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

[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