Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Version 3.101 last updated August 25, 1999 1. What is alt.music.lyrics? 2. Where should I search before I request a song to the newsgroup? 3. What should I know about posting REQUESTS to the newsgroup? 4. What should I know about posting REPLIES to the newsgroup? 5. I posted a request and no one has answered me. a.) Why not? b.) How long will it take to get my lyrics? 6. Can I ask for (sound files, sheet music, etc.)? 7. What does it mean when someone accuses me of attaching a file? 8. What does it mean to "post in HTML" and why is it discouraged? 9. Other Resources 10. Flaming 11. Where can I find this FAQ? 12. Acknowledgments 13. Comments, suggestions and corrections 1. What is alt.music.lyrics? Ever wondered what on earth that song you were listening to meant? Ever wondered what the singer was babbling about? Have you ever been convinced that so and so was singing one thing, when in fact he/she was singing something completely different? Have you ever bought a CD and found out that the artist didn't bother to include the lyrics? Well you've come to the right place. Alt.music.lyrics is an unmoderated newsgroup for people who want to find the lyrics to songs, chase down popular/obscure songs, look for songs with particular words in them, etc. (back to top) 2. Where should I search before I request a song to the newsgroup? (a) If you know the artist, title, or words of the song you're seeking, the best thing to do is type in the artist's name in a search engine. The following sites have a good success rate: deja.com, Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista, Magellan, Infoseek, Hotbot and Metacrawler. (You should put quotations around the artist's name or the line from the song to get a better match.) EXAMPLE (you would place this sentence in your browser of choice): "Tori Amos" lyrics "all the bad boys are standing in the shadows" (b) If you don't know who sang the song OR the title OR don't remember ANY of the words, check some of the below sites: Lyrics Library - http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/blondie/313/ Lyrics World - http://lyrics.natalnet.com.br/html/main_index/index.html Top3 - http://www.top3.net/LYRICS/ Leonie's Lyrics http://fs.dai.net/ac/839985/N01.html (back to top) 3. What should I know about posting REQUESTS to the newsgroup? If you don't follow certain steps, your answer may be ignored. Please take the time to follow basic guidelines. a.) Please try to limit yourself to one request per post. b.) Subject Line (on your outgoing post) If you know the title or the artist: REQ: Song Title - Artist REQ: Song Title REQ: Artist If you don't know the title or the artist, enter a line from the song: REQ ID/LYRICS: i am the son and the heir REQ: Like Sting I’m Tantric If you don't remember anything about the song: "REQ: ID" in the subject line Under no circumstances should the post include the words: HEEELLLLPPPPPPP I NEED THAT SONG THAT THEY PLAYED IN THAT MOVIE.... REQUIRED: PLEASE HELP ME NOW (any text with more than one "!" entered after it.) c.) E-mail/Post text Enter any information you know about the song. Such as album title, which movie, tv show or radio station you heard it on, which language the song is in, what year it may have been released, what musical genre it may be in (jazz, country, Christian, pop, etc.), and so on. d.) Please include the proper e-mail address to send replies. This means that if you have a no-spam add-on... please specify that in your request. e.) Refrain from using all capital letters. They are hard to read and in any internet setting they are considered screaming. (back to top) 4. What should I know about posting REPLIES to the newsgroup? a.) Please make sure that your lyrics are correct. This isn't always easy since there are many discrepancies around the internet. Note where you found the lyrics (liner notes, magazine, book, website, etc.) This way you will not be held responsible for any mondegreens.* b.) Please respond to the newsgroup rather than just replying to a request directly via e-mail. ALL replies that are relevant to the newsgroup should be directed to the newsgroup so that everyone can benefit. A COPY of the message can be sent to the requester as a courtesy but it should be IN ADDITION TO the message sent to the newsgroup, not INSTEAD OF it. c.) If your newsreader allows it, check to see whether someone else has posted the lyrics in question. This saves on effort and bandwidth. We don't need a dozen 'American Pies' posted to the group at once. There are plenty of lyrics websites out there that have that information. d.) Subject Line (in your reply post/e-mail) LYR: LINK: ID: e.) E-mail/Post body (text of the e-mail/post) The following don't need to be put in any specific order, but they should be included in your text: SONG TITLE Artist Album (if known) Year released (if known) songwriters (if known) Lyrics f.) Please don't post large collections of lyrics in the newsgroup. Instead, post a list of the titles/artists and offer to e-mail the lyrics directly to anyone who wants them. Better yet, upload your lyrics to the world wide web and post the URL of the web site. If you don't want to create your own web site, there are several existing lyrics archives on the web that will accept your lyrics submissions and add them to their online archive. For example, Lyrics World has a huge "wanted" list http://lyrics.natalnet.com.br/html/main_index/index.html g.) Trim irrelevant portions of quoted text before posting a reply. (i) Some e-mail is set up to "quote" the first e-mail. When there have been many responses, the text in the e-mail grows. Please trim any extra text before replying (this includes long signatures, full song lyrics, other people's replies, etc.) (ii) There is no need to reply to the whole group to post anything that is