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A question of mine, "Boys Don't Cry (1999 film): Who is the band or artist that played the cover of the song, “Boys Don't Cry”, by The Cure, in this film?" was recently closed as off-topic.

What is the community's view on the matter? Should questions of this type be allowed?

Edit: About my question, when I asked it, I initially thought that the info can not be found by searching the web or at Wikipedia. I did not mean to be asking something that is already at Wikipedia. It just turned out that I was wrong. (I was looking at the wrong Wikipedia article.)

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Trivia are considered off-topic. But can we label music as trivia per definition? I would say: no. Music is not unimportant (= trivial). If I know that Ennio Moricone wrote the music I might decide to see the movie for that fact only. Or if some well-known artist was prepared to sing a movie's title song it's probably no B rubbish.

On the other hand: this kind of information generally should not be hard to find, so I expect questions of this kind to get downvoted quickly for lack of research effort.

So my view would be that such questions can be important for people, but they should be asked when no answer could be easily/quickly found elsewhere, just as any question at SE sites.

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    my edits are in bold: but they should be asked when no answer could be easily/quickly found elsewhere
    – tshepang
    Commented Apr 19, 2012 at 9:21
  • @Tshepang - I agree, added it, thanks.
    – Gert Arnold
    Commented Apr 19, 2012 at 9:41
  • About my question, when I asked it, I initially thought that the info can not be found by searching the web or at Wikipedia. I did not mean to be asking something that is already at Wikipedia. It just turned out that I was wrong. (I was looking at the wrong Wikipedia article.)
    – galacticninja
    Commented Apr 21, 2012 at 7:39
  • @galacticninja - It's the big discrepancy between someone just not knowing where to look and someone who finds the answer in two mouse clicks. If one finds an answer in no time he may downvote too easily, having forgotten that knowing where to look is a learning process too. Whether this was the case here, I don't know. But generally this kind of information is well documented.
    – Gert Arnold
    Commented Apr 21, 2012 at 16:54
  • Of course music is extremely important for a movie and in no way downright trivial. But there are still differences between trivia questions (even if they cannot be answered easily otherwise) and questions whose answers contribute further to the appreciation of a movie. So now I know which band played that song in the movie, so what? Not having another place to find the answer or not being able to find it (even if everybody has difficulties to find it) doesn't magically make something on-topic.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Jan 24, 2013 at 11:45
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As the one who closed this, allow me to chime in.

As I noted in the comments, to me, this question bears more on the fence of music trivia because it is asking which band/artist performed a song. Call it ignorance, but I don't see how this furthers the appreciation of the title by knowing who sang a track played a few times in the movie that has the same name of the movie.

Now if Boys Don't Cry was more of a cryptic movie a la Donnie Darko or Primer then I could see it justified as these pieces have multiple interpretations and almost everything is done for a reason in a movie like this. But Boys Don't Cry is a biopic depicting events based on a true story, nothing cryptic to be determined from that.

Again if I'm wrong and the community disagrees, then so be it. Just about every mod decision can be reversed and this is no exception, and the voice of the community is heard and noted to me :)

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  • I maybe wouldn't phrase it like in your third paragraph (which for me makes a bit of an overgeneralizing difference between movies). But your second paragraph is totally correct. In the end it is a question-by-question decision and even that question might have been phrased in a way that really establishes a meaningful connection to the movie, apart from just "Which band was that, Wikipedia doesn't say?".
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Jan 24, 2013 at 11:51
  • I tried to use examples that are clear in people's heads my examples are comparing a biopic, something that is relatively straightforward in terms of plot, vs something that is a bit more obtuse. I guess a better example on the Richard Kelly front is "Southland Tales"
    – Tablemaker Mod
    Commented Jan 24, 2013 at 13:04
  • "I tried to use examples that are clear in people's heads my examples are comparing a biopic, something that is relatively straightforward in terms of plot, vs something that is a bit more obtuse." - And that's exactly the overgeneralizing segregation I don't agree with.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Oct 8, 2013 at 15:02
  • To get a middle ground, extremes have to be noted
    – Tablemaker Mod
    Commented Oct 8, 2013 at 17:03
  • There just aren't any extremes. It's the question that makes the difference, not the movie.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Nov 25, 2013 at 7:31
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I agree with TylerShads. If the question is pure trivia like in this case, it has no value here and should be considered offtopic.

If on the other hand the question is likely to produce answers that help understand the movie better in any way or create any analytical value beyond pure trivia, it should fit perfectly fine here.

A fantastic example for this kind of question is provided with Why do we hear Leia's Theme during Kenobi's death? on scifi.SE.

This is exactly the kind of question with musical focus that I would really enjoy seeing here.

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  • Great example. I fully agree with you.
    – Gert Arnold
    Commented Apr 22, 2012 at 10:34

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