Introduction
This page explains how to search for books on American music using the library catalog. The box below includes recommended subject headings so that you can do some searching on your own, and the box at the bottom includes selected materials to get you started.
Recommended Subject Headings
Conducting a keyword search in the Library catalog is always a great place to start. Use the "Material Type" filter on the right of the "Advanced Search" screen to limit your results to "Books."
After finding a relevant book in the catalog, use the topics (listed in the subject field of the record) to find related materials. At this point, if you've identified several promising materials that have the same subjects listed, consider clicking on any of the subject headings to launch a new search for similarly classified items.
You can also try searching by subject heading to start.
Here are some suggested subject headings to help you retrieve the most helpful resources from the catalog:
- Music--United States (or add a modifier before music, e.g. "Popular Music--United States" or "Rock Music--United States")
- Music--United States--history and criticism (instead of "history and criticism" you could also try "social aspects" or "criticism and interpretation", depending on your interest)
- Composers--United States
Selected Books from the Catalog
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The Cambridge History of American Music
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Call Number: Online and MPAL ML200 C35Online Access
The Cambridge History of American Music celebrates the richness of America's musical life. American music is an intricate tapestry of many cultures, and the History reveals this wide array of influences from Native, European, African, Asian, and other sources. -
America's Musical Life
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Call Number: MPAL ML200 C72 A42An illustrated history of America's musical heritage ranges from the earliest examples of Native American traditional song to the innovative sound of contemporary rock and jazz. -
Music in Black American Life, 1600-1945
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Call Number: HPNL ML200 .M88 2022 & OnlinePublication Date: 2022-08-23This first volume of Music in Black American Life collects research and analysis that originally appeared in the journals American Music and the Black Music Research Journal, and in the University of Illinois Press's acclaimed book series Music in American Life. In these selections, experts from a cross-section of disciplines engage with fundamental issues in ways that changed our perceptions of Black music. -
Music USA : the rough guide
Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ; ML3477 U58M8The ideal handbook for every rock-n-roll pilgrim, Music USA tours the musical heritage of America, from New York to Seattle, stopping at all the shrines of sound in between. Coverage includes background on the development of local music styles, with details on clubs and venues, radio stations and record stores nationwide.
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Music in the USA
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Call Number: MPAL ML200 M895This anthology of primary sources charts a path through American musical life from 1540 to 2000, using as guides the words of composers, performers, writers and lovers of music. -
To Stretch Our Ears
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Call Number: MPAL ML200 T678A collection of documents covering five hundred years of American music history in the words of professional musicians, talented amateurs, and bystanders. -
Music in America : an anthology from the landing of the Pilgrims to the close of the Civil War, 1620-1865
Call Number: MPAL M2 M8681An anthology of scores tracing the development of music in America. -
Illustrated Sheet Music in the U. S. , 1830-1930
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Call Number: ML112.5 .I45 2025This book features essays by cutting-edge scholars who analyze the remarkable images that persuaded U.S. citizens to purchase mass-produced compositions for both personal and social pleasure. With some songs selling millions of copies as printed musical scores, music publishers commissioned artists to draw every conceivable subject as promotional illustrations, including genre scenes, portraits, political and historical events, sentimental allegories, flowers, landscapes, commercial buildings, and maritime views.
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Rethinking American Music
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Call Number: Online and MPAL ML200 .R46 2019In Rethinking American Music, Tara Browner and Thomas L. Riis curate essays that offer an eclectic survey of current music scholarship. Ranging from Tin Pan Alley to Thelonious Monk to hip hop, the contributors go beyond repertory and biography to explore four critical yet overlooked areas: the impact of performance; patronage's role in creating music and finding a place to play it; personal identity; and the ways cultural and ethnographic circumstances determine the music that emerges from the creative process. -
Blacksound : making race and popular music in the United States
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Call Number: ML3479 .M69 2024Publication Date: 2024Blacksound explores the sonic history of blackface minstrelsy and the racial foundations of American musical culture from the early 1800s through the turn of the twentieth century. -
Digging: the Afro-American soul of American classical music
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Call Number: Online and MPAL ML3556 .B1612 2009Publication Date: 2009-05-26For almost half a century, Amiri Baraka has ranked among the most important commentators on African American music and culture. In this brilliant assemblage of his writings on music, the first such collection in nearly twenty years, Baraka blends autobiography, history, musical analysis, and political commentary to recall the sounds, people, times, and places he's encountered. -
Music and the Road
Call Number: Online and MPAL ML3477 .S6M8 2017Publication Date: 2017-11-02In a collection of 13 essays, Music and the Road explores the origins of road music in the blues, country-western, and rock 'n' roll; the themes of adventure, freedom, mobility, camaraderie, and love, and much more in this music; the mystique and reality of touring as an important part of getting away from home, creating community among performers, and building audiences across the country from the 1930s to the present. -
American Popular Song
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Call Number: Online and Main Stacks ML3477 .W59 2022Composer Alec Wilder's American Popular: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950 is widely recognized as the definitive book on American popular song. In this volume, which achieved immediate praise and recognition upon its publication, Wilder discusses some 800 songs from the American Songbook, offering a composer's insight, acceccible music analysis, as well has his strong personal biases. -
Exploring American Folk Music
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Call Number: Online and Main Stacks ML3551 .L67 2012Exploring American Folk Music: Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the United States reflects the fascinating diversity of regional and grassroots music in the United States.
