The University of Illinois Library has a wealth of materials on popular culture from around the world. This guide will help you access physical and digital resources ranging from music recordings to streaming films to scholarship on popular music, TV, film, video games, sports, comics, and more. Be sure to visit the International Comics tab above to explore the Library’s extensive holdings in comics from around the world.
This page has search tips for finding popular culture materials in the library, and recommendations for resources on international popular culture generally. Each of the Area Studies pages has resources that focus on that region, with links for both University of Illinois resources and web resources. You’ll find video clips, streaming music, and plenty of scholarly materials.
Contact Mara Thacker, Global Popular Culture Librarian, any other Area Studies librarian, or use the Ask a Librarian chat box to your right.
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To get started searching in the library catalog or a database, use the general search terms below or the more specific topic terms in the sections to the right, and add the country, region, culture, or language you're looking for. In the library catalog, use the drop down menu to the right of the search bar to choose keyword or subject search. (A subject search will return more relevant results.)
Looking for specific kinds of materials (e.g. films, sound recordings) in the catalog? Choose "Advanced Search" under the search bar and select the formats you want to limit your search to.
Use the links on the right side of the page of your search results to narrow what you see by language, topic, or region.
From Kung Fu to Hip Hop by
Explores the revolutionary potential of Bruce Lee and hip hop culture in the context of antiglobalization struggles and transnational capitalism.
The Popular and the Public by
The Popular and the Public brings together a range of international scholars to examine how popular culture has shaped the public sphere, providing an alternative space for political debate in 19th and 20th Century India, Africa and Europe.
The Routledge Companion to Global Popular Culture by
Research on popular culture is a dynamic, fast-growing domain. In scholarly terms, it cuts across many areas, including communication studies, sociology, history, American studies, anthropology, literature, journalism, folklore, economics, and media and cultural studies. The Routledge Companion to Global Popular Culture provides an authoritative, up-to-date, intellectually broad, internationally-aware, and conceptually agile guide to the most important aspects of popular culture scholarship.
For works about films and the film industry, add the country or nationality you're interested in to the following search terms and choose subject search:
To find the films themselves, try these and select "movie" under the format filters to the right in the library catalog:
Film Manifestos and Global Cinema Cultures by 
The Cinema of Small Nations by 
Traditions in World Cinema by To find information about television programs and their production, use the following subject search terms, with the country or language you're looking for added to the term (e.g., Television programs -- Spain). To find DVDs and streaming shows, "movie" under the format filters to the right in the library catalog.
To find shows in particular genres, add the genre term to the beginning of the search term. For example:
Global Television Formats by 
Soap Operas and Telenovelas in the Digital Age by 
Telemodernities by 
The Politics of Reality Television by Find materials on video games with these search terms (borrowed from the UGL Video Games Research Guide). Add countries and languages to your search term to find the information you want (e.g., Video games -- History -- Japan).
Gaming Globally by 
The Meaning of Video Games by 
Cultural Code by Find materials on popular music with these search terms, and add the country or language term you're interested in. While your likely to find more recent recordings on commercial streaming services, you can also find music recordings in the library catalog. Use the filters at the right of your search to limit your format to "music recording."
You can find more information about researching music materials on the Music and Performing Arts Library's research guides page. Several are highlighted below.
Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World by 
Routlege Global Popular Music Series
Global Linguistic Flows by 
Brave Punk World by For general information on sports around the world, use the subject search term "sports" and the country or language you are interested in. A search for a specific sport may return more relevant results. Related terms you might search include:
Sports Around the World by 
Baseball Beyond Our Borders by 
Sport, Race and Ethnicity by Use the following genre terms, plus country or language, to find science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other genre materials in the Library catalog. Filter your search by using the links to the right side of the page to find films, books, and other materials.
For works about these genres, try the following constructions for your search terms. (Note: the term "science fiction" will return both history/criticism of science fiction works and the works themselves).
A Short History of Fantasy (available via iShare) by 
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy by 
Science Fiction, Imperialism and the Third World: Essays on Postcolonial Literature and Film by Guide compiled by Sarah Sahn, Library and Information Sciences Graduate Student, in Spring 2018 as part of a practicum in the International and Area Studies Library.
