Searching for Music Literature

The next section in the tutorial covers encyclopedias-understanding their characteristics and uses.

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The Basics: Scholarly and Popular Approaches

	The Basics
	1. Introduction
	2. Primary and Secondary sources
	3. Scholarly and Popular Approaches
	4. Basics review

Scholarly sources are intended to disseminate research and academic discussion within a discipline. Scholarly journals are a good example of such an approach. They tend to be written and read by scholars and experts in the field and are often original research studies, not belabored by advertisements.

They are useful for finding information about current research findings, and a good source of literary criticism and reviews of research by other scholars.

Examples of scholarly sources: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Perspectives of New Music, The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, or The Creation of Jazz: Music, Race, and Culture in Urban America.

Popular sources primarily inform and entertain the general public. Popular magazines can be written or read by nearly anyone. In contrast to scholarly journals, popular magazines tend to offer less technical language and jargon, news, and articles slanted to the general interest rather than the interest of experts in the field.

They are often accompanied by lots of commercial advertising and glossy photos. While scholarly journals only come out every month, quarter, or year, magazines tend to come out more often--even daily at newsstands. They are good sources for a broad perspective on a topic or a popular slant, and a primary source for popular culture.

Examples of popular sources include The Strad, Gramophone, Musical America, Rap Whoz Who: The World of Rap Music, or Jazz Talking.

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