Democratization of Song Titles

I try not to alter the names of the files that I download or any of their metadata (the ID tags in MP3s for example) so that it is obvious to all filesharing programs that the file I have is the same file as others

But this does lead me to some metaphysical wranglings. For example, ‘Dreadlock Holiday’ by 10cc is more often called ‘I Don’t Like Cricket’. ‘Flagpole Sitta’ by Harvey Danger is now called ‘Paranoia’ after its best line (Paranoia! Paranoia! Everybody’s coming to get me!) or ‘I’m Not Sick But I’m Not Well’ after the chorus, but only rarely ‘Flagpole Sitta’ (and the spelling varies there)

So my question is, should I leave the files as they are so that they are more likely to be found by other searchers and also identified as the selfsame files for multiple-source downloads? Or should they be altered to be more accurate? Will ‘Cross the Tracks’ by Maceo and the Macks forever be known as part of the Snatch soundtrack?

And it goes further than song titles – democratization is now spelt with a zed because US English is the language of the internet. I’ve recently changed my programming style so that variables and text within my programs are spelt the American way. Variables called colour or organiser are now called color and organizer

I suppose the real question here is: are these lowest-common–denominator changes? Or does this represent the refinement of the polyglot of human thought into the single über-language? I leave that to y’all

2 Replies to “Democratization of Song Titles”

  1. Thanks, I was trying to find out what that ‘paranoia paranoia’ song was.

    But despite that, I’d say to use the real titles and stick with English English. You know you’re right that way – and if people don’t know the right titles I guess that’s their problem – they should do some research like I just did (which of course led me here).

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