Wikipedia:WikiProject The Beatles/Style

This is a WikiProject advice page on style. It contains the advice of one or more WikiProjects on how to format and present article content within their area of interest. This page is not an encyclopedia article or a Wikipedia policy, as it has not been reviewed by the community.

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Some words on policy:

This project's advice material is created through discussion on talk pages and, if reached, the resulting consensus. As one will notice, Wikipedia's general guidelines such as the Manual of Style always apply. This project also hosts discussions with other broader projects, including Albums, Songs, and United Kingdom. Importantly, we on this project can't editwar or make up our own rules over certain matters, such as infoboxes; we're all on Wikipedia, afer all. What this advice page recommends remains the WikiProject's consensus unless and until it is changed by new consensus, or unless it is contradicted by wider consensus in the Wikipedia community (per WP:LOCALCONSENSUS policy).

Use British English

We suggest, in most cases, using British English for Beatles articles. Preferrence for Oxford spelling or serial commas or false titles doesn't concern us, but that for date formats and vocabluary does.

Wikipedia's Manual of Style, which dictates guidelines on this site, states about national varieties of English: "An article on a topic that has strong ties to a particular English-speaking nation should use the standard (formal, not colloquial) English of that nation." Since the Beatles are an English band with English members, we maintain they have a "strong national tie" to the United Kingdom, British English-speaking nation. It is true that they did not ground themselves in the United Kingdom their whole lives—Lennon and Starr moved to the United States—and, indeed, they owed much to American rock and roll and art, but they are still, in essence, an English group. Britain does not claim ownership of Beatles articles; we are just striving for a consistency in how we cover the band, for readers' sake. Therefore, we write: "On an autumn's day on 13 October 2025, Ringo Starr considered practising football with his friends, and Paul McCartney fluoridized [or fluoridised] his teeth", not: "On a fall's day on October 13, 2025, Ringo Starr considered practicing soccer with his mates, and Paul McCartney fluoridized his teeth".

There are exceptions, of course. Not all Beatles-related articles have "strong national ties" with Great Britain: Linda McCartney, Paul's first wife, was American, and so her article should be written in American English. As with other examples: Magic Alex, Yesterday and Today, Lennon Remembers, so on. When hazy cases crop up, one may open a discussion on the article's or WikiProject's talk page.

"the Beatles", not "The Beatles"

We suggest placing the "the" in the band's name in smallcase, except when it opens a sentence or appears capitalized in a quote or title.

Two very long discussions in 2012 (here and here) yielded this agreement: the definite article in "the Beatles" should not be capitalized in the middle of a sentence. Likewise, the Manual of Style demands that "[m]id-sentence, per the MoS main page, the word the should in general not be capitalized in continuous prose, e.g.: Wings featured Paul McCartney from the Beatles and Denny Laine from the Moody Blues". Other sections of the manual, such as the entry "Capital letters", are consistent on this point. However, when the definite article is capitalized in a quote or title, we copy this choice of style; therefore, "In the words of a highly regarded critic, 'It is clear to all that The Beatles outdid their previous work with their 1968 album The Beatles" is right.

Correct sourcing

As with all other WikiProjects, we insist that all information in any Beatles article is traced from another source, not from the editor themselves, that the source is reliable, and that the source is cited properly.

In accordance with Wikipedia policy, facts and assertions should be attributed to verifiable, reliable sources wherever possible.