Tips for Search Success
This guide was created to assist users in finding performance and recording reviews in music and the performing arts. Here are some tips to help you start:
What to Ask
- Who/what/where/when: performers, program, concert date and location, record label, etc. You may not need to know it all, but using this information as keywords makes your searching more efficient.
- Target your search. Where might a performance or recording be reviewed: local or national papers? trade journals? popular or indie music magazines?
How to Look
- Check the dates of coverage. Don't waste time searching in a database with reviews that are too old or too recent.
- Limit before you search. If you can't restrict your search to reviews, try using "review" as a keyword.
- Search multiple databases. There will probably be overlap, but each one contains a slightly different set of journals and newspapers.
Troubleshoot Your Results
- Found a promising citation, but didn't get the full text? Use the "Try Harvard Library" link to check Harvard's collections for a copy: it may be in print.
- Found a promising article, but the site asks you to log in or pay? Install the Harvard Library Proxy Bookmarklet to bypass pay walls and reload pages using Harvard's subscriptions.
Get More Help
- Contact Kerry Masteller, Loeb Music Library Reference & Digital Program Librarian, for personalized search suggestions.
Review Sources
- Music & Performing Arts Collection (1864-present)Indexes scholarly and popular journals; several hundred have full text. Use Advanced Search to limit by Document Type (e.g.: “Performance Review,” “Music Review,” “Recording Review”).
- Music Index Online (1970-present)Indexes 800+ music periodicals, with strengths in popular music, ethnomusicology, and reviews. Music Index Online covers articles published from 1970-present; earlier volumes are available in print.
- Entertainment Industry Magazine ArchiveA full-text collection for the study of the film and entertainment industries, including trade magazines, fanzines, and popular music magazines (1880-2000).
- Rock's BackpagesCollected reviews, interviews, and articles about popular music from the 1950s to the present.
- International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance with Full Text (1929-present)Indexes the scholarly literature of theatre; Covers 1929-present, but the most complete indexing is from 1980-present. Click on "Publications" link to see dates for each title, and use the document type "Entertainment Review" to limit your search.
- RIPM: Retrospective Index to Music PeriodicalsFull text of international music journals (1800-1950); useful for primary source research in musical thought and culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- HOLLIS+Many newspaper articles can be found in Harvard's main library catalogue. Sign in with your Harvard Key to get more results.
- NexisUniFull-text newspaper articles from the last several decades: useful for current news and reviews
- Periodicals Index OnlineAn index to tables of contents of periodicals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
- Reader's Guide Retrospective (1890-1992)An index of popular and general interest magazines published in the United States and Canada.
- Academic Search PremierA multi-disciplinary index with full text of over 8500 journals; also indexes major newspapers such as The New York Times.
- Library Guide to Newspapers and Newspaper IndexesTips for finding newspapers and newspaper articles, online and in print, foreign and U.S.