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Popular Musicians and Bands

How to research popular musicians and bands, including rock, hip hop, rap, country, classic rock, 50's, etc.

Articles Not on the Internet

If you have a citation to an article that is not online anywhere, here is what do to:

From the UCLA Library Catalog (the library's "search engine") find your article by searching the title of the journal or magazine. Essential-> Change the search box type to Journal Title; don't do a Keyword search. Note the Call Number and retrieve the journal volume from the stacks. See the side bar on browsing for info on Call Numbers.

Books and Bibliographies

A lot of information about music is still only in books. Browse in the Music Library using the information in the box on the left. Or search for books by Subject like this:

In the UCLA Library Catalog, change the search box from Keyword to Subject List. Enter the persons name, last name first (for example: Morrison, Jim) or the name of the band (for example: Dead Kennedys).

Someone may have done a lot of the work for you! See the Key Resources tab.

Browse in the Music Library

Things in the Music Library are arranged by "call numbers": Music numbers start with M, books on music ML, music theory is MT. Places to browse in the Music Library for Popular Music books are:

  • ML 410. Song composers like Paul Simon, Cole Porter, etc. Arranged by last name.
  • ML 420. Vocalists like Ellah Fitzgerald, Elvis Presley, etc. Arranged by last name.
  • ML 421. Bands like Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, etc. Arranged by name of the band.
  • ML 3505. Popular music history and criticism. Arranged by author of the book.

If you browse, you will not see everything available, not what is checked out, being used in the library, or in storage.

Popular Music folios and sheet music are in M 1630.18. (The Beatles and other British artists are in M 1741.18.)