MUAR 392 - Popular Music after 1945

Get an overview

• The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music
  Biographical information
  REF ML102 P66 G84 1995
• Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World
  Vols. 1 & 2 are topic-based, Vols. 3-7 are arranged geographically
  REF ML102 P66 C66 2003
  (Vols. 1 & 2 are also available online)
• Grove Music Online
  The most important English-language encyclopedia of Western music traditions, it includes substantial popular music articles drawn from 2 component parts, the Grove Dictionary of American Music and the Grove Dictionary of Jazz.
• Wikipedia
  Wikipedia has the advantage of being up to the minute and, thanks to the popularity of "popular" music, providing ample information about personalities and bands. Entries can contain errors and lack cohesiveness and intellectual depth. Verify any information found here with 1 or 2 other reliable resources.

Find recordings

Consult the Music Library's "How to find recordings" guide for complete information.

• McGill WorldCat catalogue  / Classic Catalogue
  Bring the CD/DVD number to the Music Library’s 4th-floor service desk
• Naxos Music Online
  Limited selection of popular music
• Freegal
  Download 5 free tracks per week from Sony!

Literature search I: catalogue

Placing music in a cultural context

The following tips will work in both the McGill WorldCat catalogue and the Classic catalogue.

Finding cultural context

Books from the Twentieth-Century American Culture series can provide a general introduction to cultural life in the United States decade by decade.

Titles with the following relevant subject headings will have broader geographical coverage:

• Nineteen forties
• Nineteen fifties
• Nineteen sixties
• Nineteen seventies
• Nineteen eighties
• Nineteen nineties

Bringing music and cultural context together

Literature search II: databases

Music-specific databases

• Rock's Backpages
  Provides a selection of full-text interviews and articles from some of the major magazines in pop music history as well as a collection of archival audio interviews.
• Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive
  Offers full-text access to major music periodicals such as Billboard and New Music Express as well as trade publications from other sectors of the entertainment industry
• Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest: Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
  A large collection of British and American archival materials that shed light on the major events of the mid-20th century and their interplay with popular culture.
• IIMP: International Index to Music Periodicals
  1874-
  A database that indexes both scholarly and popular music periodicals. An excellent resource for performance and recording reviews.
• Music Index Online
  Indexes over 700 international music periodicals, both popular and scholarly
• RILM: Répertoire international de la littérature musicale
  1967-
  Indexes the music scholarship of over 100 countries: journals, books, conference proceedings, and dissertations

Multi-disciplinary databases

• McGill WorldCat catalogue searches a few general databases. Limit to articles (preferably peer-reviewed)
• Expanded Academic
• Academic Search Complete

Newspaper coverage:

• Proquest News & Newspapers

Consult McGill Library's Newspaper Guide to access more specific newspaper databases.

Citing your sources:

Links to citation guides for various styles may be found on the Library's How to cite page. The Music Library has prepared a guide specifically for citing music resources in Chicago Style.

Other relevant subject guides

• Five steps to a better paper
• Popular music
• Rap and Hip-Hop resources
  from Columbia University
• Jazz
• American history
• Other humanities subject guides