General Resources
New to music research? Consider starting at the Music History Research Guide where you will learn strategies for finding and utilizing reference sources, books, articles, scores, audio, and other formats available from University Libraries.
Databases for Reference and Research
Reference sources are designed to provide users with quick and authoritative background information on a given subject. They are the ideal place to familiarize yourself with a subject and its existing literature, although they should never be the culmination of your research process. Databases collect scholarly articles and information, and they can direct you to academic journals available from the Libraries. A complete list of databases can be found at the Libraries website. The following reference sources and research databases are all available online, although log-in might be required off-campus.
Databases for Popular Music:
- Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians Since 1990 This A-Z biographical reference edited by Stephen Wasserstein, Ken Wachsberger, and Tanya Laplante and available through Gale eBooks focuses on individual artists and groups in all popular styles active from 1990 to the present, including those in rock, rhythm and blues, rap, country, electronica, jazz, vocal, and classical. Features include select discographies, bibliographies, a glossary of musical terms, and other information. Also features appendix essays on various topics including the music industry, rap, and grunge.
- The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Edited by Colin Larkin, this encyclopedia's 30,000 entries cover all genres and periods of popular music from 1900 to the present day, including jazz, country, folk, rap, reggae, techno, musicals, and world music. The expanded Fourth Edition includes thousands of new entries on trends, styles, record labels, venues, and music festivals. Key dates, biographies, and further reading are provided for artists covered, along with complete discographies that include record labels, release dates, and a 5-star album rating system. Included in this Oxford Digital Reference Shelf edition are online-exclusive entries that originally appeared on Oxford Music Online.
- Gale eBooks Gale eBooks is a collection of searchable subject encyclopedias and reference books from Gale Publishing and many other publishers, including nearly 500 specialized background sources in a wide variety of subjects. Choose your field of study under the "Subjects" heading to see the titles in your area. For music books, look under the subject "Arts."
- The Grove Dictionary of American Music Edited by Charles Hiroshi Garrett, The Grove Dictionary of American Music is the largest, most comprehensive reference publication on American Music. Twenty-five years ago, the four volumes of the first edition of the dictionary initiated a great expansion in American music scholarship. This second edition reflects the growth in scholarship the first edition initiated. At eight volumes, it provides greatly expanded coverage, particularly in the areas of popular music, cities and regions, musical theater, opera, concert music, and music technology, as well as the musical traditions of many ethnic and cultural groups.
- Indiana Musicpedia Indiana Musicpedia, a project of Indiana Entertainment Foundation (IEF), seeks to document Indiana music history by listing every Indiana-related artist, musician, and music business. Still largely under construction, their volunteer-driven database currently includes over 1,100 listings, categorized by genre, time frame, and location. Contact IEF to become a community contributor.
- Music Online: The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online provides electronic access to the award-winning print resource of the same name. It contains more than 700 articles contributed by experts on the music of the world's peoples and is over 9,000 pages long. The database, which includes all illustrations from the print edition, also includes audio examples of musical performances from around the world.
- Oxford Music Online Oxford Music Online is the authoritative resource for music research with over 52,000 articles written by nearly 9,000 scholars charting the diverse history and cultures of music around the globe. It is the gateway to Grove Music Online which compiles invaluable resources like The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (2001), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), The Grove Dictionary of American Music (2013), The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2002), and others. Oxford Music Online also provides access to The Oxford Dictionary of Music (2013) and The Oxford Companion to Music (2011), resources which are based in Oxford Reference Online.
- Oxford Reference Online Searchable and browsable collection of highly trusted reference books. Dictionaries and encyclopedias in Oxford Reference Online include general works, foreign-language works, and specialized subject works in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Note: Oxford Reference Online is separate from the familiar Oxford Music Online, and it has its own set of twelve music dictionaries and encyclopedias. These can be found under the Subject tab or through the search bar.
- Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 From music and youth culture to politics and fashion, the period from 1950 to 1975 witnessed dramatic changes in society. Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 traces the development from 1950s austerity to the excess of the 1970s through a range of printed and manuscript sources, visual material, ephemera and video footage. The interactive chronology, extensive visual resources, and video footage provide valuable contextual background to the materials included in this collection.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 provides indexing to many popular publications of the 20th century, containing all of the content of the original paper volumes.
