Research Guides: Jazz and Popular Music Research Guide: Find Articles

Jazz Perioidcal Databases

RIPM Jazz This link opens in a new window
105 full-text, searchable jazz periodicals published in the United States between 1914–2000.

Best Music Subject Periodical Databases

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Access resources for scholarly music research. Includes a continuously-updated bibliography of music literature with broad international coverage.
Music Index This link opens in a new window
Index to periodical articles on music. Coverage is international in scope and includes music of all periods and genres, musical instruments, composers, performers, the music industry, and other music-related topics.
Music Periodicals Database (formerly IIMP) This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracts for many international music periodicals from a variety of countries. Some of the indexed journals are available in full-text.

Multidisciplinary Periodical Databases

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracts for thousands of journals and other publications. Access broad ranging resources that include full-text journals, monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and video content from the Associate Press etc.
Access broad ranging resources that include full-text journals, monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and video content from the Associated Press, etc.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Indexes critical materials on literature, criticism, drama, languages, linguistics, and folklore. Coverage includes journals, series, essay collections, monographs, dissertations, bibliographies, proceedings, and other materials. Produced by the Modern Language Association.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Search for books and articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, pre-print repositories and universities, and more. To add a "Find It @ Emory" button, go to Library Links in the Settings menu, search for Emory, and click the "Find It @ Emory" box. NOTE: Unlike a library database, many sources found in Google Scholar require payment before providing full text; check library holdings of journal titles in Library Search or Interlibrary Loan before paying.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Access a wide variety of journal articles in the humanities and other disciplines.
Note: You may not be able to access the most current 2–7 years of certain journals—but many of these recent publications are found in Project MUSE.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Includes the most recently published output of many major scholarly journals. Covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, cultural studies, education, political science, and more.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (A&I) This link opens in a new window
Official digital archive of the Library of Congress and the database of record for graduate research. Search citations to dissertations and theses from around the world from 1861 to present day, and access full text dissertations.

Tips for Finding Newspaper Articles

How do I find Newspapers?
A great overview of newspaper searching, with links to most of the databases you'll need.
New York Times @ Emory
How to access today's NYT online, and how to get older content.
"News Sources" in Databases @ Emory
All the news-source databases available at Emory.
African American Newspaper Guide

Scholarly vs. Popular Publications

Scholarly journal articles are usually the most appropriate for academic papers. Characteristics of scholarly publications:

Report on primary research
Written by experts in the field
Written for other researchers/scholars
Use terms and language that are discipline-specific
Usually include in-text citations and a bibliography of cited sources
May include graphs, charts, etc. related to the topic
Often are peer reviewed by an editorial board of experts
Published by a professional organization or society, university, research center, or scholarly press.

Examples include: Ethnomusicology, Journal of Musicology, American Music, Musical Quarterly, and Popular Music.

Popular newspaper and magazine articles are useful when your topic is so current that scholars haven't written much about it or you need first-hand, contemporaneous reports (such as a newspaper or magazine review by a person who attended a work's premiere). Characteristics of popular publications:

Contain general information that appeals to a wide audience
Written by journalists or others who are not professionals in that field
Use easily understood language
Usually do NOT include citations or a bibliography
Limited or non-existent editorial review
May contain glossy photographs and/or advertisements

Examples include: The New Yorker, Down Beat, Rolling Stone, and Variety.