Capitalization in Titles

Here's a question: What do you guys do in cases where the artist stylistically chooses to change the capitalization? For example, the band the pillows. They purposely spell it in lowercase. I would keep it that way, what about you?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

They can be stylistic all they want until they're on my turf--that's when my style takes over. On my hard drive, the tags would read 'The Pillows', same as 'The Who' and 'The Servant'.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Free.User

Here's a question: What do you guys do in cases where the artist stylistically chooses to change the capitalization? For example, the band the pillows. They purposely spell it in lowercase. I would keep it that way, what about you?

Originally Posted by Trench

In case you didn't know, there is no capitalization in Japanese. So obviously none of the titles are going to be capitalized NATURALLY after translation.

Originally Posted by Trench

I think you missed the part where there's no capitalization in Japanese. So correct translation seems to be tough for them, or something.

I've said it twice, I'll say it again. Go find an English / American band who lowercases purposely. You're giving a Japanese example. Didn't you get the point yet?

And thank you, Tenseiken, for supporting good grammar.

How ya doing, buddy?

eighth blackbird. Notice the impeccable capitalization of everything EXCEPT the band's name in the bio paragraphs.

I hate this whole "no sense of capitalization" argument. Is it completely impossible that anyone in the country of Japan knows proper English and capitalization rules? Is it completely unfathomable that someone, despite knowing the rules, would nevertheless want to deviate from them? How do you know that the composer doesn't know exactly what he's doing? It seems awfully haughty to me to think you know the intentions of someone who writes twenty words on the back of a CD case more than the person himself.

I can see that a Japanese person who learns English might be more likely to choose different capitalization for stylistic reasons because they have less of an upbringing in capitalization, and so feel more comfortable with breaking the rules. I will admit that you see this kind of deviance quite a bit more frequently on foreign albums than you do with domestic ones, and the fact that they have no natural capitalization in their native language is a pretty nice, logical explanation (and one I hadn't thought of before this thread). But handwaving any perceived error with an "it's not their language, so they don't know any better" is pretty damn presumptuous, because there's no way you can know whether a composer is fluent in English and knows exactly what he's doing with the language.

Now, correcting capitalization without regard to intent, THAT'S a defensible position, albeit one I don't follow either. Would you capitalize "anyone lived in a pretty how town" too?

I was speaking idiomatically.

We're getting a little far from the original purpose (that being capitalization in track titles) now, aren't we? I wouldn't alter the content of a poem just like I wouldn't alter the content of the song. For example, if someone used "ain't" in a song, I wouldn't record over it with the proper contraction for the situation.

And yes, if I were keeping an archive of poems, the filename would probably read 'Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town' though the content of the poem would remain the same.

But, to each his own. If you're so concerned with the way the artist intended the title to be, don't change it. But if I get a copy of it from you, I'm going to fix it.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by tenseiken

We're getting a little far from the original purpose (that being capitalization in track titles) now, aren't we?

Yeah. I wanted to come up with an English song with an arbitrarily capitalized name, but I couldn't think of any off the top of my head. Maybe you could imagine it was a musical rendition recorded on a CD or something.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Trench

I've said it twice, I'll say it again. Go find an English / American band who lowercases purposely. You're giving a Japanese example. Didn't you get the point yet?

I'm sorry, I didn't realize you knew better than the artist. In case you didn't know, "the pillows" was not translated from "ダ-ピロウス". It was initially "the pillows", decided by the band. Whether or not they understood what they were doing is irrelevant. You may not want to be too quick to jump to conclusions next time.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?