We don’t know much about Harry Styles’s first album in four years beyond its title—and it’s already causing some grammatical concern.
The follow-up to 2022’s Grammy-winning Harry’s House has a more esoteric name: Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. In an era when fans meticulously analyze every aspect of pop stars’ lives, it was perhaps inevitable that Styles’s punctuation choice would draw scrutiny.
The key dilemma: is the comma in the right place? “We’re going through a really experimental period with comma usage,” wrote @poeticdweller in an X post with nearly 1 million views. One concern is that the two sentences don’t follow the same structure: “The comma turns the second sentence from a parallel imperative sentence to a fragment that vaguely gestures toward the occasional presence of disco,” noted another post, a sentiment echoed elsewhere.
This raises two questions: one, did Styles get it wrong? And two, does it matter? (Question three is, of course: who cares? But it’s nice to have a distraction from the daily news.)
As for the first question, it’s true the lines are not parallel. If Harry is speaking in the imperative, telling us to kiss constantly and also to sometimes go to the disco—using “disco” as a verb—then it would be consistent to leave out the comma. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Styles made a mistake.
“It’s not a perfect construction by our grammatical standards, and that’s fun,” says Britt Edelen, also known as @poeticdweller, who wrote the viral post and is a PhD candidate in English at Duke. The result, intentional or not, is that “it adds some energy to what would otherwise be boring” and “fits into a larger trend of people trying to express things via commas in unconventional ways.” He cites Virginia Woolf—known for long, heavily punctuated sentences—as one example; more recently, the movie Die My Love omits a comma where one might be expected.
“I think Americans are overly punctilious about punctuation. They tend to pay a lot of attention to rules and prohibitions,” says Ellen Jovin, author of several grammar books and star of the road-trip docu-comedy Rebel With a Clause, in which she traveled the country connecting with people over conversations about sentence structure and punctuation.
Also, “disco” is not usually a verb. “When I see ‘disco, comma,’ it gives me a little mental break,” Jovin adds. Edelen agrees: the comma was probably added to “render the rhythm of speech graphically, as in: disco [pause] occasionally.”
In the second sentence, Styles has “changed parts of speech. I’m now working with a noun, and then it’s kind of playful,” he says. The comma leads to “a different adverbial idea: not all the time, just occasionally.” And Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. is surreal language to begin with—you’re unlikely to see such a phrase in a research paper or international treaty. “People are trying to impose standard sentence punctuation on something that isn’t that at all,” Jovin notes.
On top of that, context matters: this is an album title, not a high school English assignment. Even in an English class, you might see this sort of thing in a novel—”commas that you would question: ‘Wait, that’s not right. That doesn’t belong there,'” Jovin says. “This is just creativity, and I think it’s perfect.”
The visuals matter here too; maybe Styles just likes the way the comma looks, especially in a world where we often see song and album titles displayed more than we read them.And more. Unlike physical media or early MP3s, which allowed some user control over metadata like song titles, music-streaming apps now prominently display each song’s name with the artist’s chosen styling and punctuation. Artists have embraced this feature in recent years. For example, on Billie Eilish’s 2017 EP dont smile at me, most song titles were in lowercase, while her 2024 album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT used all caps. Dijon’s 2023 album Baby includes tracks like HIGHER! and (Freak It). According to a Quartz analysis, in the last week of 2018, eight of Spotify’s Top 200 songs used all caps or all lowercase; by the following year, “more than 30 songs in a typical week” featured “non-standard capitalization.” (Quartz suggests this trend is linked to the informal style of texting.)
It’s important to remember that grammar rules are flexible and vary between style guides. That’s why, for instance, album and film titles in this article are not italicized or placed in quotes (see “titles”). Contrary to what we might learn in school, there is no Official Global Consortium of Correct English sending enforcers to punish comma splices. “I think Americans are overly punctilious punctuators. They tend to pay attention to rules and prohibitions a lot,” says Jovin.
That’s not to say grammar never matters, of course. Many rules are widely agreed upon by style guides and experts, with clarity being the key. Consider the Guardian style guide’s example on the importance of a well-placed comma: there’s a difference between dedicating a book “to my parents, Martin Amis and JK Rowling” and “to my parents, Martin Amis, and JK Rowling.”
When it comes to an album title, however, ambiguity might be the whole point.
In a possible case of nominative determinism, Harry Styles clearly showed his grammar enthusiasm at a 2015 concert. He corrected a fan’s sign from “your so nice” to “You’re so nice” by adding an apostrophe and an E, then wrote “thank you – love, Harry” and returned it, leaving no doubt about the message. If Styles is a grammar nerd, that controversial comma was likely intentional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about the grammatical correctness of the album title Kiss All the Time Disco Occasionally
BeginnerLevel Questions
Q1 Is this a complete sentence
A No its not a standard sentence Its a stylized title that uses sentence fragments for artistic effect like a slogan or a thought
Q2 Why is there a period in the middle
A The period creates a deliberate pause separating two contrasting ideas one constant action and one occasional action It makes you read it in two parts
Q3 Shouldnt it be Disco Occasionally without the comma
A The comma before Occasionally is grammatically correct It acts as an introductory comma for the adverb adding a slight thoughtful pause that emphasizes the word Occasionally
Q4 What does Disco mean here Is it a verb
A In this creative context Disco is being used as a verb meaning to go disco dancing or to engage in disco culture This is a playful and accepted use of the word
Q5 Is it okay for a title to be grammatically unusual
A Absolutely Artistic works like album book and song titles often use creative grammar punctuation and capitalization to create a specific mood rhythm or brand identity
AdvancedLevel Questions
Q6 What is the grammatical structure of the first part Kiss All the Time
A Its an imperative sentence fragment with an adverbial phrase The implied subject is you and All the Time modifies the verb Kiss telling you how often to do it
Q7 How does the title use parallelism and contrast
A It sets up a parallel structure It then contrasts the frequencies All the Time versus Occasionally This makes it catchy and memorable
Q8 Could the title be considered an example of tmesis or unusual syntax
A Yes It uses unusual syntax for stylistic impact The placement of the period and the comma forces a specific reading rhythm that standard grammar wouldnt which is a common poetic device
