Popular Music Resources

With information on the most successful hits ever to reach the top of Billboard magazine's singles charts between 1955 and mid-2003, this resource includes fascinating facts, biographies and chart positions for every artist.

From John Philip Sousa to Green Day, from Scott Joplin to Kanye West, from Stephen Foster to Coldplay, The Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volumes 1 and 2 covers the vast scope of its subject with virtually unprecedented breadth and depth. Approximately 1,000 key song recordings from 1889 to the present are explored in full, unveiling the stories behind the songs, the recordings, the performers, and the songwriters. Beginning the journey in the era of Victorian parlor balladry, brass bands, and ragtime with the advent of the record industry, readers witness the birth of the blues and the dawn of jazz in the 1910s and the emergence of country music on record and the shift from acoustic to electrical recording in the 1920s. The odyssey continues through the Swing Era of the 1930s; rhythm & blues, bluegrass, and bebop in the 1940s; the rock & roll revolution of the 1950s; modern soul, the British invasion, and the folk-rock movement of the 1960s; and finally into the modern era through the musical streams of disco, punk, grunge, hip-hop, and contemporary dance-pop. Sullivan, however, also takes critical detours by extending the coverage to genres neglected in pop music histories, from ethnic and world music, the gospel recording of both black and white artists, and lesser-known traditional folk tunes that reach back hundreds of years. This book is ideal for anyone who truly loves popular music in all of its glorious variety, and anyone wishing to learn more about the roots of virtually all the music we hear today. Popular music fans, as well as scholars of recording history and technology and students of the intersections between music and cultural history will all find this book to be informative and interesting.

Despite the influence of African American music and study as a worldwide phenomenon, no comprehensive and fully annotated reference tool currently exists that covers the wide range of genres. This much needed bibliography fills an important gap in this research area and will prove an indispensable resource for librarians and scholars studying African American music and culture.

Hailed by Library Journal as "an impressive feat" and "highly recommended" (with star), the new "Green Book Of Songs by Subject" is the unique, invaluable reference tool for music professionals, teachers, students, choral groups, public speakers, and others searching for lists of songs about particular concepts. Updated for 2002, the "Green Book" classifies over 35,000 songs by nearly 1,800 themes, such as patriotism, politics, cities, food, God, money, war, school, sports, history -- even 147 pages on 25 "love" themes ranging from "falling in love" to "get lost!" Praised by writers at USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Entertainment Tonight and BBC, the "Green Book" covers all genres and eras of music over the past 100 years, even offering novelty records, advertising jingles and children's songs. Listings include over 9,100 artists cross 24,000 albums on 1,500 labels - 86,000 listings in all. ALA/Booklist says, "Recommended... The only drawback is that it's hard to put down." Categories are cross-referenced; a new index offers 4,000 search terms.1,569 pages. $64.95 paperback, $79.95 hardcover. Published by Professional Desk References, 5543 Edmondson Pike, #183, Nashville, TN 37211. Toll-free: 888-335-7664 or 615.832.1942. Fax: 615-311-410. Sample pages available via www.greenbookof songs.com. Wholesalers include Ingram, Baker and Taylor and others.