are starting a member-driven team backed by collaborators to quicken the addition process. Consistent contributors may be rewarded with promotion or assignment to genre teams.
Here are a few guidelines:
  • Feel free to hunt down cleared bands to write biographies for, but please ask team leaders or team members before going ahead and writing biographies. Often biographies are "claimed" by team members and I don't want duplicate biographies written.
  • If a band is posted here to have a biography written, please 'claim' it for the same reason as above.
  • Please put a byline underneath each biography and cite any explicit 'sources.'
  • Feel free to prepare biographies for bands under evaluation, but this does not guarantee clearance. 
  • Try to write biographies for genres you are familiar with - this will give another dimension to your biographies!
Now how do you write a biography? There are ample examples on the website but here are the rules:
  • ALL band names and last names of band members MUST be all caps (ex: GENESIS was led by talented vocalist Peter GABRIEL)
  • Album names should be in quotations (ex: GENESIS released "Foxtrot" in 1972)
  • Biographies are not discographies; while major releases should always be mentioned, don't waste your time listing every album ever released. 
  • Focus more on band members and chronology if possible. 
  • A good rule of thumb is to follow this format:
    1. Introduce the band name and genre
    2. Elaborate on the date of formation and the home town
    3. Give a list of the founding member or members if possible
    4. Explain band beginnings (ex: "they played live for 10 years before releasing their debut album in 2003")
    5. Explore their career - well-established bands may have a lot of this material, but often for new bands this may be a sentence or two or not exist at all. Make sure to mention line-up changes, significant changes in style, or other important events.
    6. End with a conclusion that elaborates on the style of the band and bands with a similar sound or obvious influences.
  • Biographies should be about 2-3 paragraphs. New bands may only have bios of a few sentences while older bands may have lengthy biographies. Don't force information into a bio or make conjectures that may not be true.
  • This team is separate from the "Biographies Needing Attention" in that that is for the repair of published biographies while this is for the creation of new ones.

If you'd like to start right away, feel free to look at some of the team's cleared charts! Pick a band, post the bio here, or PM the leader of each team the bio so they can add it. Here are links, and the team's leader and other SCs on the team). I have also included the team leaders and SCs of teams whose charts on not PF, and if you are interested in writing biographies for them, feel free to PM the leader and ask if anything needs to be written.


 


Edited by Andy Webb - February 04 2015 at 14:53
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Atavachron View Drop Down
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Points: 65243 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 04 2013 at 19:19
Sounds like a great idea Andy, hope some people give it a shot-- 

Q:  What about editing?   Some biogs will be fine or just need a few small corrections, but others will be too long, questionably researched, clumsily written, etc.    Will there be a quality control part to this BiogTeam that can make necessary changes to grammar, punctuation, and/or content ?
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Andy Webb View Drop Down
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Points: 13298 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 04 2013 at 19:25
Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

Sounds like a great idea Andy, hope some people give it a shot-- 

Q:  What about editing?   Some biogs will be fine or just need a few small corrections, but others will be too long, questionably researched, clumsily written, etc.    Will there be a quality control part to this BiogTeam that can make necessary changes to grammar, punctuation, and/or content ?



That would have to lie on the special collab's shoulders. I would hope every bio would at least be skimmed by the author but the SC should skim it as well just to make sure it's quality.

Reading a paragraph or two takes a lot less time then researching and writing them, so that shouldn't be too hard. I'll make a note in the CZ.
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Atavachron View Drop Down
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Points: 65243 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 04 2013 at 19:25
Perfect
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Andy Webb View Drop Down
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Points: 13298 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 04 2013 at 19:30
I'll test the waters - I need a bio written for The Michael Zucker Group - they've been sitting on heavy's cleared chart for 7 months and they need to get moving! Any help would be appreciated.
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Points: 166178 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 04 2013 at 21:46


Glad to see some progress on this.
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Points: 12794 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 04 2013 at 22:56
How much do I get paid?
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Points: 17493 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 04 2013 at 23:00
^ Only my hug. Hug
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Points: 4671 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 02:17
^ I'm guessing he'd prefer one of Kati's hugs.
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Belief is not Truth.
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Points: 11401 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 02:27
Originally posted by infocat infocat wrote:

^ I'm guessing he'd prefer one of Kati's hugs.