- RILM Abstracts of Music Literature Often the best place to start music research, RILM Abstracts of Music Literature is a key database in the field of music. This database covers a wide range of subjects areas, including but not limited to, Composition, Music Analysis, Musicology, Dramatic Arts, Dance Studies, Music Pedagogy, Music Therapy, Performance Practice, and Popular Music Studies. Approximately 50,000 new articles are added each year.
- Rock's Backpages Rock's Backpages is the largest archive of music journalism online, featuring almost 50,000 articles on thousands of artists from Aaliyah to ZZ Top. Anyone can register to read a selection of over 500 free articles, or subscribe and get full access to all the articles and audio interviews on the site for personal use. Each week, we add a minimum of 50 interviews and reviews from the pages of the best music publications since 1960. We also put together free features, spotlight the work of one of our contributors and pay tribute to notable figures on our weekly homepage and newsletter.
- Rock Hall EDU Rock Hall EDU is a free digital learning platform from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. It is full of resources and activities that use the power of rock and roll to engage students of all ages. Our online portal and resource guide for teachers and parents offers free lesson plans, artifact images and materials, videos, playlists, and writing prompts designed by our education staff.
- Sheet Music Consortium The Sheet Music Consortium is a group of libraries working toward the goal of building an open collection of digitized sheet music using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. Harvested metadata about sheet music in participating collections is hosted by UCLA Digital Library Program, which provides an access service via this metadata to sheet music records at the host libraries. Data providers have chosen to catalog their sheet music in different ways, but a large proportion of the original sheets in participating collections has been digitized, allowing users direct access to the music itself and in many cases covers and advertisements that offer evidence of the cultural context in which the songs were published.
- St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture Available from Gale eBooks, the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture by Sara and Tom Pendergast covers topics and persons in major areas of popular culture: film, music, print culture, social life, sports, television and radio, and art and performance (including theater, dance, stand-up comedy, and other live performance).
Many journals can be found in multiple online databases while others are in-print at Bracken Library. Click here to search for a specific journal title, including online and physical locations. Use the filters on the left and the search bar above to narrow your results. You can also download the browser extension LibKey Nomad to eliminate paywalls you might encounter, if you find an article on Google, Wikipedia, or a publisher's website.
Classification and Call Numbers
The Music Collection at University Libraries uses Library of Congress Classification, or LCC, for organizing books and scores on the shelves. This system, maintained by the national library of the United States and utilized by libraries across the country and around the world, groups together items on similar subjects. Each item is then assigned a unique call number which combines alphabetical and numerical characters. These features are designed to make browsing library collections easier for users and librarians alike. Tip: Enter the first part of a call number into OneSearch to see all items in a given section.
Call Numbers for Popular Music:
ML 35 - 38 Festivals
ML 159 - 3785 History and criticism
ML 385 - 429 Biography
ML 410 Composers and songwriters
ML 416 - 419 Instrumentalists
ML 420 Singers
ML 421 Performing groups
ML 1800 - 2100 Dramatic music. Forms and types
ML 2054 Musicals. Revues
ML 2075 Motion picture music
ML 2080 Television music
ML 3469 - 3541 Popular music
ML 3470 General works
ML 3475 - 3505 By region or country
ML 3477 - 3481 United States
ML 3479 African American music
ML 3506 - 3541 Types and styles
ML 3506 - 3509 Jazz
ML 3520 Bluegrass music
ML 3521 Blues. Rhythm and blues
ML 3524 Country music
ML 3531 Rap and hip-hop
ML 3534 Rock music
ML 3540.7 Videogame music
ML 3790 - 3792 Music trade, including the record industry
ML 3792 Individual record companies and labels
ML 3916 - 3918 Social and political aspects of music
ML 3921 Religious aspects of music
MT 67 Composition. Popular music
MT 146 Analysis and appreciation. Popular music
Print Reference and General Works
Most reference books for popular music are located in the Music Reference section shelved in ranges 36 through 38. The recommended books below are sorted by their call numbers and include specialized dictionaries (ML102.P66), encyclopedias (also ML102.P66), bibliographies (ML128.P63), and discographies (ML156.4.P6). Specific genres, like rock and jazz, also have their own call numbers within Music Reference. Find general works on popular music in ML 3470. Hover over the info icon to see a description of the book.
