Journals and Periodicals
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Asian MusicThe journal of the Society for Asian Music is the leading journal devoted to ethnomusicology in Asian music, publishing all aspects of the performing arts of Asia and their cultural context
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EthnomusicologyJournal covering ethnomusicology for musicians, musicologists, folklorists, popular culture scholars, and cultural anthropologists.
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Ethnomusicology ForumFormerly known as the British Journal of Ethnomusicology, this journal is the academic, refereed journal of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology. It provides a dynamic forum for the presentation of new thinking in the field of ethnomusicology, defined broadly as the study of "people making music", and encompasses the study of all music, including Western art music and popular music.
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Ethnomusicology ReviewEstablished as Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology in 1984, Ethnomusicology Review is the graduate student publication of the UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology. It is edited by graduate students and refereed by a faculty advisory board. Funding for the journal is provided by GSA Publications at UCLA.
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Global Hip Hop StudiesThis is a "peer-reviewed, rigorous and community-responsive academic journal that publishes research on contemporary as well as historical issues and debates surrounding hip hop music and culture around the world, twice annually."
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Journal of World Popular MusicPublication Date: 2014-Journal of World Popular Music is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes research and scholarship on recent issues and debates surrounding international popular musics, also known as World Music, Global Pop, World Beat or, more recently, World Music 2.0. The journal provides a forum to explore the manifestations and impacts of post-globalizing trends, processes, and dynamics surrounding these musics today. It adopts an open-minded perspective, including in its scope any local popularized musics of the world, commercially available music of non-Western origin, musics of ethnic minorities, and contemporary fusions or collaborations with local ‘traditional’ or ‘roots’ musics with Western pop and rock musics.
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Performing IslamPerforming Islam is the first peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal about Islam and performance and their related aesthetics. It focuses on socio-cultural as well as the historical and political contexts of artistic practices in the Muslim world.
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Radical MusicologyThis peer-reviewed online journal is produced in the International Centre for Music Studies at Newcastle University (UK). It was established to provide a forum for progressive thinking across the whole field of musical studies, and encourages work that draws on any and all relevant disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives.
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Global JukeboxThe Global Jukebox makes available to the general public, scholars and scientists all of the data and many of the analyses of the research of Alan Lomax and the anthropologist Conrad Arensberg from 1960 to 1995 at Columbia University and Hunter College/CUNY. It contains all of the coded data and analyses of Cantometrics, Choreometrics, Parlametrics, Phonotactics, Minutage, Thematic Analysis, Instruments and Orchestras, and Socio-Cultural Factors.Over 6,000 songs from 1,000 cultures, including many songs from Lomax's personal collection.
Databases
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Ethnic NewsWatch (Proquest) This link opens in a new windowInterdisciplinary, 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.
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Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new windowComprises the full text of the second edition edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London, 2001), plus The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, second edition. Plus additional reseources.
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RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowRILM Abstracts of Music Literature offers citations and abstracts of articles on international subjects including historical musicology, ethnomusicology, instruments, voice, dance, music therapy.
RILM covers all document types including articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, Festschriften, iconographies, critical commentaries to complete works, ethnographic recordings, conference proceedings, electronic resources, reviews, and more. Covers 1967 - present. -
JSTOR This link opens in a new windowOne of the most trusted sources for scholarly books and historical journal backfiles. Beginning in 2023, JSTOR also includes Artstor images of art and primary source artifacts.
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Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new windowThe Garland Encyclopedia of World Music contains signed referenced entries by more than 700 expert contributors from all over the world, making this the most complete body of work focused on world music.
Online Resources
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Arabic Maqam World A website dedicated to helping musicians understand the maqam or modal system used in classical Arabic music
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International Music Council Founded in 1949 by UNESCO, IMC is the world's largest network of organizations and institutions working in the field of music. It promotes access to music for all and the value of music in the lives of all peoples.
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Mama Lisa's World Children's songs and nursery rhymes from around the world.
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Music in Africa An excellent website providing a wealth of information about the music industry, including music samples and research information. Includes wonderful report, "Music Industries in Africa: Opportunities, Challenges and Potential Actions," by NU student Paula Aciego de mendoza Sagaseta de Ilurdoz:
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Next Level Next Level is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Meridian International Center. Its mission is to use hip hop music, dance, and art to foster cross-cultural creative exchange in diverse communities. We work to promote understanding and conflict transformation in these audiences, and support the professional development of artists in those communities.
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National Public Radio (NPR)- World Cafe Focuses on new and emerging artists the world over.
