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Assignment
Your assignment is to choose a song with lyrics that represents a significant moment or person in your life or a significant quality or characteristic of your life.
You will need to locate the lyrics for the song and research information about the song, the composer, the performer, the time period, and other interesting facts about the song. See your assignment sheet for more details.
Below you will find some Library resources that will help you on this assignment.
Reference Sources
- American Chronicle Reference E 169.1 .G664
- Year by year synopsis of important events, ads, fads, etc. Includes a section on popular and classical music.
- American Decades Reference E 169.12 .A419
- Events. lifestyle, social trends, etc. The arts section lists popular songs of the times.
- Contemporary Musicians Reference ML 385 .C615
- Biographical entries of popular musicians. Look at the bibliographies at the end of the articles for suggestions.
- Encyclopedia of Popular Music Reference ML 102 .P66 G84
- Very extensive coverage of popular music.
- Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre Reference ML 102 .M88 G3
- Covers musicals through the 20th century.
- Green Book of Songs by Subject Reference ML 156.4 .P6 G73
- Remember the subject, but not the song title?
- Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Reference ML 100 .N48
- Heavier in classical music, but does have some information on popular music. See Oxford Music Online below for the online equivalent.
- Icons of Hip Hop Reference ML 394 .I26
- Biographical and sometimes evaluative information.
- Icons of Rhythm and Blues and Soul Reference ML 3479 .G85
- Biographical and sometimes evaluative information.
- Icons of Rock Reference ML 3534 .S336
- Biographical and sometimes evaluative information.
- New Grove Encyclopedia of Jazz Reference ML 102 .J3 N48
- Authoritative information on jazz artists.
- New York Times Guide to the Arts of the Twentieth Century Reference NX 456 .N49
- Covers all the arts, not just music. Sometimes reprints articles from newspapers and magazines of the time period.
- Popular Music Reference ML 120 .U5 S5
- A year by year guide to popular songs from 1920 to 2002.
Browse near these titles for some other resources.
Library Databases
- African American Song
- diverse range of genres such as jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, and narratives, among others. Over 16,000 tracks of music. Many of the albums contain liner notes which can be very useful. Liner notes may take a while to open.
- Classical Music Library
- Multi-label database of classical music recordings for listening and learning in libraries. Search this database by composer, conductor, genre, time period or instrument. Liner notes may take a while to open.
- Grove Music Online
- Recently renamed Oxford Music Online, this database contains biographical and critical information about musicians, musical genres, musical time periods.
- Smithsonian Global Sound
- Ethnic music from around the world. You may find the liner notes helpful. Liner notes may take a while to open.
- Academic OneFile
- Formerly Expanded Academic ASAP. Large database reaching back into the 1980s. Covers all types of music.
- Academic Search Premier
- All purpose database.
- Discovering Collection
- Short biographies of musicians and performers. Sometimes will have an article about a particular song.
- Chicago Tribune and Chicago Tribune Historical
- 1849 to the present. Covers all types of music.
- New York Times and New York Times Historical
- Covers the years 1851 to the present. Covers all kinds of music from around the world.
Online Resources
- allmusic Guide
Includes "facts about [albums and artists], including title, tracks, genre, label, credits, release date, and cover and artist images; biographies, album and song reviews, style descriptions, composition descriptions, and AMG ratings and picks."
URL: http://www.allmusic.com/ Added: September 15, 2011
- LetsSingIt
LetsSingIt (LSI) is a music community where you can find music related information like song lyrics, album tracklists, artist news, biographies and pictures.
URL: http://www.letssingit.com/ Added: September 15, 2011
- Search for an individual artist's official homepage, MySpace page or recording company page.
- Use the Library's Music Web Site Guide
Citing Sources
- Citing Sources
- Most of your MLA citation examples will be found on the page.
There are some sources that may be unique to this assignment.
Lyric websites
Lyrics
Liner notes
Librarian: Jennifer Kelley
Office: SRC 3043A
Phone: (630) 942-2383
E-mail: kelleyj@cod.edu
9 December, 2009
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