Music Quick Guide: Pop and Rock Music 

• Research Guide: Music
  
  
• Lewis Music Library FAQ
  
  
• Writing a Music Paper
  
  
• Quick Guides:
  
  
  • Classical Music
  
  
  • Electronic Music
  
  
  • Jazz
  
  
  • Music of the United States
  
  
  • Musical Theater
  
  
  • Piano Music
    
  
  
  • Pop and Rock Music
  
  
  • Songs
  
  
  • World Music

To find materials owned by MIT, use Barton:

Barton Advanced Search

Shortcuts for Researching a Topic: Online and Print Resources

Printable version (pdf)

Music Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

• All music guides: these individual guides cover blues, country, hip-hop, soul, etc.
  • See Ref ML156.4 and Ref ML156.9 in the Lewis Music Library.
    
  • allmusic.com is free to users, although certain portions require registration.
    
    

• Baker's biographical dictionary of popular musicians since 1990.
  Ref ML102.P66.B35 2004
  Some of these musicians are included in the older Baker's biographical dictionary of musicians. Centennial edition.
  Ref ML105.B168 2001 v.1-6 and online: http://libraries.mit.edu/get/bakers

• Continuum encyclopedia of popular music of the world / edited by John Shepherd... [et al.].
  Ref ML102.P66.C66 2003 v.1-7

• The Encyclopedia of popular music / compiled & edited by Colin Larkin.
  Ref ML102.P66.G84 1998 v.1-8
  
  
• Kinkle, Roger D. The complete encyclopedia of popular music and jazz, 1900-1950.
  Ref ML102.P66.K55 [1974] v.1-4
  
  

Finding Books and Articles

• Barton
  The MIT Libraries’ online catalog
  
  
• Music index.
  Ref ML118.M987 and available online (MIT only) at http://libraries.mit.edu/get/musicindex
  An index to music articles published in journals from 1949-1974 (print) and 1974-present (online).
  
  
• RILM (Répertoire International de la Littérature Musicale) Abstracts of music literature.
  Available online (MIT only) at http://libraries.mit.edu/get/rilm
  Contains abstracts of music research (articles, books, dissertations) from 1967 on. Over 500,000 citations.
  
  
• WorldCat. Web access (MIT only): http://libraries.mit.edu/get/worldcat
  Contains 1.2 billion library records of any type of material cataloged by OCLC member libraries, including books, scores, CDs, and videos/DVDs.
  
  
• Google Scholar.
  Another source for finding journal articles and books.
  
  

Finding Songs in Collections

• Collections of songs by more than one composer are given Library of Congress call numbers (see range M1495-M1998). 
  Examples:
  
  
  • Ultimate pop rock fake book.
    M1630.18.U485 2001
    
    
  • 100 years of Broadway.
    M1507.O53 1994
    
    
• Some are listed in indexes.
  Examples:
  
  
  • Ferguson, Gary Lynn. Song finder: a title index to 32,000 popular songs in collections, 1854-1992.
    Ref ML128.S3.F47 1995
    
    
  • Havlice, Patricia Pate. Popular song index.
    Ref ML128.S3.H4 & suppls. 1978, 1984, 1989, 1988/2002
    
    
  • Leigh, Robert. Index to song books: a title index to over 11,000 copies of almost 6,800 songs in 111 song  books published between 1933 and 1962.
    Ref ML128.S6.L529
    
    
• Finding Songs in Collections
  Guide created for users of Harvard’s Loeb Music Library.
  

Finding Lyrics

Song lyrics
From the William and Gayle Cook Music Library, Indiana University.

Lists of Hits

• Charts All Over the World
  From the Latvian Academic Network.
  
  
• Mattfeld, Julius. Variety music cavalcade, 1620-1969.
  Ref ML128.V7.M435 1971
  
  
• Pollock, Bruce. The rock song index: essential information on the 7,500 most important songs of rock and  roll.
  Ref ML128.R6.P65 1997
  
  
• Popular music: an annotated index of American popular songs. Continues: Popular music, 1920-1979.
  Ref ML120.U5.S5291 v.9, 1980-present
  
  
• Whitburn, Joel. Joel Whitburn presents A century of pop music: a year-by-year top 40 rankings of the  songs & artists that shaped a century.
  Ref ML156.4.P6.W47 1999
  
  

Finding Scores

• For scores in the Lewis Music Library, use Barton Advanced Search and select Scores from the pulldown menu under Formats/Types. Change one of the keyword searches to Subject Words and enter popular music or rock music.
  
  
• Public Domain Music Scores
  3rd tab of Research Guides: Music
  

Finding CDs and DVDs

• For CDs and DVDs in the Lewis Music Library, use Barton Advanced Search and select CDs or DVDs from the pulldown menu under Formats/Types. Change one of the keyword searches to Subject Words and enter popular music, rock music, rap music, hip-hop, etc.
  
  

Streaming Audio

• American song
  MIT only; allows 3 simultaneous users
  
  
• Contemporary World Music
  MIT only; allows 3 simultaneous users
  
  
• Internet Archive
  A source for free digital recordings.
  
  

Selected Internet Resources

• Rock, Pop, Alternative, etc.
  From the William and Gayle Cook Music Library, Indiana University.
  
  
• Yahoo! Directory: Music > Genres
  
  
• Sibelius Academy: Rock and Pop, etc.
  
  
• WWW Sites of Interest to Musicologists
  From the American Musicological Society
  
  
• Google Directory: Arts > Music
  
  

Peter Munstedt
Lewis Music Librarian
pmunsted@mit.edu

Ask Us! if you have questions

Research Consultations- appointments with subject experts for in-depth help

Tell Us! how we can serve you better. We want to hear from you.

• Suggest a purchase (MIT only)
  
  
• Interlibrary borrowing (MIT only)