# In your music collection, how do you handle "The" band names? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000 "2016-04-24T17:35:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/1 "2016-04-24T17:35:27Z")
In your digital music, would you put albums by bands such as The Levellers or The White Stripes in a folder called, “The Levellers” or “Levellers”? Or do you have another solution to the “oh god I’ve got so many bands called the…”? I miss the The off. The sole exception is The The, which I keep as is. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Radio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@Mr\_Radio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Radio)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/2 "2016-04-24T17:38:42Z")
I discard the “The”. Luckily, I don’t have any The The recordings. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/3 "2016-04-24T17:40:20Z")
I leave the who and the band intact. Most others lose the the ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/4 "2016-04-24T17:44:00Z")
If the band typically uses “The”, I include it. Let the player software sort it out. Some wind up under “T”, some wind up under the first letter after “The”. ---
**Author:** ![journeyman\_southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5e9695/32.png) [@journeyman\_southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/journeyman_southpaw)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/5 "2016-04-24T18:25:25Z")
If the band in question always has “the” in its name on album covers, I’ll include it when I fill out the mp3 data. Certain bands like the Rolling Stones are inconsistent about this, some of their album covers include “the” and some don’t. In that case I drop the “the”. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/6 "2016-04-24T18:43:35Z")
iTunes provides separate fields for artist name and sort name. So the sort tag for the Beatles reads “Beatles, The” so that “The Beatles” appears appropriately under B. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/7 "2016-04-24T18:55:32Z")
I think we’ve done this thread before. I just ignore the “the.” So the Beatles go under B, the Who goes under W, the Monkees go under M. You notice I didn’t even capitalize the word “the.” But it’s your collection. Organize it any way you like. By the way, Glenn Frey always insisted that the name of the band he played in was “Eagles.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/8 "2016-04-24T19:44:44Z")
I ignore it completely as an issue. I use a media manager to keep track of my music not a file manager. From the media manager I an access all the tag information and make/transfer playlists from there. For a long time it’s been MediaMonkey as my primary but i’ve tried others along the way. It’s irrelevant to me if in my file structure there are folders for Shmoos, The Shmoos, Shmoos,The , and a couple compilation album folders with Shmoo songs included. When I want to find a Shmoo song I just search the database for Shmoo. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/9 "2016-04-25T17:09:38Z")
I disregard it, i.e. _The Doors_ starts with “D.” ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/10 "2016-04-25T17:46:16Z")
I primarily use WinAmp but I have iTunes to feed my iPod. I like the library that WinAmp provides. WinAmp ignores a leading “The”, so it’s generally a non-issue for me. I think iTunes does also, though I have had to use the “sorting” thing for the album view. I don’t care for iTunes all that much. Are there newer freeware players for MP3s with a library as good as WinAmps? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/11 "2016-04-25T19:21:24Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > iTunes provides separate fields for artist name and sort name. So the sort tag for the Beatles reads “Beatles, The” so that “The Beatles” appears appropriately under B. This should be unnecessary. iTunes already ignores “the” and “a” when sorting. You will still need to do it if you would rather sort named artists by last name. Pixies, Talking Heads, et al. don’t even have “the” in their actual names. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/12 "2016-04-25T19:28:50Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > This should be unnecessary. iTunes already ignores “the” and “a” when sorting. You will still need to do it if you would rather sort named artists by last name. > > Pixies, Talking Heads, et al. don’t even have “the” in their actual names. Good point. iTunes used to do this behind the scenes before they exposed the Sort Artist field in an update way back when. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/13 "2016-04-25T19:35:09Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > Good point. iTunes used to do this behind the scenes before they exposed the Sort Artist field in an update way back when. Yeah, it does it automatically if you leave “sort as” blank. I don’t think there is an option to stop this beyond filling the fields with “The X” manually. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/14 "2016-04-25T19:42:50Z")
I just leave “The” alone. It gives me a nice little group of artists that I often forget about down there in the T’s. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/15 "2016-04-25T19:54:23Z")
> [@Mr\_Radio](#): > > I discard the “The”. > > Luckily, I don’t have any The The recordings. Not any more you don’t. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/16 "2016-04-25T19:57:43Z")
I also disregard “The”, including in my band’s name. If you refer to us as the definite article, we’re going to correct you. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/17 "2016-04-25T21:50:29Z")
I go with “Beatles, The”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-music-collection-how-do-you-handle-the-band-names/753000/18 "2016-04-25T22:02:55Z")
Like others, I ignore the definite article–hell, I can’t remember with most bands which have the “the” officially as part of their names and which don’t. And there’s some, like (The) Smashing Pumpkins that have used both. On Gish and Siamese Dream (and Pisces Iscariot), they’re simply “Smashing Pumpkins.” Mellon Collie onward they’re “The Smashing Pumpkins.” Too much to keep track of so I ignore it.