Choosing a Music-Specific Database
Choosing a database can be overwhelming! Here are a few best bets with a brief description of their specialties and strengths. If you're researching a topic that crosses multiple disciplines (like world music or acoustics and physics of music) check out our page on Interdisciplinary Resources for additional recommendations. As always, if you're not sure where to start, ask a librarian!
Here are a few quick tips for navigating our list of recommended databases:
- Consider the time period your topic covers - some databases will be better for contemporary topics and others for historical topics. Check the time period each database covers before searching.
- Think about what kind of information you need. Are you looking for popular sources or scholarly ones? Do you specifically need performance reviews?
- Check out the database descriptions below to choose the database that best fits your topic. Remember that if you select an EBSCO or ProQuest database, you can use the cross-searching feature to search multiple databases at once!
For a more exhaustive list than the one below, check out the full list of music databases UIUC subscribes to.
Best Bets
- RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window
Alternate version: RILM Abstracts of Music Literature in the classic EBSCO user interface (best for exporting more than 50 results or combining saved searches). 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Alternate version: RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals in the classic EBSCO user interface (best for exporting more than 50 results or combining saved searches). 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.)
- 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.
- 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.
Music Databases at a Glance
Check out our video for a walk through of our different music-specific databases and how to navigate them!