Overviews

• Oxford Music Online
• A Chronology of American Musical Theater
• Film it with Music: an Encyclopedic Guide to the American Movie Musical.
• The Oxford Companion to American Theatre
• North American Theatre Online
• Library of Congress Performing Arts Encyclopedia
• Show Tunes: the Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers.
• The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television.
• Broadway Musicals: a Hundred Year History.
• The world of musicals: an encyclopedia of stage, screen, and song
• The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville
• Vaudeville, old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performers in America

Streaming Videos

• American Music
• BroadwayHD
• Database of Recorded American Music [DRAM]
• Jazz Music Library
• Popular Music Library
• Films from Kanopy
• Opera in video
• PBS Video Collection

• **see also, Finding Videos

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Digital Images

• ARTStor (2.5+ million high-quality images in dozens of disciplines, all rights-cleared for education and research.)
• Library of Congress
• New York Public Library
• Digital Public Library of America

Guide to Evaluating Information

(JumboSearch for) Books 

 

Keywords/Phrases to try out:

• Musicals -- United States:

  • -- 20th Century -- History And Criticism.
  • -- Analysis, Appreciation.
  • -- Bibliography.
  • -- Dictionaries.
  • -- Exhibitions.
  • -- Foreign Influences.
  • -- History And Criticism.
  • -- Stories, Plots, Etc.

  Musical Theater -- United States:

  • -- Dictionaries
  • -- History.
  • -- History -- 18th Century.
  • -- History -- 19th Century.
  • -- History And Criticism.
  • -- Pictorial Works.
  • "musical theater" and reviews

  Musical Theater -- United States

  • -- Dictionaries
  • -- History.
  • -- History -- 18th Century.
  • -- History -- 19th Century.
  • -- History And Criticism.
  • -- Pictorial Works.
  • "musical theater" and reviews

  Musical Films -- United States -- History And Criticism.

  • Porter, Cole (on a dominant figure)
  • Vaudeville
  • Music-halls (Variety-theaters, cabarets, etc.)
  • "victor herbert" and libretto
  • Librettists
  • Revues

 

Note: Worldwide Libraries (also known as WorldCat is still a better place to get a fuller picture of  books on a topic) 

(databases of ) Scholarly, Trade Journal and Popular Press Articles 

Diversity of Scholarship and Sources

• In the study of popular musical theater, you can choose to focus on your topic from a variety of perspectives, and you will need to consult diverse publications in theater scholarship, musical scholarship (and, perhaps, sociological and economic scholarship) as well as the popular press.

   

  For example, from the perspective of performance studies, you may engage in describing how a musical uses some dramatic conventions to offer social commentaries. You will be offering your own analysis of their effectiveness or ineffectiveness in conveying the message to the audience.

  Search Tips

  1. Start with "names" of the composers, lyricists, librettists, directors, designers, choreographers, performers and producers, and, titles of the shows.

  2. Examine search results to learn what and how critics and scholars have written about your potential topics.

  3. Think of "evidence". For example, when research on the question, "Why do musicals continue to be popular?", you may consider using analysis of evidence such as "box office", "attendance", duration of productions to prove its popularity.

 

A. Performing Arts

• Performing Arts Periodicals Database
• RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text

B. Related Subject-Databases

• In EBSCOhost databases, you can select to search across the following databases, among others:
• Academic Search Premier
• America: History & Life
• Communication & Mass Media Complete
• Film & Television Literature Index
• LGBTQ+ Source
• Music Index Online
• MLA International Bibliography (includes theatre studies)

• **Search by the title of the article in JumboSearch when the full text is not readily available in the databases.

C. Magazines, Newspapers

• Access World News (more regional coverage of news)
• Factiva (more international coverage of news)

**Historical Magazines and Newspapers

• American Periodicals (1740 - 1940)
• Boston Globe (1872-1985)
• Los Angeles Times (1881-1992)
• New York Times Online Archive (1851 - 2013)
• Washington Post (1877-1999)
• more