Thinking Outside of Music
If your topic crosses multiple subject areas or if you just want to get a broader context for your topic beyond the world of music, consider exploring a non-music-specific database. Here are a few suggestions for getting started:
- Filter the Library's Databases A-Z list by subject to see what databases we have available in other subject areas. Start with the Best Bets section as those databases have been selected by subject specialists as good places to start your research.
- Go directly to a departmental library's homepage to see what databases and resources they recommend.
- Reach out to a Subject Specialist by email or set up a consultation.
- Check out our list of recommended resources below.
What's an Interdisciplinary Topic?
Still not sure when to look beyond your discipline? Here's an example to help you think through when your research might benefit from interdisciplinary resources. Let's say you're interested in protest music. What resources should you consult?
- American and African American history databases would be helpful places to research the role of music in the Civil Rights Movement.
- To take a more global perspective, you could consult area studies databases to look into the role of protest songs in the struggle against apartheid.
- Newspaper databases, particularly those focusing on radical or alternative press, might also come in handy.
- If you're particularly interested in music as political protest, you might want to look into Political Science resources as well.
Whatever your topic, try casting a wide net and exploring how different academic disciplines might help enrich your research.
Humanities and Social Sciences
If your research interest crosses multiple humanities or social science disciplines like history, women's and gender studies, or education, check out the recommendations below.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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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. - GenderWatch This link opens in a new windowGenderWatch is a full text database of unique and diverse publications that focus on how gender impacts a broad spectrum of subject areas. With its archival material, dating back to 1970 in some cases, GenderWatch is a repository of important historical perspectives on the evolution of the women's movement, men's studies, the transgendered community, and the changes in gender roles over the years. Publications include scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, and NGO, government and special reports.
- ERIC - EBSCO This link opens in a new windowERIC is a Web-based digital library of free education-related sources of interest to educators, researchers, and the general public, and consists primarily of electronic bibliographic records describing journal and non-journal literature. The collection is to be expanded to include full-texts of articles and other electronic resources such as audio and video materials. Use ERIC - EBSCO in the NEW EBSCO user interface.
- Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new windowThe 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.
Sciences
If your research interest has to do with acoustics, physics of music, computers in music, or a similar subject, check out Scopus.
- Scopus This link opens in a new windowScopus is the largest abstract and citation database including peer-reviewed titles from international publishers, Open Access journals, conference proceedings, trade publications and quality web sources. Subject coverage includes: Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Engineering; Life and Health Sciences; Social Sciences, Psychology and Economics; Biological, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Historical Coverage
Sometimes you will need to reference materials older than those contained in the standard music journal databases. Below you'll find a few best bets if you are searching for historical information about composers and their music.
- Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new windowAn index to tables of contents of periodicals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, including some published as far back as 1770. Includes periodicals in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, and other Western languages. Provides access, where available, to page images in the related Periodicals Archive Online (PAO). (When no corresponding text is available in PAO, an E-link is displayed.) PIO and PAO were once parts of a single database, called PCI Full Text.
- Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new windowPortal to newspapers and periodicals c1685-1835 brings together rare journals printed between c1685 and 1835, illuminating all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life. Many are ephemeral, lasting only for a handful of issues, others run for several years. Topics include: the writings of Sir Isaac Newton; the French and American Revolutions; colonial life, provincial and rural affairs, reviews of literature, the theater, and fashion throughout Europe; the origins and rise of Romanticism; political debates; gender, religion, influence of the press, and coffee house gossip and discussion.
- Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new windowAn essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Consists of four components: Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; and Moving pictures, optical entertainments & the advent of cinema. Includes full-text, full-color reproductions of books, ephemera, handbills, pamphlets, photos, posters, programs, scripts, and other types of materials. Coverage is most extensive for Great Britain; but there is also a fair range of materials for the U.S.A.