Library Catalog

The best way to find information on the history and development of a particular genre of music is to search it as a subject heading in the catalog.

Jazz, blues, rock, rap and other genres all have a subject heading devoted to them. The subheading to look for is "History and criticism." Under this category you will find books describing the history, social context, and development of different musical genres.

Other subheadings such as Dictionaries, Discographies, Social aspects, etc. may prove useful.

Databases

Humanities Abstracts

Very selective, high-impact journal titles across the humanities.

Academic OneFile

A multidisiplinary database. Best results can be had by doing a Subject Guide Search for your topic and then viewing the subdivisions for relevant subheadings such as History and criticism.

JSTOR

The digital shelves of full-text back issues of scholarly journals across the disciplines but especially strong in humanities and social sciences.

Project Muse

Current full-text issues of over 250 high impact scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences.

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe

Excellent coverage of music review literature in the popular press. Indexes hundreds of newspapers.

Music Index

Index to news and articles about music, musicians and the music industry from over 800 music journals. Includes many specialized journal titles that may not be readily available.

New York Times

Current 12 months full-text.

New York Times Historical (1851-2003)

Full-image access to all content in the New York Times, including advertisements, concert listings, concert and recording reviews and the like.

Grove Music Online

The world’s premier authority on all aspects of music. Please make sure to log off after you finish using this database.

Naxos Music Library

This listening service delivers streaming, real-time access to classical, jazz and world music. Please make sure to log off after you finish using this database.

Contact Information

Linda Hildebrand

235 Kresge Library

email: hildebra@oakland.edu

phone: (248) 370-2483

Print Resources

The following books from the library reference collection provide a variety of resources for research on music across various countries, cultures, and time periods, including American music. Many of them provide references for further research and so are an excellent place to begin one's research:

The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians. (Ref. ML 100 .N48 2000)

The New Grove dictionary of American music. (Ref. ML 101 .U6 N48 1986)

The new Grove dictionary of jazz. (Ref. ML 102 .J3 N48 2002)

Encyclopedia of rap and hip hop culture. (Ref. ML 102 .R27 B96 2006

The biographical encyclopedia of jazz. (Ref. ML 102 .J3 F4 1999)

Encyclopedia of the blues. (Ref. ML 102 .B6 H413 1997)

The encyclopedia of rock. (Ref. ML 102 .R6 H3)

The A to X of alternative music. (Ref. ML 102 .P66 T38 2004

The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Ref. ML 102 .G84 1995)

Finding Music (Scores or Recordings) at OU

Music Reference Sources

Music Searching Tips for the Library Catalog