irrelevant to the subject of lyrics. This includes the following phrases: "thanks!" "That's the song i was looking for!" "This is spam!" "you suck" (back to top) 5. I posted a request and no one has answered me. a.) Why not? Please don't post the same request ad nauseam. Contributors are helping out of their interest in music, lyrics and helping others. If no one has posted it, it is either because: (i) no one knows the answer (ii) it's already been posted many times in the past week. Just wait about a week and then try reposting your request. b.) How long will it take to get my lyrics? It depends on the song. Songs that at some point in their release history have been very well-known (or high on the American music charts) are generally the easiest to find. Many of the people who read and answer lyrics requests are very good at finding songs in a particular genre. You may be answered within an hour, but many requests may take a week or longer to be fulfilled. Even if we can't find your lyrics, we may be able to provide links to sites that may have them in the future. (back to top) 6. Can I ask for (sound files, sheet music, etc.)? Basically, no. This is a lyrics newsgroup. It should only involve lyrics. Midis, Mp3s, wavs, etc. take up too much bandwidth AND aren't like.. ya know ... legal. If you must reply to these requests, please send only a link. (back to top) 7. What does it mean when someone accuses me of attaching a file? Sometimes if you link to a URL with .txt at the end, it downloads instead of just reading as a normal website. (back to top) 8. What does it mean to "post in HTML" and why is it discouraged? (This question is credited to Rob Munda) HTML is the programming language that is used to make websites. Some newsreader programs and some e-mail programs are able to use this language to make e-mail and newsgroup posts look nicer. It might use fancier looking letters (letters of different colors, bold face type, italics, larger or smaller letters) in the print. It might put images into the body of the message. It might use "hyperlinks" to link to a web site. If you see a link on a newsgroup post or in an e-mail it might look like this: http://www/lyrics.ch/ An HTML version might look like this: Click here to visit ILS If someone's program doesn't support HTML all they would see is something like this: Click here to visit ILS and a bunch on other stuff that looks like junk to them. Or they might not see anything at all. That's why we asked everyone, both posting and answering requests to post only in plain text so that it's readable by everyone. Some newsreader programs only handle plain text and either get confused and either don't print the message or they print it as garbled code, so please be kind to everyone and post in plain text. (back to top) 9. Other Resources Kathy came up with the wonderful idea of including e-mail addresses for people who would be willing to be 'experts' in certain areas. When writing to these volunteers, please limit your requests to their stated area of interest. For example, people who specialize in lyrics of the 1940's obviously aren't going to be interested in requests for the lyrics of the latest Spice Girls song. Please don't waste the volunteers' time with questions and requests that are outside their area of interest. The current list of volunteers is at http://www.oocities.org/SunsetStrip/Balcony/9150/volunteers.html If you would like to volunteer your services, please drop a line to altmusiclyrics@hotmail.com. Just say what your area of specialty is and your e-mail address. Be sure to mention that you want to have your name added to the list of volunteers at the alt.music.lyrics web site. (back to top) 10. Flaming Alt.music.lyrics is a great place to get help, give help or discuss lyrics. It is an unmoderated group, so there isn't much anyone can do about ßames or spamming. If someone has posted a request for a song which has been posted to death, it would be best for everyone to just ignore it. Hyper-critical/hyper-sensitive comments on the newsgroup don't add anything to the discourse. If someone has posted something which can be found on this FAQ, please just forward a copy of this FAQ to them, or refer them to one of the URLs listed at the bottom of this FAQ. More importantly, if you're being driven crazy by repetition, why not post to Erin at altmusiclyrics@hotmail.com and suggest that the song be included in the FAQ? (back to top) 11. Where can I find this FAQ? The OLD alt.music.lyrics site has the OLD FAQ: http://www.oocities.org/SunsetStrip/Palms/3431/aml-faq.txt The new alt.music.lyrics site WILL have this FAQ when it is finished: http://www.oocities.org/SunsetStrip/Balcony/9150/amlfaq.html (back to top) 12. Acknowledgments This is the alt.music.lyrics FAQ. It was made by combining the lyrics.wanted FAQ from the old International Lyrics Server and the existing FAQ from alt.music.lyrics newsgroup. The lyrics.ch FAQ was written by Melissa with input from Jan, Ma'ayan, Roger, Rob, Todd, Pascal, Stacy, Mark, and Erin. You can see it here: http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/dramatic/517/faq.htm The original FAQ for alt.music.lyrics was written by Clara Duong in October 1996, with occasional updates by Wayne Garvin. It couldn't have been re-written without the help of: Mark, Ron, Bunty, Coyote, Czech4, Delfi4110, Harthaus, Koala_bear, Lybean, Mamu, Nancy G, SingleAct, Rhonda, TPeach, Childuf60s, SWallace2012, JohnnyOJr, and you... our viewing public (how cheesy is that?) (back to top) 13. Comments, suggestions and corrections Comments, suggestions and corrections should now be sent to Erin Wilson. Erin has taken over the task of compiling and maintaining this FAQ, and her e-mail address is: altmusiclyrics@hotmail.com. If you know of a web site which you think should be included, please e-mail her. (back to top)