Research Subject Guides: Music: More Library Research

Music News and Newspapers

See our Guide to News and Newspapers for more complete information about newspapers.

Also see our tutorial, How Do I Find Historical Newspapers?

Billboard
The international music-record newsweekly.
Playbill
This website of the theater magazine, which includes domestic and international theater news and features. Excerpts, ticket sales. Free, ad-supported.
Rolling Stone
Rock & Roll, national affairs, feature stories, reviews, classified ads, and the music charts
Variety
Entertainment news in all genres. Includes reviews, awards, festivals, box office, entertainment industry conferences.
World Intellectual Property Organization Magazine (WIPO)
WIPO is the global forum for intellectual property services, policy, information and cooperation.

Access World News Research Collection (Newsbank) This link opens in a new window
Our largest general news source, with current and complete newspapers, magazines, wire services from around the world. Backfiles sometimes go back to the 1980s. Text only.
View a list of all sources.
Boston Globe (1872-present) (Proquest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Link to the most recent issue.
Includes variations on the title: Daily Boston Globe and Boston Daily Globe. Historic content (1872-1990) includes a PDF view of the newspaper including illustrations, charts, and advertisements. After 1990, only text is available.
Boston Phoenix (1973-2013) (Internet Archive) This link opens in a new window
Boston's alternative newspaper of record, the first word on social justice, politics, as well as the arts and music scene.(1972-2013)
China Project This link opens in a new window
The China Project is a New York-based, independent, China-focused news magazine and business services website. The site is updated daily. Covers business, foreign affairs, arts and culture. Access to The China Project requires registration with a Northeastern or NU London email address.
Ebony Magazine Archive (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
The Ebony Magazine Archive covers civil rights, education, entrepreneurship and other social topics with an African-American focus, including more than 800 issues providing a broad view of African-American culture from its first issue in 1945 through 2014.
Ethnic NewsWatch (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
Interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) full text newspapers, magazines and journals of American ethnic, minority and indigenous communities. Offers additional viewpoints from those proffered by the mainstream press.
Includes the Bay State Banner, an independent newspaper primarily geared toward the interests of Boston's African-American community, and the Boston Irish Reporter.
Historical Newspapers (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
View a title list here
Historical Black Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window

Biography and Reference

Use Scholar OneSearch to find out if Northeastern's library has a book-length biography.

Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians e-book
Includes entries on classical, jazz and popular music
Music Sack
Comprehensive database of "people involved in music," including biographies, articles/books, bands, churches, and theaters.

HistoryMakers Digital Archive (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
Interviews highlighting Black Americans
Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Includes the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Comprises the full text of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London, 2001), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie (London, 1992), and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, second edition, edited by Barry Kernfeld (London, 2002) plus additional resources.

University of Hartford Black Classical Music and Musicians: Take Action
There are many ways to promote Black music and musicians! This Guide includes a few of the many ways to participate in this work.

Archival Resources

ArchiveGrid
WorldCat's freely searchable collection of archival records. Will not get you to the full text, but will instead tell you where a particular author's papers are scattered, or particular manuscripts are held. Uncovers the existence of archives that are hard to find other ways.
Discography of American Music (UC Santa Barbara)
Data on recordings from the 78rpm era, with performers, dates, catalog and matrix numbers, and more, from Victor, Decca, Columbia, Zenophone and more. A partnership with the Library of Congress National Jukebox Project makes some pre-1923 recordings available online.

Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections

American Composers Forum New England records
The collection documents the founding, administration, and programming activities of the New England Chapter of the American Composers Forum (ACFNE) from its creation in 1996 through its closure in 2010.
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Major topics covered include strategic planning, development, and ACFNE's Community Partners, Faith Partners, Composers in Ensemble, and Composers in the School residency programs.
Boston Women's Music Collective records
The Boston Women's Music Collective was founded in June 1975 in Somerville, Massachusetts. Its purpose was to support women's music and women composers, musicians, and performers. The Boston Women's Music Collective published a monthly newsletter and sponsored events featuring a variety of musical genres for women with different interests, lifestyles, and talents.
Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts records
The collection documents the founding, staffing, and management activities of the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts; the school's long history of financial difficulties; and other national and local organizations related to African American culture in theater, music, dance, and the visual arts.
John Ross papers
The John Ross papers document his work as music director of Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts (ELSFA) and National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA), and his professional activities outside of them. The majority of the collection concerns musical arrangements by John Ross and performances of either Ross or the NCAAA. These include sheet music, scripts, advertisements, programs, and cast lists.

Larry Katz Interviews (Northeastern University) This link opens in a new window
Hundreds of interviews conducted by music critic and Boston Herald columnist Larry Katz, with musicians and performers, both internationally famous and local Boston-based artists.

Lower Roxbury Black History Project
In 2006 Northeastern President Aoun appointed, Joseph D. Warren, at that time Special Assistant to the Director of Government Relations and Community Affairs, to oversee the Lower Roxbury Black History Project. In November 2007, Warren hired Lolita Parker Jr., a photographer and documentary film researcher, to collect oral histories and artifacts documenting the community's rich history. From 2007-2009 with the assistance of her son, London Parker-McWhorter, Parker spoke with over 40 residents of Roxbury. These recordings have some mention of the role music played in this Boston neighborhood.
A Note to You recordings
"A Note to You" was a classical music radio show broadcasted by WGBH and Northeastern University from Ryder Hall on Northeastern's campus. Roland Nadeau, who also started the Music Department at Northeastern, created the show in the interest of educating children on classical music. Initially, the show was broadcast on WHDH.
The Phoenix
For more than 40 years (1972-2013), the Phoenix was Boston's alternative newspaper of record, the first word on social justice, politics, as well as the arts and music scene.
WFNX
Part of the Phoenix Media/Communications Group since its launch in February 1983 as the East Coast’s first Alternative Rock station, WFNX has always marched to the beat of a different drummer. Over the years, WFNX was acclaimed nationally by its industry peers, winning, among many others, four “Station of the Year” awards by the Gavin Report and proclaimed by Rolling Stone magazine as “One of 10 stations in the country that don’t suck;” all of this in recognition of the station’s willingness to take chances and not just cater its programming to the lowest common denominator.
Center for Contemporary Music (Mills/Northeastern Oakland Campus)
CCM's archives include an extensive collection of recordings made at Mills and the San Francisco Tape Music Center. These rare recordings of influential works and interviews from an earlier era of electronic music represent a valuable piece of musical history. The archives also contain a large collection of technical journals, periodicals, and books. Contact Lawral Warnek, Music Librarian at F. W. Olin Library, Oakland, for assistance.

Tips and tricks

Peer reviewed articles

RILM: Use the "academic journals" filter. Most of the results in that filter will be in peer-reviewed journals, but to be sure, enter the article or its DOI (document object identifer, starting with 10.xxxx) into Scholar OneSearch, which will indicate if your article is peer-reviewed. View the steps in this tutorial.

Google Scholar: Customized for Northeastern!

Google Scholar can be customized to offer you links to full text article through the Northeastern Library with your Northeastern login.
Go to Settings
-->Library Links
-->Northeastern
-->GetIt@Northeastern

Also see our Google Scholar tutorial.

Music: More Library Research

Music News and Newspapers

Biography and Reference

More Article Databases

Archival Resources

Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections

Tips and tricks