Introduction
This page includes resources for finding articles about rock music. We've included some suggested article databases below as well as recommendations of specific publications to check out in the next box. For more information about searching for and accessing scholarly articles through the Library, check our our guide linked below.
- Finding Journal Articles for Music ResearchThis guide is an introduction (or a refresher) to searching for, accessing, and evaluating articles for music research.
Where Should I Search for Articles?
The best place to find scholarly articles is in one of the Library's databases. The University of Illinois subscribes to over a thousand different databases that can help you access the content you need. It can be overwhelming to know how to start searching, so here are a few quick tips:
- First, it helps to know what you're searching. Here's some terminology to keep in mind:
- Databases are searchable collections of published sources. They can be interdisciplinary or subject-specific.
- Journals are scholarly publications that include articles written by experts in the field.
- Articles are individual pieces on a specific topic published in a journal.
- Indexes are lists of articles or other publications within a particular discipline or topic. Some indexes will include article abstracts and some will include full text access.
- Abstracts are concise summaries of articles that can help you determine whether an article is relevant to your research.
- If you are looking for a specific journal, you can search by the journal name in Library Catalog Journal Search.
- If you are looking for a specific article, you can use the Journal and Article Locator to find the full text.
Recommended Databases & Publications
- 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.
- Music Index This link opens in a new window
Alternate version: Music Index in the classic EBSCO user interface (best for exporting more than 50 results or combining saved searches). 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.
- Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowAn archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to 2000. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are all included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Magazines have been scanned cover-to-cover in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of all articles, covers, ads and reviews.
- African American Periodicals This link opens in a new windowAfrican American Periodicals, 1825-1995 features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans.
- Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new window
Alternate version: Alternative Press Index Archive in the classic EBSCO user interface (best for exporting more than 50 results or combining saved searches). The Alternative Press Index is a subject index to over 300 alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines. The Index is international and interdisciplinary, spanning the social sciences and humanities, with its central focus on the practice and theory of socialism, national liberation, labor, indigenous peoples, gays/lesbians, feminism, ecology, democracy, and anarchism.
- America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowSearch or browse early American newspapers including titles from all 50 present states. Includes: Early American Newspapers, Series 1 (1690 - 1876), Early American Newspapers, Series 2 (1758 - 1900), Early American Newspapers, Series 3 (1829 - 1922), Early American Newspapers, Series 4 (1756 - 1922), Early American Newspapers, Series 5 (1777 - 1922), Early American Newspapers, Series 6 (1741 - 1922), Early American Newspapers, Series 7 (1773 - 1922), Early American Newspapers Series 10 (1730-1900), Early American Newspapers Series13 (1803-1916), Early American Newspapers Series 14 (1807-1880), Hispanic American Newspapers (1808 - 1980), African American Newspapers (1827 - 1998), African American Newspapers Series 2 (1835 - 1956), Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection (1799 - 1971), Caribbean Newspapers, Series 1 (1718 - 1876) and American Business: Agricultural Newspapers (1788 - 1894).
- Rolling Stone Archive This link opens in a new windowThe backfile of Rolling Stone, from its launch in 1967 to the present. One of the most influential consumer magazines of the 20th-21st centuries, it initially sought to reflect the cultural, social, and political outlook of a generation of students and young adults. It has been a leading vehicle for rock and popular music journalism, as well as covering wider entertainment topics such as film and popular culture. Major journalists and authors to have contributed include Hunter S. Thompson, Patti Smith, and Tom Wolfe.
- Rock Music StudiesRock Music Studies publishes articles, book and audio reviews, and opinion pieces on rock music and its numerous subgenres. To best focus this international journal, the editors of Rock Music Studies, which evolved from Popular Music and Society, limit the usually all-inclusive definition of rock to exclude other genres such as doo-wop, country, jazz, soul, and hip hop, but include roll and roll, rockabilly, blues rock, country rock, jazz rock, folk rock, hard rock, psychedelic rock, prog rock, metal, punk, alternative, and other subgenres of rock.
- Journal of Popular Music StudiesJournal of Popular Music Studies is the peer-reviewed, quarterly publication of the U.S. Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. The journal’s purview encompasses all genres of music that have been dubbed popular in any geographic region. In addition to mainstream genres such as rock, hip hop, EDM, punk, or country, it explores popular forms ranging from broadsides to Broadway to Bollywood film music. It aims to present popular music scholarship from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including history, sociology, musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, and communication.
- Popular Music and SocietyPopular Music and Society, founded in 1971, publishes articles, book reviews, and audio reviews on popular music of any genre, time period, or geographic location. Popular Music and Society is open to all scholarly orientations toward popular music, including (but not limited to) historical, theoretical, critical, sociological, and cultural approaches. The terms "popular" and "society" are broadly defined to accommodate a wide range of articles on the subject. The journal focuses especially on music as a manifestation of popular culture.
- 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.
- Popular Music HistoryOriginal historical & historiographical research that draws on the wide range of disciplines & intellectual trajectories that have contributed to the establishment of popular music studies as a recognized academic enterprise.
- The Black Perspective in MusicThe primary purpose of The Black Perspective in Music is to provide an opportunity for the free expression of ideas and opinions by persons interested in the Black-American and African performing arts, particularly from the creative point of view. Regular features include articles by musicologists, ethnomusicologists, historians, composers, and performing artists; interviews with well-known personalities in the arts; listings of new books, music, musicals, films, and recordings; announcements of special events (festivals, conferences, premiere performances, symposia), and periodic surveys of bibliographic materials.
- The Black Music Research JournalBegun in 1980, Black Music Research Journal is published in the spring and fall of each year and includes articles about the philosophy, aesthetics, history, and criticism of black music. Many issues are devoted to a single theme, such as Blind Lemon Jefferson or black music in Europe.