The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music by
Rock, country, classical, hip hop, folk, world, dance--virtually every combination thereof and every major player therein--will be found within the pages of this authoritative, informative, and entertaining guide to music. More than 12,000 musicians, performers, composers, and songwriters along with 800 colorful illustrations of artists, instruments, and album covers fill the pages of this guide. Organized by genre, The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music offers concise introductions to each music form, presents a four-bar sample of its style, and provides biographies and discographies of key performers. This invaluable reference source also contains three appendices: an instrument glossary, an extensive bibliography, and a primer on the basics of reading music.
Call Number: ML100 .B38 2003 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 2003
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music by
v. 1. Africa / Ruth M. Stone, editor -- v. 2. South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean / Dale A. Olsen and Daniel, editors -- v. 3. The United States and Canada / Ellen Koskoff, editor -- v. 4. Southeast Asia / Terry E. Miller and Sean Williams, editors -- v. 5. South Asia / Alison Arnold -- v. 6. The Middle East / Virginia Danielson, Scott Marcus, and Dwight Reynolds, editors -- v. 7. East Asia; China, Japan, and Korea / Robert C. Provine, Yosihiko Tokumaru, and J. Lawrence Witzleben, editors -- v. 8. Europe / Timothy Rice, James Porter, and Chris Goertzen -- v. 9. Australia and the Pacific Islands / Adrienne L. Kaeppler and J. W. Love, editors -- v. 10. The world's music: general perspectives and reference tools / Ruth M. Stone, editor.
Call Number: ML100 .G16 1998 V.1-10 (Music Reference) and Music OnlinePublication Date: 1998
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by
First published in 1992, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music is the largest project ever undertaken for the subject. This authoritative biographical encyclopedia of rock, pop, and jazz artists covers popular music from 1900 to the present, including folk, blues, world music, rock, heavy metal, techno, reggae, and hip hop. Edited and largely written by Colin Larkin, it is exhaustive, meticulous, authoritative - and incredibly fun to read. Critically lauded in its previous three editions, the Fourth Edition will not disappoint fans seeking authoritative and reliable information about popular music from around the world. Expanded to ten volumes, the new edition contains 6,000 new entries, and extensive revisions and updates throughout, yielding 50% more material than the 1998 Third Edition. In addition to thousands of biographical entries, this A-Z reference also includes entries covering popular music genres, trends, styles, record labels, venues, and festivals. Key dates, biographies, and further reading are provided for artists covered, along with complete discographies that include record labels, release dates, and a 5-star album rating system. From Grateful Dead to The Killers, from Whitesnake to White Stripes, from R.E.M. to Blink-182, from The Jazz Singer to Jerry Springer - The Opera, and from Bye Bye Birdie to Rent, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Fourth Edition has something informative and clever to say about everyone's favorite band.
Call Number: ML102.P66 E45 2006 V.1-10 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 2006
Encyclopedia of World Pop Music, 1980-2001 by
In this eclectic encyclopedia, author Stan Jeffries chronicles the careers of over 110 musical artists from 37 different nations. Entries include biographical information, trace the entrants' musical development, and recount the performers' critical and popular reception. A collection of photos, an index by nation, and appendices of music industry awards and standards for gold and platinum certification by country complete this one-of-a-kind resource for music fans and aficionados. Popular music's global diversity is often overlooked in America, especially when performers achieved success in nations outside the United States. Some performers, such as A-Ha and Falco, are known as one-hit wonders in America despite their tremendous success elsewhere. Bands such as The Stone Roses and The Sugarcubes achieved cult or underground status in the United States but were headline acts in their native countries. And acts such as Dragon Ash, The Leningrad Cowboys, and Powderfinger--all but unknown in America-are considered landmark acts in their homelands.
Call Number: ML102.P66 J44 2003 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 2003
Lissauer's Encyclopedia of Popular Music in America: 1888 to the Present by
This meticulously researched set includes 200,000 songs that were "hits" between 1888 and the end of 1994. The first two volumes include alphabetical and chronological lists of the songs. The third volume lists the songwriters alphabetically. Each song entry includes the year it was written, the writer or writers of both the words and music, the band or individual who first performed the song, and the record label. Lissauer frequently adds interesting trivia to the entries--especially to his favorite show tunes or historically important music--about Broadway performances, film adaptations, unique instrumentation, or important events.
