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Template:Did you know nominations/White Noise (Will Wood song)

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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by AirshipJungleman29 talk 14:21, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

DYK toolbox

White Noise (Will Wood song)

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Created by Koopastar (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

Koopastar (talk) 02:39, 25 September 2024 (UTC).

@Viriditas: Here's a rewritten version:
I initially opted for "claim" to encompass that it could be not true, especially given the rarity of something that could cure cancer, but I see the problem behind possibly leading readers to believe it's non-satirical. However, it still has some unusualness to it with the context, and a Bulgarian choir doesn't seem like a common thing to appear in pop music, so I believe this new version could work. I did attempt to think of a hook that encompasses the song's theme, but most interesting points would be sourced from the song's page on Genius, which is a primary source. Koopastar (talk)
@Koopastar: Thanks for your work on this. I think there's a lot out there about the song, which means you don't have to use Genius. If you were to use the "cure cancer" bit, take a look at this source, which goes in the direction I was talking about. However, I really think it's best to avoid the "cure cancer" thing because it's so problematic and exists solely in the fictional universe of the song (he also says he was joking). My opinion is its best to focus on the facts. The idea that he conducted an 18-person Bulgarian choir over zoom is incredible! (Or is it 16? He says both; perhaps it's a typo? It looks like it really is 16, but your article has 30 listed, let's fix this, or at least figure out which is correct) Why not stick with something like that? You can also add other details to the hook. Did he do this through zoom due to COVID restrictions or for another reason? He says it was one of the "first songs I wrote when I picked up the ukulele", so you might be able to add this as well. All I'm saying is that there are an infinite number of choices that don't use "cure cancer", and we should stick with those. I'm also drawn to what Wood says about the meaning of the song in conversation with Suzanne Torrison in the Behind the Curtains Media interview.[1] That really resonates with me and encapsulates the entire song in one go. There's numerous good hook possibilities available in that interview. Viriditas (talk) 21:09, 30 September 2024 (UTC)
@Koopastar: Considering the issues with WP:DYKFICTION that were brought up in the last review, have you considered new hooks? Perhaps something matter of fact about the Bulgarian choir? Viriditas (talk) 19:59, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
@Koopastar: I find this material from York Calling really interesting: "For White Noise, Will also had the chance to direct a 16-piece Bulgarian orchestra over Zoom."[2] In the current version of the article, you write "Wood later communicated with a Bulgarian choir via Zoom to create the song's backing vocals", which underplays his role as music director. What would make this perfect, is if you could somehow work in the COVID-19 pandemic into the hook, as the album itself was written and recorded during that time, and that might explain why Wood was working on Zoom, but that may not be possible given the sources. Something to think about at least? Viriditas (talk) 20:50, 5 October 2024 (UTC)
@Viriditas: Apologies for taking so long with this. I have some new hooks now:
In addition to your suggestion of the choir hook, I also made a couple about the song's subject and background. The reason I didn't use a number for the hook nor the article itself is because of the conflicting numbers between sources, as well as 30 people being credited for the song's choir in the CD. Using 30 would dismiss both numbers Will said, so it feels best to just describe it as-is because choirs typically tend to be large. Additionally, the only article about the song that mentions COVID-19 or "the pandemic" in any capacity is (1), which doesn't discuss the Zoom call unfortunately. Koopastar (talk) 23:56, 5 October 2024 (UTC)
@Koopastar: Great job! I will try to finish this up later and close it out. Viriditas (talk) 23:58, 5 October 2024 (UTC)
Preliminary review comments
ALT0 is okay, but not as interesting to me. ALT1 should be crossed out as it erroneously frames the hook in a way other than Wood intended. If you listen to the song and pay attention to the lyrics in context, Wood is sarcastically making fun of the idea that white noise cures cancer while also poking fun at the "white noise" of empty music criticism, etc. In other words, he's not actually saying it cures cancer, so the hook doesn't work for me, but I get if you were going for the quirky slot, and I think in some ways that could work. If you look at the source it says "I hired a 16-person classical choir in Bulgaria and conducted them over a Zoom call to get a recording of them erroneously claiming white noise cures cancer." Keep in mind, the song is not about the literal definition of white noise, "noise containing many frequencies with equal intensities", although it pays lip service to that definition in many different ways (white noise sound of a fluorescent light; white noise of holding a seashell to your ear, etc.) The song is about the metaphor of white noise, background noise that drowns out other sounds in a meaningless or distracting way. I think this is a really important song that deserves an important hook. I could pass ALT0 right now, but I'm not a big fan of it. Do you want to give it another go and submit a few more hooks?
Final review
General: Article is new enough and long enough
Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
QPQ: None required.
Overall: Prefer ALT2. Second choice would be ALT3, although I'm not fond of linking the ukulele tone to the acid trip without better sources, even though it's true that the song was inspired by it. Third choice would be ALT0. Oppose ALT4 for now based on its unusual wording, which reads as a bad paraphrase. That should also be fixed in the article. I like the intent of ALT4, but if you want to use it, it needs to be rewritten. Overall, good work. Note, I made several copyedits to the article to preserve the source-text integrity. Some of my changes might be considered subjective or interpretive, so please take a look and change to your liking. Viriditas (talk) 22:08, 6 October 2024 (UTC)
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