Research Guides: Music: Articles

Music Research Databases

Use databases to search for articles and essays from
music, humanities, and social sciences journals.

Music Index
Citations and abstracts for international literature covering music, musicians, and the music industry. Includes periodicals, book reviews, obituaries, news, and reviews of recordings, tapes, and performances.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
Citations and abstracts of international literature on music and music-related subjects. Indexes journal articles, book chapters, reviews, proceedings, Festschrifts, and more.
International Index to the Performing Arts (IIPA) (now Performing Arts Periodicals Database)
Citations and abstracts, and select full text covering dance, film, television, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, broadcast arts, comedy, opera, and more.
ERIC via ProQuest
Premier database for education research. Includes bibliographic records and select full-text for journal articles, curriculum materials, and more.
Education Research Complete
Comprehensive collection of full-text education journals covering health education, multilingual education, testing, curriculum instruction, administration and all levels of education from early childhood to higher education.
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
Indexing, abstracts, and full text providing comprehensive coverage of topics related to emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry and psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods.

Academic Search Complete
Multi-disciplinary database providing indexing, abstracts, and full-text access for thousands of peer-reviewed journals and periodicals, among other materials. Covers science, social sciences, mathematics, engineering, and many other subjects.
JSTOR
Searchable backfiles of core journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. (Backfiles end typically 3 - 6 years prior to the current date).
Project Muse
Database of peer-reviewed academic journals and electronic books in the humanities and social sciences from university presses and scholarly societies around the world.

As of May 13, 2025 publisher transitioned to providing full PDF and EPUB downloads only for monographs in response to feedback indicating that downloading segmented chapters necessitated users to navigate between chapters and repeatedly download content, often resulting in the need to download the complete book for additional context.
America: History and Life
Article abstracts and citations of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.

In addition to art and design databases, try these newspaper and magazine databases
to find reviews or criticism about contemporary art and design.

Access World News
Also known as NewsBank, provides access to major national and international newspapers, local and regional titles, blogs, and more. Historical and current content, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch archive from 1903 to present.
Dow Jones Factiva
Comprehensive, full-text up-to-the-minute news and business source from Dow Jones and Reuters. Includes national, international, and regional newspapers, both current content and archives, periodicals, podcasts, newswires, and more.
Newspaper Source Plus
Full text for major national and international newspapers, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Times (London). Also includes full-text radio and television news transcripts.
New York Times via nytimes.com
Use this link to register for a free account. Important source of reporting information, and opinion on politics, finance, health, science, culture, the arts, sports, and fashion in the U.S. and abroad. See ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times with Index for issues back to 1851.
New York Times with Index (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
Full image of articles published in The New York Times including illustrations and advertisements. Covers from the first issue in 1851 to three years prior to the current year.