Call Number: ML128.P63 L57 1996 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 1996
Popular Singers of the Twentieth Century: A Bibliography of Biographical Materials by
This guide to the biographical literature available on popular 20th-century singers covers nearly 1000 artists. Much of the literature cited is also cross-referenced to major biographical dictionaries, encyclopedias, and relevant periodicals. Entries not only list known publications associated with popular singers but also incorporate elements of analytical and descriptive bibliography. The artists included in this volume increasingly cross musical boundaries. The popular singer category, therefore, encompasses Broadway, Hollywood, cabaret, and operetta performers as well as recording artists. Scholars of popular music and popular music enthusiasts will appreciate the extensive research this work embodies. Divided among three sections, citations are arranged alphabetically and include information about literature published through 1997. An appendix of additional artists and an index complete the volume.
Call Number: ML128.S295 C72 1999 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 1999
100 Albums That Changed Popular Music by
Whether on vinyl or in digital form, the album has become an integral part of our cultural history. 100 Albums That Changed Popular Music: A Reference Guide tells the stories behind the most groundbreaking, influential, and often controversial albums ever recorded. Narrative chapters in this chronologically organized volume describe how the albums reflected the political, social, and economic culture of the era. Individual entries discuss these albums histories, the inspiration behind their creation, and why they continue to stand the test of time. Selected on the basis of their popular appeal, historical significance, and influence on later genres, the albums included represent a wide variety of genres, such as blues, jazz, rock, reggae, rockabilly, folk, soul, hip-hop, and country. Among the featured are releases from the hard-blues explosion of the '60s, including Robert Johnson's King of the Delta Blues Singers, a landmark album whose songs were later covered by the likes of Cream, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones. Punk made its mark in the '70s with such albums as Patti Smith's Horses and the Clash's London Calling. In the '80s Michael Jackson's blockbuster LP, Thriller, not only topped the charts, it become the best-selling record of all time. Diversity defined the '90s, with the most influential albums ranging from Garth Brooks' No Fences, which made country one of the hottest musical genres of the decade, to Dr. Dre's debut, The Chronic, a multi-platinum smash hit that brought West Coast hip hop into the mainstream. Each album entry in this book lists the publication information, including release date, label, and producer. A timeline of important events, a selected bibliography for further reading, and an appendix of albums that almost made the cut round out this volume, making it an ideal resource for students, music fans, and general readers alike.
Call Number: ML156.4.P6 S63 2007 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 2007
The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by
With information on the most successful hits ever to reach the top of Billboard magazine's singles charts between 1955 and mid-2003, this resource includes fascinating facts, biographies, and chart positions for every artist.
Call Number: ML156.4.P6 W44 2004 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 2004
The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology by
The research presented in this volume is very recent, and the general approach is that of rethinking popular musicology: its purpose, its aims, and its methods. Contributors to the volume were asked to write something original and, at the same time, to provide an instructive example of a particular way of working and thinking. The essays have been written with a view to helping graduate students with research methodology and the application of relevant theoretical models. The team of contributors is an exceptionally strong one: it contains many of the pre-eminent academic figures involved in popular musicological research, and there is a spread of European, American, Asian, and Australasian scholars. The volume covers seven main themes: Film, Video and Multimedia; Technology and Studio Production; Gender and Sexuality; Identity and Ethnicity; Performance and Gesture; Reception and Scenes and The Music Industry and Globalization. The Ashgate Research Companion is designed to offer scholars and graduate students a comprehensive and authoritative state-of-the-art review of current research in a particular area. The companion's editor brings together a team of respected and experienced experts to write chapters on the key issues in their specialty, providing a comprehensive reference to the field.
