North Seattle Community College North Seattle Community College
Library & Media Services

Research Guide for English 101: Analyzing a Musical Icon

madonna

Prepared by Elinor Appel
NSCC Librarian (contact info.)

NSCC Library (this will open in a new window)

 

 

 

Image licensed under Creative Commons by ari_nyc on Flickr.

Books

Reference Books - are good for background information and to look up specific topics in music and popular culture. Some examples:

  • The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, 10 vols. [Ref ML100. G16 1998]
  • The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Popular Culture, Vol. 1 [Ref HM 621.G74 2007] - see "Music," pp. 237- 263.
  • The Guiness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 6 vols. [Ref ML 102 .P66 G84 1995]
  • The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 3 vols [Ref ML102.J3 N48 2001]

Circulating Books - use these books to find more in-depth information on your topic. For instance, to find books on a specific musical genre like hip hop, do a broad keyword search:

Once you find a title that looks good ...

check the record for location, call number, and availability:

Use your student ID card to check out materials. Books can be checked out for 2 weeks and renewed online. Ask a librarian if you need help doing this.

Articles

Periodical databases contain full-text articles from newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals. Search the database by combining terms using and, for instance: madonna and music (to eliminate articles about madonna in art, etc.) or kanye west and religion (to retrieve articles related to his use of religious imagery in his self-presentation and music lyrics.

Good periodical databases for your research are:

  • ProQuest - general database with articles ranging from news to scholarly
  • Ethnic NewsWatch - articles from ethnic, minority, native press

These are only two of numerous library databases. Feel free to explore other databases that might be appropriate to your particular topic.

Websites

Refer to Searching the Internet for tips on searching the Internet effectively using Google. Remember to consider the author/authority (who), bias (what is the purpose of the site) and currency (is it up to date?) when quoting online sources. The bias of the person being quoted or the mission of the publication is often important information to include. With your group look at the link you are assigned and be prepare to answer: 1) Who is the author of the following content? 2) How did you find out?

Citing

For this assignment you are being asked to include in-text citations. Your instructor has given you the information you need, but the following web sites may also be helpful: