Search Tips and Subject Headings
Searching the catalog by subject is a great way to get a sense of what material is available on the topic you're researching. To search by subject in the library catalog:
- Click on "Advanced Search" to the right of the search bar
- Underneath "Search filters", you'll see that the default is set to "Any Field"
- Click on the arrow next to "Any Field" and select "Subject" from the drop-down menu
- Try a search with one of the subject headings recommended below
- Once you've found a relevant book in the catalog, you can also use the subjects listed in the record to find additional related materials
When conducting a subject search, always start with what you know! Try searching for a style, country, region, or ethnic group and the term music. Then, evaluate your results to see how they are described. Check to see which Subjects are used to describe the topic -- you can then click on these to find related materials or use them to develop new search terms.
Examples of Subjects include:
- Music -- Africa -- History and criticism
- Music -- [Country] -- History and criticism
- [Ethnic Group] -- Music -- History and criticism
- Popular music -- Africa -- History and criticism
- Musicians -- Africa
- Highlife (music)
Recommended Resources
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Indigenous African Popular Music, Volume 1
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Call Number: ML3502.5 .I53 2022This volume explores the nature, philosophies and genres of indigenous African popular music, focusing on how indigenous African popular music artistes are seen as prophets and philosophers, and how indigenous African popular music depicts the world.
Volume 2 is also available through the library. -
Hip-Hop in Africa
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Call Number: ML3918.R37 C58 2018 (History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library)In Hip-Hop in Africa, Msia Kibona Clark examines some of Africa's biggest hip-hop scenes and shows how hip-hop helps us understand specifically African narratives of social, political, and economic realities. Clark looks at the use of hip-hop in protest, both as a means of articulating social problems and as a tool for mobilizing listeners around those problems. Hip-Hop in Africa is a tribute to a genre and its artists as well as a timely examination that pushes the study of music and diaspora in critical new directions. -
Fiddling in West Africa
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Call Number: ML3760 D75F5 & Online ResourceFiddling has had a lengthy history in Africa which has long been ignored. Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje corrects this oversight with an expansive study on fiddling in the Fulbe, Hausa, and Dagbamba cultures of West Africa. DjeDje not only explains the history of the instrument itself, but also discusses the processes of stylistic transference and adaptation, suggesting how these may have contributed to differing performance practices. Additionally, DjeDje delves into the music, the performance context, the musicians behind the fiddle, the meaning of the instrument, and its use in these three cultures. -
On African Music
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Call Number: ML3760 .A443 2023 (Main Stacks) & OnlineOn African Music is a collection of seven essays addressing various techniques, influences, and scholarly approaches to African music. This book thus deals with analytical and interpretive issues, the politics of scholarship, and salient features of African music. -
Music Is the Weapon of the Future: Fifty Years of African Popular Music
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Call Number: ML3502.9 .T4613 2002 (Main Stacks)From the unique voice of Salif Keita and the hard funk of Fela Kuti to the poignant blues of Cesaria Evora and the upbeat swing of South African township jazz, African music has shaken the planet. This book traces its history through 30 portraits. -
The Music of Africa
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Call Number: 780.966 N65MThe study of African music is a study at once of unity and diversity. The range of indigenous musical resources and practices found on this vast continent is as wide and varies as its topography. In this informative and highly readable book, Professor Nketia provides an overview of the musical traditions of Africa with respect to their historical, cultural, and social background, their organization and practice, and delineates the most significant aspects of musical style. -
African Musicology: current trends : a festschrift presented to J.H. Kwabena Nketia
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Call Number: ML3797.1 A37
In addition to specific journals listed below, also check out the Current Bibliographies (retired) from the Society for Ethnomusicology for specific articles and our guide dedicated to finding articles:
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Current Bibliographies (SEM)Includes dedicated section for Africa. Issues of each respective Bibliography are tied to a particular Volume and Issue of our journal, Ethnomusicology. Current Bibliographies prior to the year 2000 can be found printed in the journal.
