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24 Mar 12 | Re: The proper way to give credit

I have no real problem with producers being credited as artists, much as David Guetta is messing up the next edition of the Guinness Book of Hit Singles. But what is all this “featuring” nonsense?

Commander: Kelly Rowland “featuring” David Guetta. Give Me Everything: Pitbull “featuring” Afrojack and some other people. Wrong, wrong, wrong. As any proper musical maven has known for twenty years (ie me), featuring denotes either a vocalist performing with a group or main-credit producer, or a singer doing the chorus in a rap song, or a rapper adding verses to a song by a singer or another rapper, or in the old days of jazz, a highlighted instrumentalist. Not a producer-type person responsible for the underlying beat of the song.

The proper way to credit a dance music guy beefing up somebody else’s track is versus. Current hit Elephant, for example, should be credited to Alexandra Burke versus Eric Morillo. Megahit We Found Love should definitely be Rihanna versus Calvin Harris. So now I’ve pointed this out, could people please get back to the right terminology? Thank you very much.

It also sounds much cooler.

Posted by BINNS AND BLOTWELL at 12:12

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