A Guide to Popular Music Reference Books: An Annotated Bibliography (Music Reference Collection) - Hardcover

Haggerty, Gary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0313296618 ISBN 13: 9780313296611

Publisher: Greenwood, 1995

Synopsis

A guide to locating information on popular music and the people who create it, this volume is designed as a desk reference―to locate answers to specific questions and to direct library users to key resources. More than 400 comprehensive titles are carefully annotated, describing content, scope, and special features. The focus is on the musical styles that have developed measurable commercial success through recordings and live performance. Along with academic titles, many important titles from the popular press are included, as well as selected electronic resources. A necessary reference tool for any library, scholar, student, and popular music buff.

The work covers bibliographies, indexes, discographies, dictionaries and encyclopedias, biographical resources, directories, almanacs, yearbooks, and guidebooks on styles that include jazz, swing, Tin Pan Alley, country, gospel, blues, rhythm and blues, soul, rockabilly, rock, heavy metal, musical theater, and film music. Its extensive appendices feature discographies and bibliographies of individual artists and ensembles. A detailed index combining authors, titles, and subjects makes cross-referencing easy. The entries are modeled after the immensely useful

The Guide to Reference Books.

About this title

About the Author

GARY HAGGERTY is Assistant Library Director at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He is a specialist in contemporary popular music and is a professional performing musician. He holds degrees in music and library science.

Reviews

Haggerty defines popular music broadly, encompassing such styles as big band, pop, rock, metal, rap, country, jazz, and blues. He seems to exclude, however, world music and reggae. His book is arranged by format, including dictionaries and encyclopedias, biographies, indexes, discographies, and guidebooks. Titles range from newer books such as the bibliography Rock Stars/Pop Stars to older works such as Shapiro's Popular Music. The 427 entries have full citations, including pagination, LCCN, ISBN, and LC call number. Annotations range from 50 to 225 words and describe format and content. When possible, sources of reviews in library media are noted. There are three appendixes--a 29-page list of discographies for individual performers, a two-page list of bibliographies on performers, and a list of electronic reference sources for music. An index concludes the book with access points by author, title, and subject.

This will be a useful book for collection development. In large popular-music collections, it might help narrow in on possible sources for answering questions. Recommended for large and developing popular-music collections.

Edition details

• Publisher: Greenwood
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0313296618
• ISBN 13: 9780313296611
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232