Call Number: ML3470 .A84 2009Publication Date: 2009
Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction by
A lively contribution to the debates that are central to popular music studies. Winner of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) Book Award (1998). Popular Music in Theory is an original introduction to the key theoretical issues which arise in the study of contemporary popular music. It is organized in a way that shows how popular music is created across a series of relationships that link together industry and audiences, producers and consumers. Starting from the dichotomy between production and consumption which characterizes much work on popular culture, Keith Negus explores the equally significant social processes that intervene between and across the production-consumption divide, and examines how popular music is mediated by technological, cultural, historical, geographical, and political factors. This broad framework provides signposts to various tracks taken by sounds and images, and also highlights distinctive theoretical routes into the study of contemporary popular music. Although intended mainly for students in sociology, media and communication studies, and cultural studies, the book will also give others a deeper understanding of popular music.
Call Number: ML3470 .N44 1997Publication Date: 1997
America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley by
America's Songs tells the stories behind the greatest songs ever to emerge from the Broadway musical, Hollywood movies, and the music industry of Tin Pan Alley. Heard in stage revivals, film soundtracks, jazz and cabaret, and recorded by performers as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Linda Ronstadt, Willie Nelson, and Rod Stewart, these songs are the closest thing America has to a classical repertoire of song. In addition to recounting each song's inspiration, creation, and enduring popularity, America's Songs shows how these "standards" mirror American life from the years before World War I through the years after Vietnam.
Call Number: ML3477 .F87 2006Publication Date: 2006
America's Songs II: Songs from the 1890s to the Post-War Years by
America's Songs II: Songs from the 1890s to the Post-War Years continues to tell the stories behind popular songs in our country's history, serving as a sequel to the bestselling America's Songs: Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley. Beginning in 1890 and ending in post-war America, America's Songs II is a testament to the richness of popular music in the first half of the 20th century. This volume builds on the unique features of the first volume, delving deeper into the nature of the collaboration between well-known songwriters of the time but also shedding light on some of the early performers to turn songs into hits. The book's structure - a collection of short easy-to-read essays - allows the author to provide historical context to certain songs, but also to demonstrate how individual songs facilitated the popularity of specific genres, including ragtime, jazz, and blues, which subsequently reshaped the landscape of American popular music. America's Songs II: Songs from the 1890s to the Post-War Years will appeal to American popular music enthusiasts but will also serve as an ideal reference guide for students or as a supplement in American music courses.
Call Number: ML3477 .L37 2014Publication Date: 2014
Analyzing Popular Music by
How do we know music? We perform it, we compose it, we sing it in the shower, we cook, sleep and dance to it. Eventually we think and write about it. This book represents the culmination of such shared processes. Each of these essays, written by leading writers on popular music, is analytical in some sense, but none of them treats analysis as an end in itself. The books presents a wide range of genres (rock, dance, TV soundtracks, country, pop, soul, easy listening, Turkish Arabesk) and deals with issues as broad as methodology, modernism, postmodernism, Marxism and communication. It aims to encourage listeners to think more seriously about the 'social' consequences of the music they spend time with and is the first collection of such essays to incorporate contextualization in this way.
Call Number: MT146 .A54 2003Publication Date: 2003
Societies and Publications
Professional Organizations:
- American Folklore Society (AFS) The American Folklore Society is an international professional network serving the field of folklore, open to anyone working to understand or advance folk and traditional arts and the communities that sustain them. Our strength lives in our members, as we work to support them, their work, and our field.
- Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) The Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings, in all genres of music and speech, in all formats, and from all periods. ARSC is unique in bringing together private individuals and institutional professionals—everyone with a serious interest in recorded sound.
- International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) The International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) is an international organization established to promote inquiry, scholarship, and analysis in the area of popular music. Founded in 1981, IASPM has grown into an international network. On national and international levels, the organization’s activities include conferences, publications, and research projects designed to advance an understanding of popular music and the processes involved in its production and consumption. To build a large and diverse body of knowledge of popular music, IASPM is an organization which is both interprofessional and interdisciplinary. It welcomes as members anyone involved with popular music. To preserve its autonomy, the association remains independent of all commercial and governmental interests.
- International Association for the Study of Popular Music, US Branch (IASPM-US) IASPM-US is an interdisciplinary and inter-professional organization that represents the United States branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. Through its annual meetings, its quarterly publication The Journal of Popular Music Studies, and its website, IASPM-US promotes a range of scholarly and other approaches to the study of popular music. The US branch of IASPM holds true to the goals of our parent organization in the belief that popular music has much to teach us about this world. We place an emphasis on the writings and other activities of US-based scholars, journalists, and musicians–focusing not only on American music but also on music from across the globe, and “Music 2.0” made and consumed in virtual soundscapes.
