Lyrics annotation guidelines

General formatting

Line breaks separate lyrical segments
- \n: Lines
- \n\n: Stanzas (sections)
- No more than 1 blank line
- Ideally at most 10 lines or so in each section (not a hard limit)
- Section break indicators:
  - A defined chorus, verse, intro, bridge, or hook
  - Changes in the song tempo
  - Changes in how the artist delivers the lyrics (e.g. from singing to rapping)
No section labels (verse, chorus, refrain, …) or other non-lyrics text
Repeated lines should be repeated explicitly and for the correct number of times

Capital letter at the beginning of every line
Follow traditional grammar rules: capitalize proper nouns and anything else specific to each language
Examples of expressions that must be capitalized:
- Acronyms (NASA, FBI)
- Brand names
- Divinity and religious intricacies (God, You, Him, Your in religious songs)
- Geographical location (East Coast, Southside etc.)

Within each line, adhere to grammar and spelling rules (commas, capitalization, …) of the language
Avoid exaggerations: ~~ohhhh~~ oh, ~~feeeeeel~~ feel, ~~bang!!!!~~ bang!
Non-normative (e.g. slang or regional) spelling only if matched by clearly non-standard pronunciation: livin', 'em, 'Rari, 'cause, I'ma, for shizzle, but: ~~becuz~~ because
- Only use (de facto) standard (commonly used) spellings; do not make up new ones
- Apostrophe for contractions (two words contracted to one) or elisions (part of a word omitted, usually beginning/end)
  - Avoid elision in the middle of a word except in common/standard cases; see language-specific rules
  - If unsure whether a contraction/elision is actually present, count the syllables with and without it and see which fits better rhythmically
- If the artist uses a dialect, use standard spelling for that dialect if available and where pronunciation calls for it (see language-specific rules)
If not sure, use a dictionary, Google Ngrams Viewer or even just Google search (comparing the number of results) to get an idea of which spelling is more acceptable
Explicit lyrics:
- If not censored in the audio, transcribe as is: I'm the motherfucking man
- If completely or partially censored, replace the entire word with 4 asterisks: I'm the **** man

Full stop (.): never to end a sentence, only in acronyms, contractions (Mr.)
Comma (,): never at the end of a line
Apostrophe/single quote ('): only for contraction and elision (I'm, livin' – see above), never to quote
Question mark (?), double quote ("): as appropriate
Exclamation mark (!): sparingly
Hyphens (-) when appropriate
- To join words, parts of words, non-word vocal sounds
- When a line is (unnaturally) interrupted in the middle of a word
No dashes (–), colons (:) or semicolons (;) – use a comma (or a line break) instead
Parentheses: only for background vocals
Use variants appropriate for each language (¿?, ¡!, «»)
Punctuation should always have a syntactic function – do not use it just to indicate a pause if it doesn't make sense grammatically

In parentheses at the end of the line it “belongs to”
Can be a separate line (starting with capital letter) if there is a longer pause or it would not fit on the same line; can occasionally go at the beginning or in the middle if it is unavoidable
Consider omitting them if they form a consistent “texture” (especially if made up of non-word sounds) or are not “countable” (due to extensive delay/reverb etc.)
Voices singing in unison/homophony with (near-)identical lyrics are considered as a single unit and not as separate vocal lines, should be transcribed only once
Do not use parentheses to simply identify a “secondary” vocalist, but rather for contrast within a single line/section; consider that a singer's role may change (even many times) over the course of the song
If there are two or more vocalists but they have equal importance (equal volume, equal amount of content) such as in a duet, avoid using parentheses systematically

Mostly should be transcribed but consider if they contribute to the content of the song (if they are part of background vocals, see above)
Language-specific!
- English: oh, ah, la, leh, mmm, ooh, doo, da, uh, whoa, wee, yo, ayy, hey, ayo, brr, ha, …
- Spanish: oh, ah, la, ay, ey, oy, jaja, ajá, …
- French: oh, ah, la, ouh, ouah, aïe, hey, ahah, …
Always separate individual syllables with punctuation
- Hyphens to string them together to form short phrases: oh-oh, woah-oh-oh, la-la-la, play-ay-ay
- Commas to separate: Oh California, ooh-ooh, ooh yeah
- Do not write ~~la la la~~ or ~~lalala~~, use punctuation; however common speech phrases like oh/ooh yeah should be written with a space
Do not include sound descriptions (car horn, clap, music, background speech) or non-vocal sound imitations (screech, whoosh, bang) or symbols (🎵)

If something is really unintelligible and can't be understood even with a bit of research, it's better to omit it.

Wir verwenden die neue deutsche Rechtschreibung.

If the beginning or end of a word is cut, replace it with an apostrophe:
- 'teilles (if pronounced as such) for bouteilles
- j'fais, j't'avais, m'semble, s'capte for je fais, je t'avais, me semble, se capte
- not for e in the middle of a word: petit, faisait, maintenant, dessus, not ~~p'tit~~/~~ptit~~, ~~f'sait~~, ~~maint'nant~~, ~~d'ssus~~
y a, y en, not ~~y'a~~, ~~y'en~~

Prefer pre-1990 spellings, e.g. coût ~~cout~~, connaître ~~connaitre~~, événement ~~évènement~~.

Mark elisions at word beginnings/ends as per general rules (e.g. pa', sacamo'); in the middle of a word in common cases (e.g. to's).
Avoid writing fusion of syllables as a contraction, e.g. que está ~~qu'está~~.
If the song is in a dialect, use that dialect's standard spelling where the pronunciation clearly calls for it, e.g. preparao ~~prepara'o~~