Category Archives: promotional

Digital Resources: Music Online – Popular Music Library

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The Music Library has more resources available than physical items. We’re highlighting some of our digital resources, and including information about them as told by our student employees.

Today’s digital resource is:

Music Online: Popular Music Library

Music Online Popular Music Library

Music Online – Popular Music Library features audio recordings of popular music from around the world.

Here is what student manager Cole (class of 2021) had to say about this resource:

“Music Online’s Popular Music Library is exactly what it sounds like: an online repository of popular music from around the world, all tagged with the appropriate metadata to make the site an effective research tool. Something I appreciate about Music Online’s collection is the emphasis placed on international works. The site is filled with recordings of songs I have never been exposed to, across all genres and in various languages. Many of the works archived are not available for sale online, so the site can be a valuable resource if one is looking for an obscure, elusive track.

When I first opened Popular Music Library, I was immediately greeted by the album Babies Go Pink Floyd, one of the works featured on the rotating carousel of new arrivals.

Babies Go Pink Floyd

I immediately clicked on it to find out what exactly I was seeing. Each album is displayed as a waveform, with vertical lines separating individual tracks. The music player is accompanied by a sidebar of details and the track listing, with each track accompanied by the appropriate metadata. After some listening and further digging on the site, I learned that Babies Go … is a series of albums, originally sold in the UK, that rework popular music acts into soothing lullabies. Some of my favorite editions include: Babies Go The Cure, Babies Go Led Zeppelin, Babies Go Shakira, and, of course, Babies Go Radiohead, the music player for which, in an apparent (and humorous) technical oversight, presents a flat line and reads, “Waveform temporarily unavailable.”

Though Babies Go … probably won’t be often used as research material, I like to imagine it as a testament to the diversity of material collected for your listening in the Popular Music Library.”

Digital Resources: Qwest.TV

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The Music Library has more resources available than physical items. We’re highlighting some of our digital resources, and including information about them as told by our student employees.

Today’s digital resource is:

Qwest.TV

Qwest.TV

Here’s what student manager Abby (class of 2021) had to say about this resource:

“QwestTV is the first ever streaming service dedicated to Jazz, Soul, Funk & World Music. Created by Quincy Jones and curated by other music legends, this service contains hundreds of concerts, documentaries, archives, and exclusive content. And with the “My List” feature, you can keep track of all your favorites. On top of premium streaming video, QwestTV also offers articles, interviews, and album reviews written by professional journalists and renowned jazz experts. With content spanning decades, this service is a powerful research tool and just an all-around awesome resource for any music lover.”

qwesttv

Digital Resources: Music ID

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The Music Library has more resources available than physical items. We’re highlighting some of our digital resources, and including information about them as told by our student employees.

Today’s digital resource is:

Music ID

Music ID

Music ID offers over 60 years (1950 – present) of international chart data for popular music recordings.

Here’s what student manager Abby (class of 2021) had to say about this resource:

“One of our research tools that I find particularly interesting is Music ID. This resource compiles over 100 years of global music industry data in an incredibly easy-to-use platform. The site itself is divided into three analytical topics — most popular, most profitable, and most impactful. It’s fascinating to see the difference between the three, especially with the site’s ability to separate song, album, and artist. And with data going back as far as 1900, not only can you discover some great old songs you may have never heard of but also a comprehensive meta-narrative of popular music itself, and by extension its cultural impact.”

And here’s what student manager Colin (class of 2021) had to say about this resource:

“A resource I like and that I have used for a paper before is Music ID. Specifically, Music ID Data‘s database has information on over 5,000 different charts, tracking music popularity in countries all over the world based on the popularity of artists and their songs on these different charts, as well as on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Shazam. This resource is best utilized by examining overlapping chart data to analyze the popularity and trends that follow an artist, whether it be through a new album release or from a popular single track. To use this platform you type a keyword into a search bar, such as the latest Super Bowl Halftime Show artist “The Weeknd,” and select the different measures you wish to analyze. From there, the website will bring you to a graph that details the artist’s popularity based on the measures you selected. For example, you can simply click “The Weeknd” as an artist and you can see his trend in the U.S. Billboard Top 100 artists over the years in which Music ID has effective data. To utilize this resource further, you can start applying additional filters, specifically on singles he has released like “The Hills” and “Can’t Feel My Face,” to effectively observe how the popularity trends of his songs affect the popularity of himself as an artist. Music ID Data has a lot of information that can be applied to many different artists across the world and is an amazing research tool when needing to find graphical trends as evidence for reference support.”

The Weeknd - Superbowl LV performance still

Digital Resources: All Music Guide

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The Music Library has more resources available than physical items. We’re highlighting some of our digital resources, and including information about them as told by our student employees.

Today’s digital resource is:

All Music Guide

All Music Guide logo

All Music offers biographies and discographies in all genres

Here is what student assistant Danny (class of 2023) had to say about this resource:

“A digital resource that I found very interesting was called “All Music.” This research guide was very helpful, for you can search just about any album, artist, or song and get not only some information about it, but what album it was connected to, reviews, the year that it came out, and reviews about it.

This guide is especially helpful to learn more about artists and the albums they have released. For instance, let’s say you just found out about a new artist. You can look them up on AllMusic and access their discography. (Some even have links that will allow you to hear samples of songs!) You can also see lists of similar albums and songs that you can check out if you want to hear more music that sounds similar to the artist you’ve searched for.

Finally, there is a new release radar, a discover tab, and articles related to current news that can be extremely helpful if you want to keep track of the day-to-day goings-on in the music industry.”

And here is what student assistant Ryan (class of 2022) thought about the AllMusic Guide:

“Allmusic.com is an incredibly broad music database that has information on all kinds of music, from B.T.S. to R.E.M. The website features Discover sections that can help you find music based on genre, mood, and even lyrical content.

Ever been curious about the difference between bluegrass and blues? How about progressive metal and post punk? AllMusic has artists and albums divided into the most niche subgenres, so you can find examples of almost anything. The website also offers articles, album reviews, recommendations, and artist interviews. If you’re looking to expand your musical horizons, AllMusic.com is the place to start!”

AllMusic New Releases banner

Digital Resources: Kanopy Music Videos

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The Music Library has more resources available than physical items. We’re highlighting some of our digital resources, and including information about them as told by our student employees.

Today’s digital resource is:

Kanopy Music Videos

Kanopy Music Videos

Kanopy Music Videos offers streaming videos of performances and documentaries in all musical genres.

Here’s what student manager Colin (class of 2021) had to say about Kanopy Music Videos:

“A resource that I enjoy from our streaming audio & video resources is the Kanopy Music Videos selection. This website has a great, diverse selection of films that most people will be able to find something of interest to them. Examples of these topics include videos on documentaries, live concert performances, ethnomusicology, music instruction, classical music, opera, musicals, and much more. While this service may not focus particularly on one genre or characteristic of music, limiting its resources to deep or extensive videos on one topic, Kanopy guarantees that all users will find something of interest and help. The user interface is friendly, as the videos are all available by scrolling through the page, and there is a search bar to use in case a user cannot find their intended video. Kanopy Music Videos is great for me, as I am definitely a visual learner and love watching films, which this resource focuses and delivers on.”

A selection of Kanopy music videos

And here is student manager Cole’s (class of 2021) take on this resource:

“I love Kanopy. It’s an online streaming service for films and documentaries that all University of Richmond students have access to via the libraries. The Music category is a diverse collection of material, including well-known films (The Beatles’ flick A Hard Day’s Night), under the radar works of ethnomusicology (Shaping Bamboo, a documentary about the ‘Are’are people of the Solomon Islands and their panflute ensembles), and even videos of music instruction, such as Max Milligan’s Play series, videos that unpack the unique playstyles of iconic guitarists.

Two other notable resources include both of Ken Burns’ music docu-series: Jazz and Country Music. These expansive series could be useful for any research into the respective genres. Another benefit of Kanopy is the inclusion of time-stamped, fully searchable (via CTRL + F) transcripts with all of their videos. This makes pulling out specific clips or quotes far easier, especially for series such as Ken Burns’ with total running times of over 1,000 minutes.

Kanopy is one of my favorite library resources, both for research and entertainment. I find it easy to lose myself in its vast catalog, and I always leave with a longer list of things to watch.”

Another selection of Kanopy Music videos

Digital Resources: Grove Music Online

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The Music Library has more resources available than physical items. We’re highlighting some of our digital resources, and including information about them as told by our student employees.

Today’s digital resource is:

Grove Music Online

Grove Music Online logo

Grove Music Online is an authoritative reference resource. It includes the full-texts of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, with updates and emendations.

Oxford Music online

Here is what student assistant Allison (class of 2022) had to say about Grove Music Online:

“Grove Music Online is an extensive online music encyclopedia that provides detailed information on composers, their music, and other music scholarship. I like how the resource is run by an editorial board at Oxford University Press so that there isn’t much question regarding the credibility of the content. I looked up Paul Hindemith and George Gershwin and found a lot of information about each of their respective lives along with some articles about their work. Grove Music Online seems like a very valuable resource for researching composers and music in the classical/jazz field.”

George Gershwin composing at the piano. American composer,

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)

Digital Resources: Rock’s Backpages

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The Music Library has more resources available than physical items. We’re highlighting some of our digital resources, and including information about them as told by our student employees.

Today’s digital resource is:

Rock’s Backpages

Rock's Back Pages logo

Archive of rock and pop music journalism from mainstream publications and niche magazines.

Here is what student manager Cole (class of 2021) had to say about Rock’s Backpages:

“Rock’s Backpages is an online archive of popular music journalism, from industry standards like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, to more obscure and international publications, such as Stereo Review and Melbourne Weekly. Although the site catalogues a wide array of content (including reviews, letters, obituaries, book excerpts, press releases, columns, and more), the advanced search function makes it easy to filter by subject, author, original publication, and format.

My favorite use of the site is to read old reviews of albums and artists that I like, to get a sense of contemporary critical reception. In a 1980 review of U2’s debut album Boy, Paul Mory calls the group’s music “not radical, in many ways… traditionalist.” Seven years later, in a review of the band’s seminal album The Joshua Tree, Simon Reynolds writes that the band’s very existence is “at once radical and reactionary.” I find this not-conversation of radicality especially amusing considering the band’s current reputation among my generation as that dad-rock group whose 2014 album was forced upon anyone with an iPhone— an idea that would be humorously unfathomable for those critics writing in the 80s.

The Rock’s Backpages archive is the perfect tool to read music journalism from years past, uncolored by retrospection.”

U2 - The Joshua Tree

And here is student assistant Alex’s (class of 2021) take on this resource:

“Rock’s Backpages is a fascinating resource and a deep dive into the views on musicians in their prime. If you have ever wondered what mainstream journalists thought of The Beatles in 1963 or AC/DC in 1975, this resource is right for you. You can use the “Free Articles” section on the left side of the screen under the resource’s Library to find an assortment of 1000s of articles on pop and rock stars through the ages. You can also easily search for any article you want to read and filter by artist, genre, publication, or writer. Rock and Pop music took the world by storm in the 20th century and you can read all about it as it happened with this amazing resource.”

AC/DC '75 - Beatles '63

Music of India: Ravi Shankar

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Ravi Shankar
(April 7, 1920 – December 11, 2012)

Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar was a master of the sitar and composer and one of the best known Indian musicians in the world. His rich musical career spanned nine decades and he spent much of his career bridging the gap between the musical cultures of West and East.

Born in 1920 to a Bengali Brahmin family, Shankar was the youngest of seven brothers. At the age of 13, he joined his brother Uday Shankar‘s Compaigne de Danse et Musique Hindou (Company of Hindu Dance and Music) as a dancer and spent several years touring India and Europe with his brother’s group. The extensive touring allowed Ravi to learn about Western classical music and jazz while he travelled.

In 1938, Shankar gave up dancing to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After completing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer – working several genres including for Indian films like The Apu Trilogy and serving as musical director of All India Radio.
During this period, Shankar founded the Indian National Orchestra, and composed for it; in his compositions he combined Western and classical Indian instrumentation.

Ravi Shankar's sitar

Sitar of Pandit Ravi Shankar (1920–2012). Commissioned by Shankar from the instrument maker Nodu Mullick in Calcutta. Made in 1961. (Gift to the British Museum from Shankar’s family )

Concurrently, Shankar’s international fame was on the rise. In 1954, he performed in the Soviet Union. In 1956, he played his debut solo concerts in Western Europe and the U.S. Within two decades, he was probably the most famous Indian musician in the world.

Shankar was not one-dimensional and his great genius was his openness to other musical traditions. His liberal musical outlook brought him into musical collaborations with a diverse set of musicians. He was so confidently grounded in his own tradition, that he felt unthreatened and completely secure in presenting it to the world as well as by collaborating with others. This is most remembered in his teaching of, and collaboration with the Beatles, above all George Harrison (who became Shankar’s student).

Ravi Shankar and George Harrison

Guitarist George Harrison poses for a portrait with Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar in circa 1975. Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Ravi Shankar also worked with classical musicians like Yehudi Menuhin, Zubin Mehta and Philip Glass. He composed music for several films, including Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, for which he received an Academy Award nomination and also composed three concertos and a symphony for sitar and Western orchestra as well as pieces pairing the sitar with the Western flute and the Japanese koto.

Shankar received many honors and awards during his lifetime including the Bharat Ratna (India’s highest civilian honor) in 1999, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for “services to music” in 2001, the Fukuoka Prize and five Grammy awards.

Ravi Shankar

Here is a sampling of library resources featuring Shankar from our collection:

– My Music, My Life by Ravi Shankar (1968) (Book)
– Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar West Meets East (1999, p1966) (CD)
– Pandit Ravi Shankar (2002) (DVD)
– Ravi Shankar: The Concert for World Peace (2007) (DVD)
– The Concert for Bangladesh – George Harrison and Friends (2005) (DVD)
– Rāgas & Tālas Ravi Shankar (2000, p1964) (CD)
– Orion Philip Glass (2005) (CD)
– Pandit Ravi Shankar: A Portrait of the Maestro of the Sitar (1986) (Streaming video via Medici.TV)
– Sitar Concertos Etc (2005) (Streaming audio via Alexander Street)

Music of India

Music of India: Lata Mangeshkar

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Lata Mangeshkar
b. September 28, 1929

Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar is the best-known and respected female singer in the history of Indian film music. She is probably best known as a playback singer for Bollywood films. Playback singers often record songs for use in films.

The Indian Hindi-language film industry is referred to as Bollywood and is based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and is one of the largest centers of film production in the world. The word is a portmanteau of “Bombay” and “Hollywood”. The most popular commercial genre of Bollywood is the masala film, which freely mixes action, comedy, drama, romance, and melodrama along with musical numbers. Masala films can generally be considered musicals. Indian cinema has been the largest producer of musicals in the world since the 1960s, when it exceeded America’s musical film output. Playback singers record songs for the film soundtracks, and the actors lip-sync said songs for the cameras.

Aap ki sewa mein poster

Poster for the 1947 Hindi film Aap ki sewa mein which features an early example of Mangeshkar’s work

Lata Mangeshkar is said to have recorded more film songs than any other singer. She has recorded songs in over a thousand (!!) Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional Indian languages and foreign languages, though primarily in Marathi, Hindi and Bengali.

Music really has been the driving force in Mangeshkar’s life. Her father Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar was a classical singer and theatre actor. She received her first lessons in music from her father and was performing as an actress in her father’s plays by the age of five. She is the elder sister of singers Asha Bhosle, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar, all accomplished musicians and singers in their own right.

In 1942 when Mangeshkar was 13, her father died of heart disease and Lata immediately joined the Bollywood film industry as an actress-singer to help support her family.

Here is a Youtube clip from Azaad a 1955 film which features Mangeshkar’s voice:

Lata Mangeshkar has received many awards and honors during the course of her career. India’s highest award in cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, was bestowed on her in 1989 by the Government of India. She also has been awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor.