- International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS) The mission of ISMMS is to encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary and international academic research regarding processes and phenomena related to heavy metal music and culture and to support the recognition of such research as a significant contribution to academic communities. Sub-genres of heavy metal and related genres, e.g., hardcore punk, are included. ISMMS exists as a focal organization to establish metal music studies as a relevant and respected academic discipline and contribute to the growth of knowledge within the academic and music communities. These aims shall be accomplished through the development, organization and promotion of state of the art collaborations, publications, activities and events that demonstrate high standards and principles of academic excellence and the important purpose of this research around the world.
- Popular Music Interest Group of the Society for Music Theory (SMT-PMIG) Founded in 1998, the SMT Popular Music Interest Group is dedicated to promoting the scholarly study of popular music through methods including musical analysis and theory. Our goals include: ensuring academic recognition for popular music research; encouraging more scholars of music theory to engage popular repertoires; and encouraging scholars of popular music to make effective use of musical analysis and theory.
- Popular Music Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology (PMSSEM) Founded in 1996 by Harris M. Berger, the Popular Music Section is an intellectual community of more than 600 members within the Society for Ethnomusicology. Members share overlapping interests in the study of popular music, both broadly and narrowly defined. Broadly defined, the ethnomusicological study of popular music engages the concrete social activities of musical participants, including mass mediated musics, musics developed on a local level, musics developing outside of established institutional power structures, music emerging in the context of the international industry, musics developing with limited forms of institutionalized pedagogy or orally transmitted musics. Popular music may also be construed in a more narrow fashion, in which case any one of these elements may serve as guiding definition. PMSSEM has an interdisciplinary mission in research, education, and institutional infrastructure.
- Popular Music Study Group of the American Musicological Society (AMS-PMSG) Established in 2010, the Popular Music Study Group of the American Musicological Society (AMS-PMSG) promotes the study of popular music within the Society and creates opportunities for scholars to present work on popular music topics. We define “popular music” in the broadest possible sense, including, but not limited to pop, rock, R&B, hip hop, EDM, country, minstrelsy, parlor songs, Tin Pan Alley, and jazz, as well as non-Western popular musics. We also support work from a wide variety of disciplinary, historical, methodological, and personal perspectives.
- Society for American Music (SAM) The Society for American Music (SAM) is dedicated to the study, teaching, creation, and dissemination of all musics in the Americas. As a scholarly, collegial, and inclusive organization, we serve a wide and diverse array of academics, librarians, composers, performers, and members of the general public.
Academic Journals:
An extensive list of journals about popular music accessible through University Libraries can be found via OneSearch. Also try searching for specific genres, such as "country music," "rock music," etc.
- American Music American Music is an independent, peer-reviewed journal published quarterly by the University of Illinois Press. Its articles, reviews, and special issues are devoted to American music in the broadest sense, including musical practices of North, South, and Central America as well as American musics performed anywhere in the world. American Music publishes articles on American composers, performers, publishers, institutions, events, and the music industry, as well as book and recording reviews, bibliographies, and discographies. From 1983 to 2006, American Music was the official journal of the Society for American Music (SAM).
- Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal (ARSC Journal) The ARSC Journal is a semi-annual, peer reviewed publication that serves to document the history of sound recording and includes original articles on many aspects of research and preservation: biography; cataloging; copyright law; current research; discography; technical aspects of sound restoration; etc. Selected ARSC conference papers are a regular feature. The journal also includes book and sound recording reviews, and publishes a running bibliography of articles appearing in other specialist publications and of related interest.
- Black Music Research Journal (BMRJ) Issued from 1980 to 2016, the Black Music Research Journal was a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Center for Black Music Research at the Columbia College Chicago. Articles cover the philosophy, aesthetics, history, and criticism of Black music. Online access is provided through several databases.
