Artist Entry Guidelines: Handling Aliases and Collaborations

[Zach]

When ranking the greatest electronic music artists, one challenge is deciding how to handle musicians who release work under multiple aliases, as well as how to treat their solo work versus their contributions as part of a group. These two related but distinct issues both impact clarity and accuracy in representing an artist's legacy.

To keep things clear and avoid repetition, each artist or group is listed only once, in the form that best represents their core contribution to the genre. The specific approach varies depending on the context: for solo artists with aliases, cultural recognition and practical accessibility guide our choices; for collaborations, factors include the nature of the partnership, creative control, and historical impact.


Core Principle: The Foundational Work Test

The central question we ask in every case is:

"Which works or identities are indispensable to understanding this artist's impact on electronic music history?"

If removing a key alias or a collaborative project would significantly obscure our understanding of the artist's influence, that makes a strong case for including that alias or collaboration in the entry name. This is just one part of the decision-making process—other factors are outlined in the sections that follow. Conversely, if most of an artist’s influence comes from their solo work or a single well-known alias, we use only that name to avoid unnecessary duplication.

We apply an 'indispensable' standard: an alias or collaborative work must be essential to understanding the artist's influence—even if they also made other major contributions. This bar is higher than 'very important,' but it doesn’t require that particular work or identity to be their single most defining one.

This principle guides every classification below.


Solo Artists with Aliases: Balancing Recognition and Clarity

When an artist releases music under multiple names but works solo, we consider two main factors: cultural recognition within electronic music and practical accessibility for general audiences.

Aphex Twin (covers Richard D. James' various aliases) — this moniker has achieved universal recognition and cultural dominance over his real name.

Mike Paradinas (covers his µ-Ziq and other aliases) — real name chosen for practical accessibility, as the µ symbol is difficult to input when searching and major reference sources like Wikipedia use his real name.

Green Velvet (covers his Cajmere material) — Green Velvet is the primary identity per most major sources, although Cajmere is a close second within house music circles. This is a borderline case where a judgment call is made based on broader cultural recognition.

In all cases, we use the name most culturally dominant and practically searchable, favoring clarity over exhaustiveness. We avoid listing multiple aliases unless no single one has emerged as dominant. For genuinely borderline cases, we make a judgment call and document the reasoning.

Having established our approach to solo artists with multiple identities, we turn to the more complex question of collaborations and groups.


When Collaborations Help Define the Legacy: Joint Entries

If a collaboration represents foundational or critically important work that is indispensable to understanding an artist's overall impact—and that artist is broadly regarded as the driving creative force behind it—we use a joint entry to reflect that indivisible influence.

Juan Atkins/Cybotron — Cybotron's early releases ("Clear," "Techno City") are foundational to techno and indispensable to understanding Atkins' influence, even though he also produced crucial solo work and Model 500 releases. Although Cybotron was a collaboration with Rick Davis, Atkins' creative vision and contributions are widely seen as the primary force behind the group's most influential output.

Kevin Saunderson/Inner City — Inner City's hits like "Big Fun" and "Good Life" were Saunderson's most commercially successful and influential releases, crucial to techno's mainstream breakthrough and indispensable to his electronic music legacy.

Larry Heard/Fingers Inc. (covers his Mr. Fingers releases) — while Mr. Fingers produced iconic instrumental tracks, Fingers Inc.'s "Can You Feel It" and other vocal house innovations were foundational to the genre's development. The collaboration represents a distinct creative vision that's indispensable to understanding Heard's full influence on house music.

Roni Size/Reprazent — As the driving force and leader of the project, Size’s vision on New Forms became his most acclaimed, genre-defining work; without recognizing this collaboration, his full impact on drum & bass would be obscured.

Afrika Bambaataa/Soul Sonic Force — "Planet Rock" is foundational to electronic music history, bridging hip-hop and electronic music in revolutionary ways. While Bambaataa recorded other electronic music, this collaboration is indispensable to understanding his influence on the genre.

These joint entries are used sparingly and only when the collaborative work is indispensable to understanding the artist's influence on electronic music.

However, not all collaborations justify a joint entry. When multiple artists in a partnership have made significant contributions on their own, a different approach is more appropriate.


Collaborative Partnerships with Distinct Legacies: Separate Entries

When collaborations involve multiple artists contributing roughly equally—or when more than one member has a distinct solo career with significant influence—we create separate entries:

Underground Resistance gets its own entry, as do Jeff Mills and Robert Hood — UR was a collective effort, and both Mills and Hood developed major solo careers.

Perrey and Kingsley is treated as its own entity — their collaborations were foundational in early electronic music, but both Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley also made substantial solo contributions.

Masters at Work is distinct from Louie Vega and Kenny Dope — this was a true partnership between two artists with major individual legacies.

Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, and Yukihiro Takahashi are separate — YMO was a balanced trio, and all members pursued influential solo paths.

When separate entries are created, each one focuses solely on that artist's unique contributions, avoiding overlap. For example, the Jeff Mills entry discusses his solo and post-UR work, while UR's collective material appears only in the Underground Resistance entry.

Between these clear cases of joint entries and separate entries lies a gray area that requires individual assessment.


Groups with Dominant Figures: Case-by-Case

Some groups exist in a gray area between solo vehicle and collective:

Tangerine Dream is listed separately from Edgar Froese — although Froese was the only constant member, the group identity was more than a personal alias. Multiple contributors shaped its evolving sound over decades.

We evaluate these on a case-by-case basis, looking at both the structure of the group and the public perception of its identity.

Some artists complicate this framework further by creating multiple distinct collaborative identities.


Multiple Configurations: Distinct Group Identities

Sometimes artists form different collaborative groups with unique sounds and artistic goals. If these are clearly separate identities—not just side projects or aliases—they receive individual entries.

The Black Dog and Plaid are separate entries — though they share members, each represents a different creative direction with its own legacy.

This differs from solo aliases or occasional collaborations; it reflects artists deliberately creating new group identities to pursue different visions.

Finally, some collaborative acts operate under multiple aliases while maintaining the same core membership—a situation that requires its own approach.


Groups with Multiple Aliases: Unified Entries When the Identity Is Fluid

Some collaborative acts operate under several names, each tied to a specific concept or project, but involving the same core members throughout. In these cases, we group all aliases under a single entry when:

- The same artists are behind all aliases.
- The names reflect different creative phases or themes, not different lineups.
- The artist's legacy is best understood as a cohesive body of work across names.

The KLF covers their work as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords, and The K Foundation — all projects from Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. Though each alias explored different musical ideas (sample-heavy hip-hop, novelty pop, ambient soundscapes, anti-art provocations), they are part of one evolving vision. Separating them would obscure the continuity and intent behind their work.

We avoid splitting these acts unless a change in membership or creative leadership justifies separate recognition. When possible, we use the most culturally dominant alias as the main entry name.


Why It Matters

These classification choices shape how we understand the history of electronic music. Getting them right means representing artists' legacies accurately and avoiding both repetition and omission. By focusing on foundational impact, cultural recognition, and clarity, we aim to tell the most coherent and truthful story of the genre's evolution.

[Fido]

Nice, though it's going to be a huge page if you plan to add all this next to the list.

[Zach]

Ha, I'm not. I'm considering building a website focused on electronic music -- featuring artist profiles, breakdowns of key criteria, and ranked lists. This specific set of guidelines could live on its own page, alongside other FAQ-style content.

But I thought I’d share it here as well. Electronic artists, especially, are known for working under multiple aliases and contributing to various projects, but I figured these guidelines might give other DDDers some ideas on how to approach similar challenges in other genres.