“I used to live in a room full of mirrors / All I could see was me / Well I take my spirit and I crash my mirrors / Now the whole world is here for me to see” - Jimi Hendrix
I started contributing to Wikipedia when I was 16 while recovering at home from traumatically painful surgeries after a cancer scare. In junior high, I had started to read about popular music--music journalism and criticism, books, reviews, etc.--as a way of reconciling my desire to improve my English with a feeling I had that there was much more to music than what I had heard on the radio or from my peers. Reading about it became an enduring hobby of mine, as did expanding my music collection based a lot on certain critics who articulated so well the different perspectives and interpretations art can inspire. I also read stories behind the realities and circumstances that inspired the artist's work and how the work impacted those involved, the popular music landscape, and even the cultural consciousness of listeners and society in general, which was as interesting and enjoyable for me as reading a novel or watching a film. The writing of music journalists such as Robert Christgau, Ann Powers, and Miles Marshall Lewis helped me improve my articulation and reading comprehension more than the New York public school system could ever dream of and helped put my mind off one of several debilitating health setbacks I would experience growing up.
I eventually wandered onto Wikipedia while looking for information on certain albums I was interested in, but many of the articles were either meager and poorly-written or non-existent, so I started to expand and rewrite or, in some cases, create articles from scratch into what you see below. In the process, I developed a better feel for writing, researching, citing sources, and common style manual formatting. By reading more and developing my musical tastes and overall perspective further, I began to appreciate so much more music and ideas about life in general, even beyond what I ended up writing about in the articles below.
I often read about the albums I've listened to (context and analysis of the music, its reception and impact, etc.) and learn a great deal from all the literature and sources available on Amazon.com's book previews, certain journalists' online archives, and Google Books, which does not always have every page accessible, so you have to be somewhat intuitive with the search engine and manually gather info from the search results preview or snippet view. Unfortunately in most societies, knowledge and education are organized and distributed in a way that makes them privileges rather than freedoms for most people. So in the spirit of knowledge building and not wanting to let what I learned go to waste just on me, I like to help expand parts of any article whose topic I read about, not just the work I've put the most effort in below. My presence on Wikipedia diminished as my health improved and life opened itself up to me more, so my most recent Featured articles (FA) below will likely be my last, and my best. Still, Wikipedia--as an outlet for my intellectual growth and study of something precious and meaningful to me, music--will always have sentimental value for me. I'm also pretty proud of my FAs, which feel like A+ papers to me, so please don't vandalize them :)
Featured articles written and nominated for WikiProject Music
Featured articles are considered to be the best articles Wikipedia has to offer, as determined by Wikipedia's editors. They exemplify Wikipedia's very best work and are distinguished by professional standards of writing, presentation, and sourcing. Featured articles are used by editors as examples for writing other articles. Before being promoted, they are reviewed as candidates for accuracy, neutrality, completeness, and style according to our featured article criteria.
On Wikipedia's desktop website, a small bronze star icon () on the top right corner of an article's page indicates that the article is featured. Less than 0.1% of articles on Wikipedia are featured.
Good articles written and nominated for WikiProject Music
Good articles are considered to be of good quality, but are not yet as qualified as featured articles. They meet the good article criteria, passing through the nomination process successfully. In short, they are written very well, contain factually accurate and verifiable information, are broad in coverage, neutral in point of view, stable, and illustrated, where possible, by relevant images with suitable copyright licenses. Good articles do not have to be as comprehensive as featured articles, but they should not omit any major facets of the topic.
A small plus sign inside a circle () on the top right corner of an article's page indicates that the article is good. Less than 0.5% of articles on Wikipedia are good articles.