Puget Sounds | Documenting Music Cultures Close to Home

Stretching north to the San Juan Islands and south to the State Capital of Olympia, the Puget Sound region is home to a diverse network of urban and rural communities. With Puget Sounds the UW Libraries Media Center in Odegaard Library aims to document the kaleidoscopic nature of music performed and produced in this region. No style, genre, or music culture is being excluded from the project. Rather, everything from art rock to hip hop, folk revival to free jazz, classical to new age, freak folk to shockabilly, Latin American folk to Balkan folk is or will be represented in the Puget Sounds collection. In addition to collecting titles from the region’s widely popular acts (e.g. Foo Fighters, Modest Mouse, Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, Blue Scholar), the Media Center is also particularly interested in collecting works from lesser known groups and individuals. For example, we are placing special emphasis on collecting musics from independent labels and recent immigrant communities.

To learn more about Puget Sounds and how you can help contribute to this project please contact John Vallier at the Media Center: (206) 616-1210 or vallier@u.washington.edu

The initial phase of this project (June 2007-July 2008) is made possible by a grant from the Friends of the UW Libraries. We thank them for their generous support.