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Songlines Based in Great Britain, this site provides a good overview of the global scene with links to reviews and information.
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liveabout.com--World Music An open source website with a range of articles and links
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University of Washington Ethnomusicology Research Guide University of Washington's library subject guide--you will not have access to all the resources listed.
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World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) WOMAD is an international festival that brings together artists from all over the globe. The central aim of the WOMAD festival is to celebrate the world's many forms of music, arts and dance.
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Music Industries in Africa: Opportunities, Challenges, Interconnections and Potential Challenges. Written by Paula Aciego de Mendoza Sagaseta de Ilurdoz, an NU Music Industry graduate.
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World Music Archives-Wesleyan University From its origins as Prof. Emeritus David McAllester's personal fieldwork collection of Comanche and Navajo music, recorded in 1940 and 1950 and first used in teaching at Wesleyan in 1953, the World Music Archives has grown to include original field research materials from graduate students and established scholars, from Wesleyan and elsewhere, documenting human musical practices around the world.
Jewish Music
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Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive DJSA was stablished in 2002 as a repository of sound recordings for researchers and students. Please note, it is not a free music download site. If you are not on campus at Dartmouth College, you will need to have a user account. To register you will need to demonstrate a legitimate scholarly or research purpose. User accounts are good for 1 year and can be renewed as needed.
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Eastern Mediterranean Judeo-Spanish Songs from the EMI Archive Trust (1907-1912) Includes 78 recordings with accompanying information.
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Jewish Choral Music Jewish Choral Music is a comprehensive resource center for anyone interested in discovering a repertoire that is rich, but relatively unknown. You will find a variety of styles: folkloristic, popular, and classical. Chronology spanning ancient chant, baroque motets and cantatas and oratorios, classic/romantic majestic synagogue music, twentieth-and twenty-first-century secular and sacred music.
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Jewish Music Institute At the School of Oriental and African Studies, UK.
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Judaica Sound Archives The primary mission of the Judaica Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University Libraries is to collect, preserve, and digitize Judaica sound recordings; to create educational programs highlighting the contents of this rich cultural legacy; and to encourage the use of this unique scholarly resource by students, scholars and the general public.
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National Library of Israel, Bella and Harry Wexner Libraries of Sound and Song The music collection and sound archive contain printed materials as well as recordings of Jewish and Israeli music. Select recordings from Kol Israel (Israel Radio) are available for listening via the "Digital Flavour" tab
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Sephardic Music: A Century of Recordings This website showcases over 100 years of recorded Sephardic music, from the 78 rpm era to the present. It first explores in detail the earliest Sephardic recordings, the artists that made them, and their repertory and performance practices. These early recordings tell a rich story of Sephardic musical life in the first half of the 20th century.
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TARA Publications Jewish recordings and sheet music.
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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Music Bibliography The bibliography was compiled to guide readers to selected materials on music in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
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Zamir Chorale of Boston Founded in 1969, the Zamir Chorale of Boston is a musical and educational organization with a mission to raise awareness of the breadth and beauty of Jewish culture through performances, recordings, symposia, publications, and musical commissions.
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Zemerl A database of Jewish songs.
Select Books
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Ethnomusicological Encounters with Music Musicians
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This volume explores the originating encounter in field work of ethnomusicologists with the musicians and musical traditions they study. The contributors provide case studies from nearly every corner of the world, including biographies of important musicians from the Philippines, Turkey, Lapland, and Korea; interviews with, and reports of learning from, musicians from Ireland, Bulgaria, Burma, and India; and analyses of how traditional musicians adapt to the encounter with modernity in Japan, India, China, Turkey, Afghanistan, Morocco, and the United States.
ISBN: 9781409434023Publication Date: 2011-11-28 -
Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork
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Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork offers a comprehensive review of the ethnographic process for developing a project, implementing the plan, and completing and preserving the data collected. Throughout, readers will find a detailed methodology for conducting different types of fieldwork such as digital ethnography or episodic research, tips and tricks for key elements like budgeting and funding, and practical advice and examples gleaned from the authors own fieldwork experiences. This handbook also helps fieldworkers fully grasp and understand the ways in which power, gender, ethnicity, and other identity categories are ever present in fieldwork and guides students to think through these dynamics at each stage of research. Written accessibly for lay researchers working in different mediums and on projects of varying size, this step-by-step manual will prepare the reader for the excitement, challenges, and rewards of ethnographic research.
