Research Guides: Music: Africa

Selected Websites & Streaming Media

AfroPop Worldwide
Afropop Worldwide is a radio program and online magazine dedicated to music from Africa and the African Diaspora.
World Music Central.org
Check out the artist index for biographical entries, some discographies and bibliographies, for contemporary world music artists.
National Geographic World Music
Audio and video clips for various geographic areas and genres.
Smithsonian Folkways Music of Africa
YouTube playlist from Smithsonian Folkways, a non-profit record label of the Smithsonian Institution.
World Passport: Vintage Hits from Around the World
Podcasts with playlists for different world music styles. Browse to locate African playlists.
Alan Lomax Collection - Association for Cultural Equity Musical performances from around the world, including stories, jokes, narratives, and interviews conducted by Lomax beginning in 1946. Content provided by the Association for Cultural Equity, and is distinct from the earlier recordings from 1933 to 1942 under the auspices of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center.
Global Jukebox
The Global Jukebox is a growing space to connect with our deep heritage through the expressive arts of singing, dancing, and conversing from around the world. This interactive resources provides information and musical mapping around the globe.

African News Sources

AllAfrica.com
allAfrica.com, is among the Internet's largest content sites, posting over 800 stories daily in English and French and offering a diversity of multi-lingual streaming programming as well as over 750,000 articles in our searchable archive

Other Research Guides

African Studies
by Winn Wasson Last Updated Apr 1, 2024 78 views this year
Basic Research Strategies for the Social Sciences
by Winn Wasson Last Updated Jan 25, 2024 1220 views this year
Kenya National Archives
by Winn Wasson Last Updated Jul 19, 2022 705 views this year

Reference Books & Guides

Oxford Music Online
Good for looking up terms, people, instruments, locations, and styles within Western art music, jazz, American popular music, musical theater, and traditional and folk music from around the world.
Contains: New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, New Grove Dictionary of American Music, New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Articles on musicians, styles, instruments, genres, geographic areas, and more.
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online by Ruth M. Stone (Editor)
Good for looking up locations and cultures when researching world traditional and folk music
This standard music reference source is organized geographically into ten volumes and also has accompanying sound recordings. Browse content by continent and country.
Bloomsbury (Continuum) Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World
Good for researching popular music from America and around the world
v.1 Media, Industry, & Society -- Look up social phenomena, such as death, gender, record collecting
v.2 Performance & Production -- Look up names of performance techniques, ensemble types, production roles, equipment, instruments, and harmony, melody, and rhythm terminology
v.3-7 Locations -- Look up names of countries, regions, and cities
v.8-11 Genres -- Look up names of genres/styles
New Encyclopedia of Africa
Publication Date: 2007-10-08
Browse alphabetically for names, events, movements, or other entries.
Encyclopedia of Africa by Henry Louis Gates (Editor); Kwame Anthony Appiah (Editor)
Call Number: Bird Reference DT3 .E53 2010 OR MLK Library DT3 .E53 2010
ISBN: 9780195337709
Browse alphabetically for articles on contemporary nations of sub-Saharan Africa, ethnic groups from various regions of Africa, and European colonial powers.

Choosing Keywords

Browsing subject headings can be a good place to start searching. Try some of the the suggested keywords below to find recordings, books, or articles, or try your own:

Music + [geographic term or people] e.g. Music Uganda; Music Yoruba
Folk music + [geographic term or people] e.g. Folk music Central Africa
Popular music + [geographic term or people] e.g. Popular music South Africa
[name of musician] e.g. Fela
[instrument name] + music e.g. Mbira music
Songs + [language] e.g. songs Nyore
Music + social aspects + [name of country, continent] e.g. Music social aspects Nigeria
Music and race [social group or people]--[country]--social life and customs
[type of music] + [name of country or continent] e.g. Highlife (music)--Africa

Suggested Databases

JSTOR Full-text archive of scholarly publications, including ebooks, in mathematics, science, the arts and humanities, and the social sciences.
Music Periodicals Database Scholarly and popular articles about music, with coverage from 1874 to present.
Black Studies Center Scholarly essays, articles, historical newspaper articles, related to Black Studies, from fields such as literature, political science, sociology, philosophy, and religion.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
Africa-Wide Information South African produced index including journals, books, and documents covering Africa and African studies. Content includes the Index to South African Periodicals, IBISCUS, Africa Institute Database, African Journal Online, Media Africa, and NAMLIT, from the National Library of Namibia.
African Journals Online: AJOL Free registration required. Index of African-published journals covering agricultural sciences, science and technology, health and social sciences.
Access World News Current and past worldwide news sources, including international, local and regional newspapers, media transcripts, wire service content, college newspaper articles, magazines, blogs, video and audio.
Music Index Index to publications covering music, musicians, and the music industry.
EHRAF World Cultures Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) index to documents related to ethnography and global cultures .
Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings

Journals

African music
Indexed in JSTOR before 1999; indexed in Music Index after 1999
Black Music Research Journal
Indexed in Music Database
Black Perspective in Music
Indexed in Music Database & Humanities Full Text
British Journal of Ethnomusicology
Indexed in JSTOR
continued by Ethnomusicology Forum
CBMR Digest
Center for Black Music Research
Indexed in Music Database
Ethnomusicology
Indexed in JSTOR
Ethnomusicology Forum
Ethnomusicology Review
Open access journal -- indexed on journal website
Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa
Indexed in Music Index; full text from Taylor & Francis
Muziki : Journal of Music Research in Africa
Only available through Taylor & Francis (not indexed in any other databases)
Popular music
Indexed in Music Database; full text through Cambridge
South African Journal of Musicology
Yearbook for Traditional Music