Talk:Paul McCartney

He could be classed as an orchestral composer, a chamber music composer, an actor, a poet, screenplay author etc. etc. Why is he limited by the definition Rock Artist (whatever that is!)? Duncan 10:04, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm not going to explain what a "rock artist" is, since everyone knows that.

Please do enlighten me. According to your categorisation it can be anything (and everything) from Chumbawamba to Bob Dylan to Ozzy Osbourne. Have not got a clue why these should all be lumped together, adding to the confusing mess, other than they are all musicians.

McCartney could be called a "composer", although he never wrote classical music,

His orchestral and chamber music will be classical in the future but I never mentioned classical.

but then we can call every musician who releases work under his own name a "composer", even singers who don't write their own music. McCartney never released poetry,

see Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics 1965-1999, Sir Paul McCartney, Faber and Faber (2002)

acts not very often,

but often enough to be notable

never wrote any screenplays,...

Won BAFTAs for his animated films, screenplay credit etc.

(Seriously: why did I add that Wikipedia article if you have so many questions about McCartney's professions? Even Wikipedia only lists him as rock and pop singer, guitarist and pianist. )

I do not have any questions about McCartney. You should not believe anything you read on Wikipedia without checking it out for yourself.

Replies

O.K., first of all: I only want to list the most important professions of people (especially since I should avoid overcategorisation and too much interesting information that has little to do with Zappa. The articles on this Wiki should be to the point. McCartney is first and foremost known as a rock or pop singer, guitarist, pianist. You don't have to distrust Wikipedia to see that these simple facts are correct. He might have released one poetry book and acted in a few movies, but he's also a business man, singer-songwriter, activist,... we can start listing all kinds of stuff, but there are longer encyclopedia articles in existence to provide more information. That's why I add links and sources if possible.

But if you really think McCartney's importance as a screenplay author (even if such a category doesn't exist on this wiki and you told me that we should avoid too much categories) is necessary for this article, just add it instead of complaining about it. I don't mind.

Rock artists are all musicians who are active in rock 'n roll or rock. If they are listed in rock encyclopedia: then they belong in this category. That's why Ozzy Osbourne (metal), Little Richard (rock 'n roll), Suburban Lawns (punk) are listed as "Rock Artists". And that's why I didn't add Bob Marley (reggae) there, for instance. Bob Dylan is both a folk artist and a rock artist, so we just add both categories.

User:Spider of Destiny 18:22 14 December

Yes. I was just making a point. Not arguing that there should be more categories. Duncan 22:13, 14 December 2010 (UTC)