ISBN: 9780253040268Publication Date: 2019-04-05 -
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Sounds from the Other Side
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A sixty-year history of Afro-South Asian musical collaborations From Beyoncé's South Asian music-inspired Super Bowl Halftime performance, to jazz artists like John and Alice Coltrane's use of Indian song structures and spirituality in their work, to Jay-Z and Missy Elliott's high-profile collaborations with diasporic South Asian artists such as the Panjabi MC and MIA, African American musicians have frequently engaged South Asian cultural productions in the development of Black music culture. Sounds from the Other Side traces such engagements through an interdisciplinary analysis of the political implications of African American musicians' South Asian influence since the 1960s. Elliott H. Powell asks, what happens when we consider Black musicians' South Asian sonic explorations as distinct from those of their white counterparts? He looks to Black musical genres of jazz, funk, and hip hop and examines the work of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Rick James, OutKast, Timbaland, Beyoncé, and others, showing how Afro-South Asian music in the United States is a dynamic, complex, and contradictory cultural site where comparative racialization, transformative gender and queer politics, and coalition politics intertwine. Powell situates this cultural history within larger global and domestic sociohistorical junctures that link African American and South Asian diasporic communities in the United States. The long historical arc of Afro-South Asian music in Sounds from the Other Side interprets such music-making activities as highly political endeavors, offering an essential conversation about cross-cultural musical exchanges between racially marginalized musicians.
ISBN: 9781452964423Publication Date: 2020-11-03
Audio and Video
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American Folklife Center (Opens in new window)Includes collections of Alan Lomax, Robert Winslow Gordon and other significant collections of regional and ethnic music
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Archives of Traditional Music (Indiana University) (Opens in new window)International in scope, many rare audio and video files
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Boston College Libraries' Seamus Connolly Collection of Irish MusicCompiled and recorded over the last 15 years, the collection includes traditional tunes and songs, newly composed tunes, musical transcriptions, and historical information.
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Europeana Collections:Music (Opens in new window)Music resources from European archives, including photographs and audio files,
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EVIA Digital Archive ProjectThe EVIA Digital Archive Project is a collaborative endeavor to create a digital archive of ethnographic field video for use by scholars and instructors.
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Internet ArchiveA non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
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JVC Anthology of World Music and DanceThis is the 30-volume video streaming version of the original JVC/Smithsonian Folkways DVD series, "Video Anthology of Music and Dance of the World."
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Music Online: Popular Music LibraryPopular music from around the world, including alternative, country, Christian, electronic, gospel, hip-hop, metal, punk, new age, R&B, reggae, rock.
News and Reviews
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CD HotList: New Releases for Libraries Librarian Rick Anderson assembles a monthly list of recently-released recommended compact discs, including World/Ethnic recordings.
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National Public Radio (NPR) Music -World Includes music samples.
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Pitchfork An American online magazine launched in 1995 by Ryan Schreiber, based in Chicago, Illinois, and owned by Condé. You can limit review search by genre.
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Songlines " Covers music from traditional and popular to contemporary and fusion, featuring well-known artists from Tinariwen, Bellowhead, Buena Vista Social Club and Manu Chao, to the newcomers making their mark both at home and abroad.
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World Music Central Includes reviews, news and artist profiles.
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World Music Report "a project dedicated to the promotion and advancement of World Music around the world"
Organizations
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Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM)SEM is a U.S.-based organization with an international membership of over 1800 individuals dedicated to the study of all forms of music from diverse humanistic and social scientific perspectives.
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British Forum for EthnomusicologyThe Forum's aim is to advance the study, practice, documentation, preservation and dissemination of traditional music and dance of all countries.
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International Music CouncilFounded in 1949 by UNESCO, IMC is the world's largest network of organizations and institutions working in the field of music. It promotes access to music for all and the value of music in the lives of all peoples.
Reports
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Global Perspectives: The IMC Report on Forces Affecting Music SustainabilityA Jstor article:
The World of Music
new series, Vol. 4, No. 1, Sound Futures: Exploring Contexts for Music Sustainability (2015), pp. 89-102 (14 pages) -
IFPI Global Music Report 2019 2nd April 2019A summary from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (ifpi). Report is available for purchase.
Interlibrary Loan
Can't find an article or book on our collections? Request it through Interlibrary Loan and we'll try to borrow it from another library on your behalf. Learn more about Interlibrary Loan.
- ILLiad log-in (Opens in new window)Need a book, book chapter, or article not available at Northeastern? Current US-based Northeastern faculty, staff, and students can request materials that aren't available at the Northeastern University Library through ILLiad, our interlibrary loan software.