Wikipedia:Meaningful examples in pop culture

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

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Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon was one of the most influential, widely acclaimed, and best-selling concept albums ever.

Harry Nilsson once recorded a concept album too. But why should you care?

Occasionally, an editor will add examples from pop culture to an article without consideration for the policy of

coatracks

.

One real example of this issue can be found in this earlier revision of Concept album, which ran through an exhaustive, indiscriminate list of albums and their themes. Most readers are not interested in a complete and comprehensive history of every concept album ever recorded, only the notable ones – and explaining why they were notable is vital for establishing encyclopedic relevance.

In short, examples should be limited to the historically meaningful. If you can't find sources that directly support phrases like "the earliest", "prominent figure", "highly influential", or "inspired a new wave" to whatever/whomever you're referencing, then they're probably not important enough to mention in the first place.

"Namedropping" examples

The widely accepted standard is that

verifiability does not guarantee inclusion. In October 2015, it was determined by consensus

that sources should:

[...] not only establish the verifiability of the pop culture reference, but also its significance.

This means it's highly undesirable for articles to include references to artists or works without elaborating their significance to the main topic.

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, and overall loudness. Notable groups include Wrathchild, a glam metal band from Evesham, England.^[1]

Grimes,^[5] and R. Stevie Moore

.^[6]

Establishing encyclopedic relevance

Some possible rationales for establishing encyclopedic relevance include:

being one of the first examples of the topic.
having increased public awareness of the topic.
having foreshadowed later developments of the topic.
being considered by reliable sources to be a major figure within the topic.

Instead of namedropping, provide a clear explanation of the example's contribution to the main topic.

Following the success of the Artifical Intelligence series of compilation albums, "intelligent techno" became one of the preferred terms of intelligent dance music.^[3]

Some artists that contributed to the development of progressive rock were Pink Floyd, who recorded some of the most recognizable albums associated with the style, and Can, who popularized the motorik beat common to the krautrock subgenre.^[4]

v t e Relevance and scope
Policies and guidelines	What Wikipedia is not Notability Image relevance WP:CONTEXT (linking) WP:ONUS (verifiability does not guarantee inclusion) WP:DETAIL (levels of detail) WP:CONSPLIT (content split) WP:LISTCRITERIA (list selection criteria)
Essays	Scope Relevance WP:IRRELEVANT (content removal) WP:TOPIC (stay on topic) Relevance of content Out of scope Relevance emerges What claims of relevance are false Germane Indirect relevance is sometimes OK Notability is not relevance or reliability Exclusion Coatrack articles How to apply WP:NOR's "Directly related" principle Meaningful examples in pop culture Inclusion Content removal
See also	Template:Handling miscellanea Category:Wikipedia essays about notability

Wikipedia:Meaningful examples in pop culture

"Namedropping" examples

Establishing encyclopedic relevance

See also

Related guidelines

Related essays

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