Music and cultural performances that fall outside of the "mainstream" history of music or Western understandings of culture need special attention when researching. Only very recently, in academic terms, have major cultural organizations started to include cultural practices that are important regionally but haven't been as well-represented in traditional scholarship. For example, UNESCO calls these practices "Intangible Cultural Heritage". This includes everything from Tuva "throat singing" (Khoomei & etc.) to Irish hurling to Egyptian hand puppetry.

When researching topics such as pop or cultural music practices that might include information outside of the "typical" places we would look, like encyclopedias, you'll want to pay close attention to the credibility of the source. 

• Whose voice is being included when showing or talking about that cultural music or practice?
• Is the source an interview with a well-known artist, sharing the voice of someone who performs that music?
• Is the source a documentary created by journalists?
• ...Or a documentary created by someone who has studied the culture or music for a long time?
• Does that author or creator also have lived experience (part of that culture, a practitioner of that culture, etc.)?

All of these questions (and more) are important to ask yourself as you are finding and gathering sources for your projects!

YouTube Tip: Filter for Creative Commons Videos!

Need to find a video on YouTube, but particularly to use in a presentation or to show to a large group of people (such as in a class or public viewing)? Oftentimes videos have usage rights that limit when you can publicly show content. 

Find videos with Creative Commons licenses by using the filters!

YouTube Tip: Search Specific Keywords!

YouTube results can be overwhelming to sift through, depending on your topic. For this assignment, try searching your topic with some simple keywords, and then add keywords such as:

• interview
• performance
• the name of any music artists that you wish to showcase
• TED (if you are wanting to find any TED Talk videos on YouTube that automatically come with a Creative Commons license)

 Google Images is a great tool to see the work of many photographers. For your presentations, however, the images may not be high enough resolution to project well. It's possible to find useful images with introductory information, and you can even use the advanced settings to limit to works that are in the public domain

Limit your results by Usage Rights

Use the build in tools in Google Images to narrow your search. You can limit by size, colors, type of image, date of image, and best yet, you can limit images by usage rights. By clicking on "Tools" from Google Images' search page, you can then see these advanced searching tools. Remember, all images need citations so don't forget to cite your sources! 

(Click on image to enlarge)

You can find music CDs at Holman Library! Enter your artist name or search terms, and then on the results screen, choose "Show More" under Source Types options on the left, and then "Audio."

Want to dig deeper into video, audio, and image searching? Check out these library guides!