[ Printer-friendly version ]

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. (SV) ML102.P66 G84 1998.

Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. (SV) ML102.P66 C66 2003

The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. (SV) ML102.R6 R64 2001.

Oxford Reference Online: Performing Arts.

Search the library's Main Catalog to find relevant materials, including reference books, monographs, recordings, and videos or DVDs. Note that performers and performing groups are considered "authors" in the catalog.

Browsing by subject heading can also be a useful way to find items. There are a number of relevant headings that can be searched. "Rock music" is a good place to start.

For more help with searching the library catalog, Click here.

Article indexes
For information directly related to popular music, start with RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and International Index to Music Periodicals (IIMP) and the Music Index. All three of these databases provides citations to a broad range of material. RILM tends to focus on scholarly literature, whereas IIMP and Music Index will provide more coverage of popular magazines such as Billboard and Rolling Stone.

For popular music research, one should also search databases that reflect contemporary culture. Newspaper indexes such as the New York Times Fulltext, which provides access to all of the New York Times content up to three years ago, the Lexis-Nexis News Index which provides indexing of the New York Times and numerous other major newspapers worldwide, will help you find additional articles, reviews, release, and industry information. ProQuest, which indexes most major news and literary magazines, will also be useful. 

For scholarly information on popular music and culture in a larger context, databases such as, Arts and Humanities Citation Index or Humanities Index will be useful. Refer to Princeton's collection of article indexes for additional materials.

Finding Journals
When searching electronic indexes and databases you will often see the icon. This icon will connect you to the online catalog or directly to your article whenever possible. Online journals are made accessible via projects such as JSTOR or Project MUSE, which may also be searched directly. You can also browse the library's list of E-Journals.

When the full text of a journal article is not available electronically, print versions of most journals will be shelved alphabetically by title in the appropriate library on campus. Recent issues can be found in each library's reading room.

All Music Guide

Billiboard.biz The industry side of Billboard Magazine provides charts and other statistics from the early 1980's to present. [Princeton campus access only. Password here]

The Rough Guide to Rock
Both The All Music Guide and The Rough Guide to Rock are continually updated web versions of books with the same respective titles.

"Popular music" at Wikipedia.org. Includes an ever-expanding list of genres. Please read the overview of the Wikipedia project before using information from this site.

Rockcritics links from Rockcritics.com, a listing of popular music-related magazines and blogs.

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The IFPI represents the recording industry worldwide.

Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA site includes useful research and data.

U.S. Census Bureau

CPANDA (Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive)