Jazz and Popular Music Research Guide

This guide introduces tools for research in:

Jazz – Music of African American origin growing out of ragtime and blues and characterized by improvisation and polyphonic ensemble playing; became the main American popular music in the 1920–1950s but still continues to be actively performed through many styles and sub-genres.

Popular Music – Musical genres that receive the majority of concerts, radio play, and revenue in the U.S. and around the world, encompassing the genres rock, country, bluegrass, disco, contemporary Christian, big band and swing, ragtime, world music; African-American forms such as blues, gospel, soul, rap, hip-hop; Latin and Caribbean forms such as salsa, calypso, reggae; etc.

For more information or help, you can contact the music librarian, Peter Shirts, or an on-call librarian at the reference desk in Woodruff Library or through the link below.