On 08/04/2014 01:32 PM, bflaminio wrote: > Intuitively I perceive a distinction between a "compilation", "box set", and > "anthology"; but I have no idea how to unambiguously define each.
Might be ambiguous, but: Compilation: collection of recordings from a variety of sources, possibly by several different artists. Example: “Greatest Hits”, “Love Songs” Box set: collection of previously-released albums packaged together with each approximating their original form. (So a bonus disc or bonus tracks would not detract from the 'box set' type) Anthology: Collection of previously-released recordings, with an effort towards comprehensiveness. Example: “Chronological Classics” series, “All the Singles” Of course, there could be some overlap in deciding whether a given release is a compilation or an anthology. One solution would be to explicitly define "compilations” as meaning “Various Artists Compilations” while “Anthology” would be any single-artist compilation, regardless of comprehensiveness. On the other hand, I’m not even sure that ‘anthology’ is really an appropriate term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthology doesn’t describe anything like the description given above: “a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler.” is so vague as to cover just about anything, and seems to fit much better with "compilation" in general. The stuff listed under “Media” on that page does not fit with that idea of an anthology at all. I’m mostly familiar with it in the context of “sci-fi anthologies” which are generally … compilations of short stories from a variety of authors. Not at all like anthology as described above. We could go flying off into esotericism and call the latter 'opera omnia'. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works ) (kidding, of course). _______________________________________________ MusicBrainz-style mailing list MusicBrainz-style@lists.musicbrainz.org http://lists.musicbrainz.org/mailman/listinfo/musicbrainz-style
