Talk:Whatta Man

Requested move 31 July 2026

Whatta Man → Whatta Man (Salt-N-Pepa song)Whatta Man (Salt-N-Pepa song) – See this comparison for reference. It seems like since the page was split last May, the K-pop song got drastically more views after the group announced a comeback, only to drop to the 90s hip-hop song a month later.

Requester's note: I attempted to move the Salt-N-Pepa song with a disambiguator, but it was reverted with the edit summary: "better initiiate [sic] RM discussion at talk page before re-disambiguating this song". And that's why I'm here. ScarletViolet ★ 11:37, 31 July 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. Thanks! —1isall (talk | contribs) 17:00, 7 August 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose. Per the nomination, this temporary spike in pageviews has already regressed. The primary topic by both pageviews and long-term notability is the Salt-N-Pepa song. 162 etc. (talk) 15:14, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
• Support. The 1968 song is another significant consideration. Both the Salt-N-Pepa song and the I.O.I song included samples of it, and the name of the song is auditorily indistinguishable. The nominator also made the common mistake of looking only at very short-term pageview data. Ten-year page views show the I.O.I song continually more popular or equally popular over the entire decade since its release. The Salt-N-Pepa song is clearly not a dominant topic. @162 etc.: I suggest to take another look. Note that the pageview comparison tool has been acting strangely for the last couple of days. This should show all three songs over nine years – the ten-year range currently isn't working. The 1968 song seems to be the most popular of the three. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 16:20, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

  I had no idea about the previous discussion and split that apparently happened two months ago. I now don't know what the pageview plots are showing. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 18:15, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

Most incoming links for the Salt-N-Pepa version showed up in articles as What a Man (song)#Salt-N-Pepa version until I changed them all a few months ago. So when we're looking at then ten-year stats of all three articles, note that a good chunk of the hits for What a Man (song) are not for Linda Lyndell. The hits for that article fell by almost half from May 2026 to June 2026, which is because that traffic now goes directly to the correct article Whatta Man. 162 etc. (talk) 21:02, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose – Stats alone aren't sufficient proof of primacy, unfortunately. The "Whatta Man" page was a redirect to "What a Man (song)"; other readers would've wanted to read the Salt-n-Pepa portion before the recent split this year. Stats may change over the years from now, especially for the original 1960s song. Furthermore, the Korean song was recently made at the time, so that would explain huger numbers in the late 2010s. Well, numbers for the Korean song in 2020s went down and haven't reached the same numbers that it did in 2010s. Furthermore, the attempt to change the title of this article screams recent-ism to me, i.e. "too soon". I'm not confident that the Salt-n-Pepa hasn't had the same primacy that it has had, especially since the Korean song was released. Indeed, the Korean song sampled the Salt-n-Pepa song from what I read, right? George Ho (talk) 17:15, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

  @George Ho: Not quite. It was my bad, sorry. I think there are no sources saying that IOI got the sample from Salt-n-Pepa cover. I'm gonna remove that claim in that IOI article. ScarletViolet ★ 03:58, 6 August 2026 (UTC)

  Hmm... Perhaps an official booklet might confirm this if there is one. George Ho (talk) 17:40, 7 August 2026 (UTC)

• Strong support, per page view stats over the last 8 years it's clear there's no PRIMARYTOPIC. See stats here. Make a DAB at basename.--Ortizesp (talk) 13:29, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

  Again, the base name was a redirect to the original 1960s song before the recent change this year. Many readers of that targeted article would've also looked for the Salt-n-Pepa/En Vogue song. Also, compare stats of 2020s (this decade) to the prior one (2010s): seems that the Korean song has lost its momenta in this decade. George Ho (talk) 16:36, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Right. Whatta Man did not exist as a standalone article until late May 2026. Comparing pageviews without including the views of What a Man (song) is inaccurate. See above. 162 etc. (talk) 18:43, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

If we look at pageviews from June 2026 to present (ie. when the Whatta Man article came into existence) the numbers for that article are about double that of the I.O.I. song. Take these with a grain of salt as the split process and related discussions will have affected article traffic. 162 etc. (talk) 18:47, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

• Support per nom. Crouch, Swale (talk) 19:15, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

@Crouch, Swale: The pageview numbers cited in the nom are flawed. See discussion above. 162 etc. (talk) 19:20, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

I still think no clear primary topic given this doesn't dominate views, about double isn't that much. Crouch, Swale (talk) 19:22, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Double is certainly enough for WP:PT1, which asks us to consider an article as primary topic when is is "much more likely than any other single topic, and more likely than all the other topics combined (...) to be the topic sought." 162 etc. (talk) 19:29, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Also, how about stats from WikiNav?: Korean song, original, Salt-n-Pepa one. George Ho (talk) 19:31, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

If WikiNav doesn't suffice, then how else do I convince you to indefinitely treat the Salt-n-Pepa song as the primary topic over any other using the exact title? George Ho (talk) 15:33, 9 August 2026 (UTC)