Dancing to the beat of a... wikiproject?
This time of year features the Latin Grammy Awards, so here for an interview are WikiProject Latin music. Currently with 55 members, it covers all aspects of Latin music and its associated topics. Telling us more are Victor Lopes and Magiciandude.
What motivated you to join WikiProject Latin music? Are you a musician, or just a fan of the genre?
- Victor Lopes: I'm an amateur musician, but mostly a fan of the genre, and since I live in Latin America, I'm obviously surrounded by it.
- Magiciandude: I grew up listening to Latin music all my life (I am of Puerto Rican descent) and I continue to do so as it is my favorite genre. I created the WikiProject as an effort to reach out to other editors who have similar interests.
Have you contributed to any of the project's fifty Featured or 131 Good articles, and do you find them easier or harder to promote than articles regarding other subjects?
- Victor Lopes: I did some editing here and there, but never took any of them to Good or Featured status.
- Magiciandude: I made the article for Romances (Luis Miguel album) the first ever FA about a Spanish-language album. I also worked on the other FA articles listed on the project except for "Irreplaceable". For those wondering why the song is under the Latin music project scope, it's because of the Spanish-language version of the song which ranked on the Latin music charts. Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 was done as a collaboration with WikiRedactor of WikiProject Shakira. I done collaborations with other WikiProject such as WikiProject Jennifer Lopez for "No Me Ames" and WikiProject Christina Aguilera for Mi Reflejo and its Spanish-language songs.
Do you think that Latin music receives a reasonable amount of editor attention on Wikipedia, or should there be more editors involved?
- Victor Lopes: The coverage is much beyond my expectations. As a matter of fact, the coverage here is much better than in my native Portuguese Wikipedia, though highly popular artists such as Shakira tend to be as well-covered as they are here.
- Magiciandude: It varies. As Victor Lopes said, artists such as Shakira, Ricky Martin, and Enrique Iglesias tend to receive more coverage due to being internationally known. Likewise, music from popular countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Spain, and the United States also gets more contributions. We could definitely use more editors who are knowledgeable about music from other Spanish-speaking regions of Latin America that receive much less attention the project. We can also benefit more users who can speak Portuguese as the number of Spanish-speaking users on the project greatly outnumbers those who speak Portuguese so that articles related to music from Brazil and Portugal can be improved on.
The project has many DYK (did you know) items listed on its front page, more than most WikiProjects. Are your editors particularly encouraged to nominate new articles for DYK?
- Magiciandude: Credit goes to Jaespinoza for bringing so many DYKs to the project. Most of the other active members also tend to be active making DYKs.
What is your most popular topic or article, measured by reader page views? Should it be a project aim to improve your highest visibility articles?
- Magiciandude: As mentioned, Latin artists who are internationally known such as Enrique Iglesias and Shakira tend to have the most views as well as the countries I've said before. The project aims to improve artists and recordings that have received the highest visibility to attract new members while also reaching out to users who are interested in other Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking music from Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula that receives less attention from the project.
How can a new member help today?
- Victor Lopes: We have recently expanded our to-do list. New members (anyone, actually ;D) are invited to help creating those articles.
- Magiciandude: There are many ways a new member can help out whether it'd be contributing to their favorite Latin artists and their recordings or their favorite Latin genres. Since we include any music in Spanish and Portuguese that have been released in Latin America, the Iberian Peninsula, and the United States, we are open to members who want to contribute to artists who frequently cross over to the Latin market such as Laura Pausini and Manu Chao. We also accept recordings with indigenous languages and dialects from Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula for anyone who is interested in either of those. I have also compiled a list of resources to help users find information for Latin music articles much easier.
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