The category “Show” on RockPeaks is one that newcomers sometimes have difficulty wrapping their heads around. This post details exactly what we mean by a “Show”, the hierarchy used in selecting the correct Show name, and how to resolve disputes about what the correct Show name is.
To understand what we mean when we refer to a “Show” on RockPeaks, start by visiting the Browse —> Show page and look at the different “Show Types” in the left hand column:
You can see that it is a fairly elastic format, encompassing many different categories. It can sometimes be difficult to know what show a clip should belong to, and while there is no hard and fast set of rules for creating and defining shows, here are some general guidelines for how to proceed.
If, after reading this document, you are unsure about a particular case, feel free to post a comment in this thread outlining your particular circumstances and someone will usually weigh in with advice.
The first and most important rule about shows is this: We don’t want any more shows than we absolutely need.
If you are adding a clip and are tempted to create a brand new show, first make sure that you are aware of other shows that might be a suitable fit for the current clip. While this can slow you down, in saves time in the long run, as duplicate or near-duplicate, or unnecessary shows take time to weed out of the system. Open up a new browser tab and use the site’s search engine to look for possible matches.
If you are confident that a new show is required, you can create one, but be sure to complete the extra meta data that a dedicated show page requires - ideally a wiki page or short description, a category, and a background image. You should also read the rest of this post so as to fully understand our show naming and categorizing conventions.
Promo videos are grouped by year.
Promotional videos by their nature do not belong to any kind of traditional “show”, as they are released individually by record labels and bands. For every calendar year, there is a show called “Promo Videos from XXXX” where XXXX is the year. We categorize these promo video “shows” as “temporal groupings”. (See this post for more details on how to name these shows when organizing your own collection for matching.)
Lyric Videos and Mash Ups are also considered promo videos, so any clips of this type should also be included in these temporally grouped shows.
Live performance clips can often logically belong to more than one type of show - how do I decide which one is correct?
Sometimes it can be difficult to determine what show a live performance clip should be assigned to. A clip might be considered part of a Concert, but the concert takes place at a Venue, and the venue exists within a geographic Region. Furthermore, such clips might be recorded by a production company for a Television Series, an Awards Ceremony, or for a Web Series. Or, they may be released as part of a Feature Film or a Documentary.
The general rule is that we want as much specificity as possible when assigning clips to shows, in most cases getting as close as possible to the production company or distribution entity that was responsible for making the recording.
If a clip is clearly produced and packaged as part of a television or web series, then it should be assigned to that entity, i.e. Austin City Limits, Top of the Pops, Rockpalast, KEXP, The Grammy Awards etc…
In some cases however, a television network or production company may give the event itself top billing – BBC broadcasting the Glastonbury Festival say, or Live Aid being carried to multiple networks across the globe – so in these cases the proper show name is simply the concert or festival name. (See the next section for the difference between concerts and festivals).
Full length video recordings that are released as Feature Films or Documentaries, or on physical media like DVD or Blu-ray, or via a streaming service should usually be given their own show pages on RockPeaks. Generally, if the release is notable enough to warrant its own Wikipedia page, then it should also have a proper show page on RockPeaks. Examples would include The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense, or Madonna: Truth or Dare.
For some less notable full length releases however, it is also permissible to use the Venue name as the show title. An example would be Rufus Wainwright’s full length video concert Live at the Fillmore, which does not have a dedicated page on Wikipedia and which is a straight up recording of a 2004 concert in San Francisco that was never released theatrically. Since there is a Disc in the system called “Rufus Wainwright: Live at the Fillmore” anyone using those exact words in a search would find this collection of clips. So in this case it would be possible to assign the clips from this concert to the show “Fillmore West, San Francisco”, which provides additional specific location information to the user without sacrificing any other data.
Deciding whether to use the Disc name or the Venue name is often a judgment call that is made on a case-by-case basis. In general, there are many, many shows that have been recorded where there is no proper “Show” to speak of, so in most of these cases we simply use the name of the Venue as the name of the Show.
When naming Venues, we generally follow the naming convention established by Wikipedia, and link to the page on Wikipedia for the venue of there is one. In cases where there is more than one venue with the same name, we add additional information to the title, usually the city the venue is in. For example there are lots of venues with the name “Apollo” in them, so to avoid confusion we name them as follows: Apollo Theater, Harlem vs. The Apollo, Glasgow vs. The O2 Apollo Manchester.
Shows that belong to the category Region are the least specific, and are therefore used as a last resort: you should only assign a clip to a Region show if you can’t locate any more detailed data about its provenance. Within the Region grouping of shows you will find towns, cities, countries and even continents. Here too, being as specific as possible is the goal – assigning a clip to a town or city is better than to a country or continent.
Clips belonging to Region shows should be reviewed periodically and reassigned to a more specific show where possible.
Is it a Concert or a Festival?
A Concert is typically a one-off, one-day musical event with a headliner and possibly one or two support acts. Examples of a concert include:
Nelson Mandela’s 70th Birthday Tribute
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert
A Festival is usually a multi-day musical event, often with multiple headliners, that can recur annually. Examples of a festival include: