MUSC 103 American Popular Music

Welcome

Welcome to your research guide for researching the musical influences of American popular artists for your American Popular Music assignment.

This guide will cover the research process and the basic skills you can use to locate biographical sources on your artist, decide on the quality and fit of the source, and how to take notes to help you use the sources ethically in your outlines and presentations.

Use the tabs on the left to navigate this guide.


Need a copy of our library session handout?

Great Starting Points

Let's start identifying musical artists for your project and gathering information about them! Here are three great places to start your research:

1. Biography in Context (a reference database from Gale)

2. Bloomsbury Popular Music (another reference database)

3. Google (or any other Internet search engine)

Keep in mind that you are searching for reliable and varied information. Consider searching in all three places to see what you find before making a decision about an artist or selecting a source to really dive into. 

Other Useful Places to Try

Billboard Top 100 - MUSC 103

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