Who wouldn't? Shes a great hugger ;-)


 
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Points: 12794 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 03:02
A hug from anyone will do Stern Smile (or money)
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Points: 17493 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 06:04
Originally posted by Windhawk Windhawk wrote:

Originally posted by infocat infocat wrote:

^ I'm guessing he'd prefer one of Kati's hugs.


Who wouldn't? Shes a great hugger ;-)


 
what a lucky man he was Angry









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Points: 17493 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 06:06
Hey Jokin aside, nice idea and everybody here is welcome.
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CPicard View Drop Down
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Points: 10841 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 12:41
What about being hugged with a huge amount of money? Ah, the soft touch of a 50 euros banknote...

Anyway, I just received a message from DamoXt7942 asking if I could/would provide a bio for the Zeuhl band Athanor. Just like I told, I will try to write one in a few days.
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Points: 11415 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 13:26
Kudos to Andy for his very informative OP re the addition of bands. Clap

As an ex admin I just want to say that after listening to and appraising the merits or otherwise of a nomination for Prog Related, the passion for bio and albums inclusion is in direct inverse relation to the rigor and passion in arguing for the artist's inclusion. e.g I ended up having to write the BIO and add the main albums  for Pretty Things myself. I don't want to sound like a whinger but if you are prepared to argue your case, accept the ramifications as outlined in the site guidelines
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Points: 17493 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 18:09
Originally posted by CPicard CPicard wrote:

What about being hugged with a huge amount of money? Ah, the soft touch of a 50 euros banknote...

Anyway, I just received a message from DamoXt7942 asking if I could/would provide a bio for the Zeuhl band Athanor. Just like I told, I will try to write one in a few days.
Yeah it's good for us also to ask the suggester to write the artist's bio (and so on).
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Andy Webb View Drop Down
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Points: 13298 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 18:31
Originally posted by Andy Webb Andy Webb wrote:

I'll test the waters - I need a bio written for The Michael Zucker Group - they've been sitting on heavy's cleared chart for 7 months and they need to get moving! Any help would be appreciated.


Any takers? Big smile
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Atavachron View Drop Down
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Points: 65243 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 20:49
I can write a Zucker bio if you need one, Andy, though I figured this was an opportunity for other members or Collabs who are not on teams to get involved.   As per Lemming's comments about passion, I agree wholeheartedly and have almost no knowledge of Michael Zucker, and therefore not much passion.   However, I have listened to a few cuts and was sufficiently impressed to be willing to write him up for PA.   Let me know.

Here is a brief bio from ReverbNation.com that will help whoever does write it.   It has the important biographical information his website does not ;


Michael Zucker is a contemporary rock composer best known for his work with the video game themed band This Place is Haunted.   He is primarily a guitarist and singer but has also done a significant amount of work as a keyboardist, bassist and drummer.   Michael started his musical carrier by forming the alternative rock group Phyber Glass in the mid 90s.   That group played together up until 2001 when it disbanded.  

Michael next joined the international recording act Suture Seven as lead singer and worked on recordings and performed with that group during the release of their self titled album.    Michael went on to form the video game rock band This Place is Haunted with other founding member Epileptic Peat. The group still plays select shows.
During his work with several groups Michael also managed to produce a wealth of his own recordings and performed with his own material with several different groups.

Michael Zucker






Edited by Atavachron - July 05 2013 at 20:51
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DamoXt7942 View Drop Down
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Points: 17493 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 22:24
^ Clap Phanntastyyyk work!
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Points: 65243 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2013 at 22:58
thanks Kei, but an original for PA still needs to be written.   I could do it but I was kinda hoping some regular members (or shy collabs) might take the challenge  Smile
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