- International Association for the Study of Popular Music Journal (IASPM Journal) IASPM Journal is the peer-reviewed, open access e-journal of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), an organization established to promote inquiry, scholarship and analysis in the area of popular music. We publish articles and book reviews that consider popular music of any genre, historical period or geographic location. In addition to Special Issue CFPs, the journal maintains a space for ongoing scholarly work through Open Calls. The journal aims to disseminate IASPM member research that is local, transnational, global and/or international. English is the official language, but articles may also be submitted in the official language of any of its branches. Studies may use a range of research methodologies and critical approaches, including practice as research.
- Journal of American Folklore (JAF) As the flagship publication of the American Folklore Society, the Journal of American Folklore (JAF) engages academic and public folklore from anywhere in the world through a wide range of materials, including blind peer reviewed scholarly articles, perspective pieces, featured and reviewed projects, and book reviews that engage with the broad field of folklore across academic, public, and applied works.
- Journal of Popular Music Education (JPME) Issued by the Association of Popular Music Education (APME), the Journal of Popular Music Education (JPME) seeks to define, delimit, debunk, disseminate, and disrupt practice and discourse in and around popular music education. Although University Libraries does not currently provide access, articles may be requested via Interlibrary Loan.
- Journal of Popular Music Studies (JPMS) Journal of Popular Music Studies is the peer-reviewed, quarterly publication of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, US Branch. The journal’s purview encompasses all genres of music that have been dubbed popular in any geographic region. In addition to mainstream genres such as rock, hip hop, EDM, punk, or country, it explores popular forms ranging from broadsides to Broadway to Bollywood film music. It aims to present popular music scholarship from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including history, sociology, musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, and communication.
- Journal of the Society for American Music (JSAM) The Journal of the Society for American Music (JSAM) is an international, peer-reviewed journal dealing with all aspects of American music and music in the Americas. JSAM is dedicated to supporting scholarship that transcends disciplinary boundaries, cutting across historical musicology, music theory, ethnomusicology, cultural theory, identity studies, and American studies. JSAM encourages international dialogue across disciplines. The journal features articles, reviews of books, recordings, multimedia items, and colloquies. JSAM was created as the society’s official scholarly journal in 2007. From 1983 to 2006, American Music was the official journal of the society.
- Popular Music (Cambridge University Press) Popular Music is an international multi-disciplinary journal covering all aspects of the subject - from the formation of social group identities through popular music, to the workings of the global music industry, to how particular pieces of music are put together. The journal includes all kinds of popular music, whether rap or rai, jazz or rock, from any historical era and any geographical location. Popular Music carries articles by scholars from a variety of disciplines and theoretical perspectives. Each issue contains substantial, authoritative and influential articles, shorter topical pieces, and reviews of a wide range of books.
- Popular Music and Society Popular Music and Society, founded in 1971, publishes articles, book reviews, and audio reviews on popular music of any genre, time period, or geographic location. Popular Music and Society is open to all scholarly orientations toward popular music, including (but not limited to) historical, theoretical, critical, sociological, and cultural approaches. The terms "popular" and "society" are broadly defined to accommodate a wide range of articles on the subject. The journal focuses especially on music as a manifestation of popular culture.
- Popular Music History (PMH) Popular Music History publishes original historical and historiographical research that draws on the wide range of disciplines and intellectual trajectories that have contributed to the establishment of popular music studies as a recognized academic enterprise. Articles that challenge established orthodoxies in popular music studies, examine the formation and dissolution of canons, interrogate histories of genres, focus on forms of popular music that have existed below the "historical radar," and engage in archaeologies of popular music history, are particularly welcome.
- Popular Music Research Today (PMRT) Popular Music Research Today (PMRT) is an open-access, bilingual journal (English and Spanish) whose objective is the dissemination of studies on popular music, considering this term in a broad way, in such a way that very diverse fields of work can be considered included within it: anthropology of music; methodologies for the study of popular music; tradition and orality; urban music and identities; audiovisual media and popular music; pedagogy of popular music; and innovative approaches to popular music. The papers presented will be original and unpublished and will have a scientific approach, but at the same time an informative nature, whose reading is useful to both researchers and students, always within a serious and rigorous perspective free of sensationalism.
Interlibrary Loan
Users are encouraged to search for items beyond University Libraries' catalog via RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and WorldCat. Materials not available in print or online may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Please allow up to seven days for electronic delivery and up to fourteen days for delivery of physical items.