# '& the' in the middle of the title
**URL:** https://community.metabrainz.org/t/the-in-the-middle-of-the-title/424943
**Category:** Style
**Tags:** title, ampersand, guess-case
**Created:** [April 19, 2019, 2:16pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/the-in-the-middle-of-the-title/424943 "2019-04-19T14:16:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Skeebadoo](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/Skeebadoo)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2019, 2:17pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/the-in-the-middle-of-the-title/424943/1 "2019-04-19T14:17:00Z")
So I only now noticed that `guess case` capitalises ‘_the_’ when it follows the ampersand. I assume it’s incorrect in most (some?) cases, because there shouldn’t be any difference between [James and the Cold Gun](https://musicbrainz.org/recording/6b243121-e09d-4a67-ac4d-f155ed4c292f) or [The Ruin and the Change](https://musicbrainz.org/recording/ab4d2d22-ea3d-4c7c-9298-637d9dfc92bb) versus [The Heavens & The Earth](https://musicbrainz.org/recording/43fd90d3-1ea4-406b-b50b-28a85a0038ae) or [Miss Glum & the Pursuit of Falling](https://musicbrainz.org/recording/56c26e47-46a3-46cd-bd6c-b9e7a92cecc4).
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### Author:  [@Cheezmo](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/Cheezmo)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2019, 2:31pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/the-in-the-middle-of-the-title/424943/2 "2019-04-19T14:31:32Z")
Probably to accommodate artist/group names where The would be capitalized in that case. Why it is a guess, I guess 😉
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### Author:  [@Skeebadoo](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/Skeebadoo)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/the-in-the-middle-of-the-title/424943/3 "2019-04-19T14:59:38Z")
Oh right, I remember a long time ago, there was a conundrum about [Florence + the Machine](https://musicbrainz.org/artist/5fee3020-513b-48c2-b1f7-4681b01db0c6), either here or on rateyourmusic.
Lowercase ‘the’ because it’s essentially one band vs. uppercase, because ‘The Machine’ was thought to be the name of the backing band for Florence Welch.
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### Author:  [@reosarevok](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/reosarevok)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2019, 8:41am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/the-in-the-middle-of-the-title/424943/4 "2019-04-20T08:41:42Z")
Yeah. That’s because it’s assumed most cases are of the type “Solo Dude & The Backers”. Of course, that’s not such a common kind of band anymore - if we realize that bands with “& the” that do not follow that pattern start to be more common, it might make sense to get rid of that specific guess case rule 🙂