The proper way to write album and song titles

[Phantasmatron]

Ultimately, I am too much of a spelling and grammar nazi , and I am sure I make a few mistakes here and there, but I always try not to.

You don't need a comma after the word "Nazi."  You should also capitalize the N. 

[KevShmev]

Ultimately, I am too much of a spelling and grammar nazi , and I am sure I make a few mistakes here and there, but I always try not to.

You don't need a comma after the word "Nazi."  You should also capitalize the N. 

  See what I mean?!  Those damn commas get me sometimes.

[bout to crash]

 

But Kev, using the Rush book you mentioned as an example (which I've never read): even if it's not "correct" according the standards you're used to, the point is being able to distinguish one from another. So using bold and italics serves the same purpose and is equally effective IMO (if it's used consistently throughout the book).

[Birch Boy]

I always do it like this

Band - Album - "Song"

And I usually capitalize every word of a title, I like it like that. 

[contest_sanity]

Who's to say we're not actually supposed to be using the colon instead of the dash?

Dream Theater: "Voices" Awake

Even though I'm an English Education grad student, I really take a pragmatic approach with stuff like this.  The main point to me is distinguishing between different titles and names so that they do not run together.  So if I am writing a post along the lines of "Dream Theater's 'Caught In A Web' is a great song," the quotes serve mainly to prohibit this: "Dream Theater's Caught In A Web is a great song" -- which is annoying because all of a sudden I'm thinking, "How did Dream Theater get caught in this web... oh, the song... man I feel dumb now."

Whereas if I'm posting in the "What Are You Listening To" thread, the above problem does not result if I just write:

Dream Theater - Caught In A Web

I would also be interested to know if these matters are treated consistently across style guidelines such as MLA and APA.  Because if there are discrepancies between those two (or others), then all of a sudden we have a problem saying any one way is "the way." 

Anyway, grammar is determined much more by usage and societal expectation than by any set of "rules" out there somewhere.  Do you need to use proper grammar and style in your essay application to Harvard?  Sure.  Does it matter whether or not you italicize an album title on an internet music forum?  Probably not quite as much.  Not that I don't always proofread my posts before I submit them -- of that I am guilty.  And while I'm pretty sure that "--" is not the greatest grammatical formulation, I stand by its usefulness. 

holla back...

[bout to crash]