Journals
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African MusicAfrican Music is an annual, peer reviewed, accredited, academic journal established in 1954 by Hugh Tracey, founder of the International Library of African Music. The journal publishes original articles, not previously published, pertaining to contextualized studies of African music and related arts. Since it was re-launched in 2007 it features a CD compilation of audio examples illustrating the articles in each edition, which generally consists of field recordings from the article authors' research.
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African Musicology OnlineAfrican Musicology Online is a high quality open-access, peer-reviewed and refereed multidisciplinary research journal, dedicated to serve the society by the global dissemination of information through an unparalleled commitment to quality, reliability, and innovation in research work. African Musicology Online welcomes and acknowledges high quality theoretical and empirical original research papers, case studies, review papers, literature reviews and conceptual framework from researchers, academicians, professionals, practitioners and students from all over the world.
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EthnomusicologyAs the official journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Ethnomusicology is the premier publication in the field. Its scholarly articles represent current theoretical perspectives and research in ethnomusicology and related fields, while playing a central role in expanding the discipline in the United States and abroad. Aimed at a diverse audience of musicologists, anthropologists, folklorists, cultural studies scholars, musicians, and others, this inclusive journal also features book, recording, film, video, and multimedia reviews.
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Muziki: Journal of Music Research in Africa.Focused primarily on African music research, Muziki: Journal of Music Research in Africa welcomes scholarly articles and reviews of books, music, and recordings related to musical theory and practice of the African continent and beyond. We aim to provide a platform for established and emerging scholars in the fields of performance practice, ethnomusicology, and ‘traditional’ musicology as well as jazz and popular music studies encompassing diverse aspects of local, diasporic, and global research.
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Popular MusicPopular Music is an international multi-disciplinary journal covering all aspects of the subject - from the formation of social group identities through popular music, to the workings of the global music industry, to how particular pieces of music are put together. The journal includes all kinds of popular music, whether rap or rai, jazz or rock, from any historical era and any geographical location. Popular Music carries articles by scholars from a variety of disciplines and theoretical perspectives. Each issue contains substantial, authoritative and influential articles, shorter topical pieces, and reviews of a wide range of books.
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SAMUS: South African Music StudiesSAMUS: South African Music Studies is the official organ for the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM). It gives priority to the publication of research on South African music, but continues to represent the wider field of research interests in the country and in the rest of Africa. The journal invites work from any of the sub-disciplines in music studies, including musicology, ethnomusicology, popular music studies, music theory and music education, as well as research that draws connections between music and other fields in the arts and humanities.
Databases that focus on music sources:
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Music Index This link opens in a new window
Contains cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for every aspect of the classical and popular world of music including musicological and organological topics, as well as book reviews, record reviews, first performances, and obituaries from more than 850 music periodicals from over 40 countries.
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Music Periodicals Database This link opens in a new windowA database with full-text and abstracts of articles on music. Includes indexing for music articles and obituaries from the New York Times and The Washington Post. Covers nearly all aspects of music, including scholarly studies and popular trends. Coverage: 1874 - present.
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RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature is a comprehensive bibliography on writings about music featuring citations, abstracts and indexes. It covers nearly one and a half million publications from around the world on traditional music, popular music, jazz, classical music and related subjects. Coverage begins in the early 19th century and extends to the present.
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RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals This link opens in a new window
An index to more than eighty historical music periodicals in thirteen languages, published primarily in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (RIPM is the acronym for Répertoire international de la presse musicale.)
Databases that focus on performing arts sources:
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Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new windowThis database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 395 international periodicals, plus full text for more than 160 of the indexed journals. The database currently includes almost a million records, the majority from the most recent ten years of each journal. Performing Arts Periodicals Database covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
Coverage: 1864 - current
General databases with good music/interdisciplinary coverage:
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JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides page images of back issues of the core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and basic sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication. Users may browse by journal title or discipline, or may search the full-text or citations/abstracts. New issues of existing titles and new titles are added approximately on a weekly basis. The University of Illinois has access to the following JSTOR collections: Arts & Sciences I-XV, 19th Century British Pamphlets, Business IV, Global Plants, Hebrew Journals, Ireland, Life Sciences Collection, Lives of Literature, Security Studies, Struggles for Freedom - South Africa, Sustainability, and World Heritage Sites - Africa.