In 1974, The Guinness Book of Records listed Mangeshkar as the most recorded artist in the history, stating that she had reportedly recorded “not less than 25,000 solo, duet and chorus backed songs in 20 Indian languages” between 1948 and 1974. (The actual number of songs she has recorded is a matter of some dispute. Regardless, she is certainly ONE of the most recorded artists in the world.)

Here is a Youtube clip of the song “Tujhe Dekha To Ye Jaana Sanam” (“My love, when I saw you then I realized” per Google translate) sung by Mangeshkar and Kumar Sanu from the 1995 Bollywood film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (transl. The Big-Hearted Will Take the Bride, per Wikipedia):

In addition to singing, Mangeshkar has composed music for five films and also produced four films. Her career spans over seven decades now and she has only recently begun to show signs of slowing down (a bit) at the age of 91. Her influence on Indian film and popular music is profound.

Here is a small sampling of library resources concerning Lata Mangeshkar, Bollywood, and Indian popular music:

– “Lata Mangeshkar”, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001) (Reference entry)
– Global Divas: Voices from Women of the World (1995) (CD)
– “Lata Mangeshkar”, The Palgrave Dictionary of Women’s Biography (2005) (Reference entry)
– Bollywood Sounds: The Cosmopolitan Mediations of Hindi Film Song by Jayson Beaster-Jones (2015) (Book)
– Rough Guide to Bollywood (2002) (CD)
– There’ll Always Be Stars in the Sky: The Indian Film Music Phenomenon (2003) (DVD)
– More Than Bollywood: Studies in Indian Popular Music edited by Gregory D. Booth and Bradley Shope (2014) (Book)
– Focus: Popular Music in Contemporary India by Natalie Rose Sarrazin (2020) (Book)

Music of India

Music of India: Indian Classical Music

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Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has deep roots in Hinduism.

Saraswati

Saraswati is the goddess of music and knowledge in the Hindu tradition.

In general, Indian classical music has three foundational elements:

1) Raga: a series of five or more musical notes used to form a melody — similar to modes or scales in Western music. Raga make much more use of microtones than Western music (many notes fall in between notes in Western scales in terms of pitch). Raga are often associated with specific times of day and/or seasons.

2) Tala: a rhythmic pattern that determines the larger rhythmic structure of a piece. Tala literally means “clap”.

3) Improvisation around a raga is the basis for most Indian classical music.

Indian classical music has two major traditions:

* North Indian music is also called Hindustani is influenced by Arabic and Persian musical practice as a result of the Islamic conquest of the region in the Middle Ages. Hindustani music emphasizes improvisation and exploration of all aspects of raga and gives slightly more prominence to instrumental forms.
Here are a couple of links to catalog records for Music Library resources featuring Hindustani music:
– India: Hindustani Music (streaming via Alexander Street)
– North Indian Classical Music (CD)

* South Indian music is also called Carnatic music. It is much more oriented toward vocal music (even when instruments are played alone, they are played in a style meant to imitate singing). Improvisation is employed but Carnatic music also makes use of composed devotional pieces.
Here are a couple of links to catalog records for Music Library resources featuring Carnatic music:
– Flowers of Southern Indian Classical Carnatic Music(CD)
– Ragas from South India (streaming via Alexander Street)

The types of instruments used in North and South Indian music also differ.
Hindustani music makes use of the sitar, sarod, tabla and tampura.

Hindustani instruments

A sampling of instruments most commonly used in Hindustani music

Carnatic music makes use of instruments like the vina, mridamgam, and shruti.

Carnatic instruments

A sampling instruments most commonly used in Carnatic music

Here are a few more resources the on Indian classical music that can be found in the Music Library’s holdings:
– Indian Classical Music (DVD) (also available streaming via Infobase)
– The Illustrated Companion to South Indian Classical Music (Book)
– The Raga Guide: A Survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas (Book)
– Classical Music of India (Book)
– “Music and Emotion: A Case for North Indian Classical Music” (journal article)
– “Perception of Modulations in South Indian Classical (Carnātic) Music by Student and Teacher Musicians: A Cross-Cultural Study” (journal article)

One might also stop by Parsons Music Library and check out our current display on the Music of India which will be available to visit until the end of February!

Music of India