Relevance?[]
As much as I love this album, does it belong here? It's not the soundtrack to The Star Wars Holiday Special; it's an original concept album recorded 2 years later. I think we should decide which albums would be relevant to the wiki. -- Ken (talk) 03:11, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
- That's why the category is named albums, not soundtracks. Christmas in the Stars is a concept album that tells a story from beginning to end. It's essentially an audio album. —Scott (talk) 03:15, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
- Okay, but I'm still confused as to what does and doesn't belong here. Since it's called Christmas Specials Wiki, my gut feeling would be that any records that are included here should be the soundtracks to those specials. Otherwise, we're going to get into some gray areas. Like, the Chipmunks or Sesame Street Christmas albums. Some tell a story and some don't. When I was thinking of albums, I was thinking of things like the score to A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the albums of dialogue from Frosty and Twas the Night Before Christmas, and the CD of music and dialogue from It's a Wonderful Life. I don't mean to be beating a dead horse, but I would like some input on what should be here, kind of like you were talking about this morning regarding movies, TV shows, direct to video, and radio shows. -- Ken (talk) 03:49, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
- Yeah, go ahead and add soundtracks. Soundtracks are albums. But just as It's a Wonderful Life isn't a Christmas special, it's still here because it's part of the same family tree of Christmas entertainment. Christmas in the Stars is just another branch on that tree. —Scott (talk) 04:04, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
- Ken has a point, though. I mean, does this mean I could add pages for albums of Mahalia Jackson singing Christmas songs, Capitol Records of kids choirs, or the London Orchestra doing Little Drummer Boy? Or is it exclusively for Christmas albums which branch off of existing characters/franchises in much the same way that the Flintstones or Muppet specials tend to? Myself, my gut feeling is to go for the latter only, or else albums could easily overwhelm everything else. But ultimately, it depends on how broad a scope you want the Wiki to have (and admittedly, apart from Ken and us, not too many folks would necessarily come here to add album info, so it probably wouldn't be an issue). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 04:10, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
- What if we defined the category as those associated with the properties covered here, and concept albums? I'd like to think of Christmas concept albums as similar to Christmas radio specials in that they have a unifying theme throughout rather than just an album that Mariah Carey decides to put together with a bunch of holiday tunes. What do you think? —Scott (talk) 04:21, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
- Yeah, I'd definitely be more comfortable with that (and if that's the case, I have a Popeye Christmas album I need to dig up), and it would also be things we could easily link to the relevant special pages. And as a side note, I love the title "What Can You Get a Wookie For Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb?)." -- Andrew Leal (talk)
- Yeah, that's what I was saying. But with kids' stuff you have to be careful, otherwise you'd have to include stuff like the Annie christmas record that came out the Christmas after the movie did. That told a story about Annie, but should we put that in here? The original movie didn't have any Christmas scenes in it, so the record was kind of a "sequel" to a movie that won't be here. The same thing with countless Capitol stuff (Bozo, Bugs Bunny) that is nothing more than existing characters making a Christmas record, just to make a Christmas record. If we wanted to include all Christmas material by characters who are on the wiki, that's okay with me, but I just wanted to be clear before I started digging through stuff. Also, and Andrew might be interested in this, a lot of radio stars made Christmas story albums way back in the 78 era (like a set of 3 78's that told a story starring Fibber McGee and Molly). So I just wanted to throw that in there, too. I love having the Star Wars album here, but a lot of people think it's a soundtrack album to the special when it's not. If we included separate records by characters that are covered elsewhere on the wiki, that would make the most sense. Because then we could include the story record from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, but not the 1975 or 1984 albums, which are just songs and skits, but not an album-length story. I hope I'm making sense. Sorry if I'm talking too much; I'm a record geek!
- If it's just people or characters collecting up xmas songs together for an album, it doesn't belong here. If it's a concept album -- tells a story from beginning to end -- it belongs here. So the Annie album sounds like it qualifies. —Scott (talk) 05:37, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
- No. This is getting off track. As I said on Talk:Miracle on 34th Street, we shouldn't be expanding this wiki any more than it already has. Personally, I would prefer to take out everything on this wiki that isn't directly about TV Christmas Specials. This isn't a "Christmas wiki", or a "Christmas entertainment wiki". This is a wiki about Christmas Specials.
- The "Christmas entertainment" concept sounds to me like people suggesting that Muppet Wiki should also include Blue's Clues and Jack's Big Music Show, because it's all part of the same style of entertainment.
- I agree with Scott, that any record here should be a sort of audio special - with a plot, a story and linking dialog between songs, maybe even some dialog only tracks, etc. An general Christmas album (whether sung by "real" recording artists or fictional characters) would not be appropriate, but I feel these kinds of audio special, even if mainly based around showcasing songs, are not loosing any more focus than including pre-television radio specials, theatrical films or Christmas-based television episodes. As Danny said, this is not a Christmas entertainment wiki nor is it an all encompassing Christmas media wiki. This is Christmas Specials wiki, so I think we should be covering all Christmas specials - televised premieres, theatrical releases, direct to video, radio dramas, telefilms, etc. Or are you suggesting that it would be more appropriate to rename this project "Christmas Television Specials Wiki" and only focus on short-subject productions produced for televised premieres? — WaldoWatcher, 16:30, 28 November 2007 (UTC)