style conflict decision

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

OK I prefer the "the" in a bandname to NOT be capitalised (i dislike captial drift and stand manfully against it like little hans w.fingah in dyke-ah)

well i just got to marking up this phrase "bands like The Smiths and The The": obviously that is "the Smiths", equally obviously NOT "the The" --> hence i have decided that the name "The The" falls into the same category as "Liquid Liquid" (or insert bettah examples but this is all my mopey man-fluey brane can muster at the moment)

Comments

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Shurely that depends? I've never heard of them being called Smiths. Their first album had a very definite "The Smiths" written on the cover. So I'd say that they were The Smiths. As opposed to the Cream, who were called "Cream" on their record covers.

Perhaps they were the The Smiths?

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

ok sean but this argt is CLASSIC "capital creep"

when in a sentence, the "The" should not be capitalised, for the identical same reason we write "the Queen" not "The Queen" in a sentence (except when she begins the sentence obv): even SHE is not allowed to colonise the definite article with her uppity lookitme one-of-a-kindness, so nor are the Beatles, so nor are the Smiths <-- this is my argument ---> it is not "I went to view The Coldstream Guards": the "the" is OURS, not THEIRS

How it is laid out as an LP title is red-herringish:
a: titles have caps because they're titles, EVEN WHEN THEY'RE SENTENCES
b: ceding coherent style to how LP covers do it is a total non-starter!
c: it would be perfectly standard to cap the following songtitle thus: "There Is a Light that Never Goes Out", regardless of how it appears on any given sleeve (ie all lower -- unlikely w.the Smiths for sure -- or all caps, or some cRaZy mixed-up anti-rules anarchoid whatever...)
d: over and above "mere" house-style, there's the issue of a bad shoe-in-the-door for the foax who want their brand always to appear Just So (for a while there was a gallery that insisted there were to be TWO spaces between its "the" and its [whatever the rest was])

("Cream" vs "the Cream" is a separate issue really, more like Keith Richard vs Keith Richards -- i think they changed their minds as to which was the preferred form...) (or were just unbothered or too addled to notice -- SWANS hated being called the Swans)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

we write "the Queen" not "The Queen" in a sentence
"Her Majesty the Queen" to you, peasant