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At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: WhiteRam on June 17, 2010, 04:03:00 AM

Title: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: WhiteRam on June 17, 2010, 04:03:00 AM
Hey Guys, I'm submitting a new song for copyright and not sure if the "o" in the word "of" in the song's title should be a capital letter or not?

A =  King of Speed

B =  King Of Speed

A or B, your thoughts or input would be appreciated.  :)

WR
Title: Re: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: 38thBeatle on June 17, 2010, 06:14:49 AM
"A" would be correct in my opinion.
Title: Re: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: Antag on June 17, 2010, 08:56:07 AM
Well, strictly speaking

C - King of speed

...would be grammatically correct, unless speed is being used as a proper name (i.e. to denote person or place).

If it is, than A is correct...
Title: Re: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: AndyR on June 17, 2010, 09:23:22 AM
:lol:

It's a "matter of style" - in other words, depends on the tastes of the author/reader/compositor etc.

The traditional "English UK" style for Title Case is option A. Like 38th, I prefer that.

However, I'm not sure it matters too much?

My understanding is that, songtitles aren't copyright-able anyway, so the case probably doesn't matter when registering.

Also, bear in mind that the case of songtitles would probably get standardised in a list of songs - eg on a CD case. So, even if you think "King of Speed" is what you decided to call it, you might find that someone calls it "king of speed" on their CD case when they cover it, because their style guidelines for their artwork dictate "no capitals".

Interestingly, although I prefer option A for titles (I am "English UK" after all :lol:), I personally use option B.

This is because all authoring tools I use or have experience of cannot automatically apply the strange and varying  "English UK" rules for Title Case. So to produce standardised titles in documents, I follow the tools' standards - in a title, all words start with a capital.

This approach has spilled over into my own song-lyric documents.
Title: Re: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: Dr. Stein on June 17, 2010, 12:54:14 PM
A would be correct since in a title everything except articles, conjunctions etc should be capitalised. The easy to use rule is any word over four letters and important words four and under. The rules are different to normal prose, as you will see looking at any bibliography, discography or similar list of titles written in English.

Of course, you can do whatever you want with it - whether that be some American rubbish, "kINgs oF sPeEd" or just writing it upside down is up to you, but A is correct.
Title: Re: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: WhiteRam on June 17, 2010, 04:21:37 PM
Very informative and intelligent replies, thank you Gentlemen so much. :)

As I reflect on my original post while now having the knowledge presented, I realize more and have expanded my thoughts because of it too.

A small grain of sand in the existence of life, yes, but this thread has shown that collectively men have no limits as to which they can arise, so the wise would easily see that we are meant to be at peace.

Long and healthy live the gentlemen of the world, is my prayer.

WR
Title: Re: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: gingataff on June 17, 2010, 04:26:22 PM
Alternatively you could just call it Speed King. 
 PDT_042
Title: Re: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: ToneMonkey on June 17, 2010, 04:29:53 PM
KING OF SPEED - There, sorted.
Title: Re: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: Transcend on June 17, 2010, 07:15:50 PM
A is correct but i prefer the look of B i have always found for song titles it looks far tidier
Title: Re: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: Dr. Stein on June 17, 2010, 07:23:34 PM
A is correct but i prefer the look of B i have always found for song titles it looks far tidier

That's interesting, to me it looks incredibly untidy.
Title: Re: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: Transcend on June 18, 2010, 05:23:21 AM
Actually after re reading the post i realised that i got it incorrect i actually prefer the lower case O in song titles with of in them.

Also i prefer a's to be lower case in song titles too
Title: Re: Help - Proper Spelling For Song Title
Post by: JDC on June 18, 2010, 06:23:41 PM
KoS

less effort to type then