GUIDELINES.md

Lyrics annotation guidelines

• Based on Apple Music, LyricFind, Musixmatch guidelines
• General rule: transcribe vocal sounds that can be clearly heard

General formatting

• Line breaks separate lyrical segments
  • \n: Lines
  • \n\n: Stanzas (sections)
  • No more than 1 blank line
  • Ideally at most 10 lines or so in each section (not a hard limit)
  • Section break indicators:
    • A defined chorus, verse, intro, bridge, or hook
    • Changes in the song tempo
    • Changes in how the artist delivers the lyrics (e.g. from singing to rapping)
• No section labels (verse, chorus, refrain, …) or other non-lyrics text
• Repeated lines should be repeated explicitly and for the correct number of times

Capitalization

• Capital letter at the beginning of every line
• Follow traditional grammar rules: capitalize proper nouns and anything else specific to each language
• Examples of expressions that must be capitalized:
  • Acronyms (NASA, FBI)
  • Brand names
  • Divinity and religious intricacies (God, You, Him, Your in religious songs)
  • Geographical location (East Coast, Southside etc.)

Grammar and spelling

• Within each line, adhere to grammar and spelling rules (commas, capitalization, …) of the language
• Avoid exaggerations: ohhhh oh, feeeeeel feel, bang!!!! bang!
• Non-normative (e.g. slang or regional) spelling only if matched by clearly non-standard pronunciation: livin', 'em, 'Rari, 'cause, I'ma, for shizzle, but: becuz because
  • Only use (de facto) standard (commonly used) spellings; do not make up new ones
  • Apostrophe for contractions (two words contracted to one) or elisions (part of a word omitted, usually beginning/end)
    • Avoid elision in the middle of a word except in common/standard cases; see language-specific rules
    • If unsure whether a contraction/elision is actually present, count the syllables with and without it and see which fits better rhythmically
  • If the artist uses a dialect, use standard spelling for that dialect if available and where pronunciation calls for it (see language-specific rules)
• If not sure, use a dictionary, Google Ngrams Viewer or even just Google search (comparing the number of results) to get an idea of which spelling is more acceptable
• Explicit lyrics:
  • If not censored in the audio, transcribe as is: I'm the motherfucking man
  • If completely or partially censored, replace the entire word with 4 asterisks: I'm the **** man

Punctuation

• Full stop (.): never to end a sentence, only in acronyms, contractions (Mr.)
• Comma (,): never at the end of a line
• Apostrophe/single quote ('): only for contraction and elision (I'm, livin' – see above), never to quote
• Question mark (?), double quote ("): as appropriate
• Exclamation mark (!): sparingly
• Hyphens (-) when appropriate
  • To join words, parts of words, non-word vocal sounds
  • When a line is (unnaturally) interrupted in the middle of a word
• No dashes (–), colons (:) or semicolons (;) – use a comma (or a line break) instead
• Parentheses: only for background vocals
• Use variants appropriate for each language (¿?, ¡!, «»)
• Punctuation should always have a syntactic function – do not use it just to indicate a pause if it doesn't make sense grammatically

Background vocals

• In parentheses at the end of the line it “belongs to”
• Can be a separate line (starting with capital letter) if there is a longer pause or it would not fit on the same line; can occasionally go at the beginning or in the middle if it is unavoidable
• Consider omitting them if they form a consistent “texture” (especially if made up of non-word sounds) or are not “countable” (due to extensive delay/reverb etc.)
• Voices singing in unison/homophony with (near-)identical lyrics are considered as a single unit and not as separate vocal lines, should be transcribed only once
• Do not use parentheses to simply identify a “secondary” vocalist, but rather for contrast within a single line/section; consider that a singer's role may change (even many times) over the course of the song
• If there are two or more vocalists, but they have equal importance (equal volume, equal amount of content) such as in a duet, avoid using parentheses systematically

Non-word vocal sounds

• Mostly should be transcribed, but consider if they contribute to the content of the song (if they are part of background vocals, see above)
• Language-specific!
  • English: oh, ah, la, leh, mmm, ooh, doo, da, uh, whoa, wee, yo, ayy, hey, ayo, brr, ha, …
  • Spanish: oh, ah, la, ay, ey, oy, jaja, ajá, …
  • French: oh, ah, la, ouh, ouah, aïe, hey, ahah, …
• Always separate individual syllables with punctuation
  • Hyphens to string them together to form short phrases: oh-oh, woah-oh-oh, la-la-la, play-ay-ay
  • Commas to separate: Oh California, ooh-ooh, ooh yeah
  • Do not write la la la or lalala, use punctuation; however common speech phrases like oh/ooh yeah should be written with a space
• Do not include sound descriptions (car horn, clap, music, background speech) or non-vocal sound imitations (screech, whoosh, bang) or symbols (🎵)

Unintelligible vocals

If something is really unintelligible and can't be understood even with a bit of research, it's better to omit it.

Language-specific guidelines

🇩🇪 German

We use neue deutsche Rechtschreibung.

Apostrophes (elisions, contractions)

We follow the rules from Duden, but made a few additional rules to improve consistency:

1. Elision of e at the end of a word: we generally use apostrophes except in the case of imperatives. Example: Komm her! but Ich komm' her. See rule D13/2.
2. Elision of e in the middle of a word: we apply the rules in many cases except for when it is harder to read: seh'n but verstehn. See rule D13/1.

🇫🇷 French

Sources: Musixmatch French insights, Musixmatch French FAQ

Apostrophes (elisions, contractions)

• If the beginning or end of a word is cut, replace it with an apostrophe:
  • 'teilles (if pronounced as such) for bouteilles
  • j'fais, j't'avais, m'semble, s'capte for je fais, je t'avais, me semble, se capte
  • not for e in the middle of a word: petit, faisait, maintenant, dessus, not p'tit/ptit, f'sait, maint'nant, d'ssus
• y a, y en, not y'a, y'en

1990 spelling reform

Prefer pre-1990 spellings, e.g. coût cout, connaître connaitre, événement évènement.

🇪🇸 Spanish

Apostrophes (elisions, contractions), dialects

• Mark elisions at word beginnings/ends as per general rules (e.g. pa', sacamo'); in the middle of a word in common cases (e.g. to's).
• Avoid writing fusion of syllables as a contraction, e.g. que está qu'está.
• If the song is in a dialect, use that dialect's standard spelling where the pronunciation clearly calls for it, e.g. preparao prepara'o