Music: By Subject Subject Guide

African American Music

10 resources available
- Restricted to WMU users  - Open Access

Books about African American Music
General, ML 3556; Blues, ML 3521; Gospel, ML 3187; Jazz, ML 3506-3509; Soul, ML 3537; Rap, ML 3531 (all in General Stacks)

African American Music Reference  Contains more than 12,000 pages of text reference, biographies, chronologies, sheet music, images, lyrics, liner notes, and discographies which chronicle the diverse history and culture of the African American experience through music. Covers blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression. AAMR links to the online listening database African American Song, so users may listen to associated music that accompanies the liner notes and album information in the database.

African American Song  More than 50,000 tracks of music, spoken word, and natural and human-made sounds. Documents the history of African American music. Contains a diverse range of genres such as jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, and narratives, among others.

African-American Sheet Music 1850-1920Collection of 1,305 pieces of African-American sheet music dating from 1850 through 1920. Includes many songs related to blackface minstrelsy, the abolitionist movement, and Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Archives of African American Music and CultureA repository of research materials at Indiana University, with links to related sites.

Black GroovesA music review site hosted by the Archives of African-American Music and Culture at Indiana University. Monthly updates on new releases and reissues in all genres of popular music as well as classical music composed or performed by black artists. Individuals may subscribe to receive free monthly email updates. More info

Black Thought and Culture  A digital collection of monographs, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews by leaders within the black community from the earliest times to 1975.

CBMR: Center for Black Music ResearchDevoted to research, preservation, and dissemination of information about the history of Black music on a global scale. Links.

Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music"Covers the major players in the vast history of popular music in the twentieth century." Over 2500 entries including many African Americans.
More info

Performing Arts Encyclopedia (Library of Congress)A guide to the performing arts collections and exhibitions at the Library of Congress, including music, dance, and theater. Includes digital collections accessible through the site. More info

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