LibGuides: Popular Music Research: Repositories

Search for Archival Materials

Search through the Rock Hall's archival collections here, including photographs, manuscripts, business records, posters, handbills, recordings, and much more from performers, bands, record label executives, recording studios, and the fans themselves!

Search for Library Materials

Search here for books, magazines, CDs, and DVDs in the Rock Hall collections. This will take you to the WorldCat online catalog and allow you to locate resources both in our library and libraries near you.

Archival Collections Databases

These databases and listings provide descriptions for over two million collections of primary source material housed in thousands of repositories across the United States and around the world.

Additional Repositories & Collections

These websites list additional libraries, archives, and research centers with popular music collections available to scholars.

DIY Popular Music Archives and Museums
International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM)
Libraries, Archives, and Research Centers for American Music
From the Society for American Music
Music Collections of Northeast Ohio
From Baldwin Wallace University
WWW Sites of Interest to Musicologists
From the American Musicological Society

How to Find Archival Repositories & Collections

In addition to using the list of archival repositories and collections here, use the following strategies to search for primary source materials appropriate for your research:

Consult bibliographies and cited works in books and articles on your topic. Where did those authors get their information?
Contact other experts in your field. What repositories did they visit to do their research?
Review websites on your topic. Do they list any archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, or special collections?
Search databases like ArchiveGrid and Archive Finder to help you locate archival repositories and collections.
Utilize search engines like Google, but realize the above strategies are more likely to help you pinpoint exact collections. Remember when searching the internet that archival collections can appear in multiple guises. Be sure to search for archives, libraries, special collections, historical societies, museums, heritage or historical institutes, research centers or institutes, universities, preservation projects, historical foundations, and local history collections.

Still not finding what you need? Contact the repository that seems most likely to hold what you need, and ask an archivist or librarian! Collections may not be processed, but you may still be able to gain access to them for your research; and if that repository doesn't have what you need, the staff may be able to point you in the right direction for your primary and secondary resource needs.

Archival Repositories & Collections

This is an annotated list of archival collections and repositories that may be of use in your popular music research. Please note this is not a comprehensive list, and we have also supplied you with links to search for additional collections and repositories that may be a better fit for your information needs.

ARChive of Contemporary Music
The ARChive of Contemporary Music (ARC) is a non-profit archives, music library, and research center located in New York City since 1985. ARC contains more than 2.25 million sound recordings, including two copies of each recording, in all known formats. ARC also houses more than three million pieces of attendant support material including photographs, videos, DVDs, books, magazines, press kits, sheet music, ephemera, and memorabilia. ARC has five online databases for searching holdings and information, including those for Recordings, Special Collections, and Books, which provide access to catalog records for recordings, named collections of related materials, books, catalogs, songbooks, and digitized content (where applicable); as well as the ARC's Music Genre Catalog and Musical Instrument Catalog.
Archives of African American Music and Culture (Indiana University)
The Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC) is a repository of materials covering a range of African American musical idioms and cultural expressions from the post-World War II era. The collections highlight popular, religious, and classical music, with genres ranging from blues and gospel to R&B and contemporary hip hop. The AAAMC also houses extensive materials related to the documentation of black radio. The AAAMC supports the research of scholars, students, and the general public worldwide by providing access to holdings that include oral histories, photographs, musical and print manuscripts, audio and video recordings, educational broadcast programs, and the personal papers of individuals and organizations concerned with black music.
Blues Archive (University of Mississippi)
The Blues Archive acquires and preserves blues and blues-related materials in a variety of formats for scholars of the blues, African American studies, and southern culture. With over 60,000 sound recordings, in most audio formats; over 20,000 photographs; more than 1,000 videos; over 34,000 books, periodicals and newsletters; and numerous manuscripts and ephemera, the Blues Archive houses one of the largest collections of blues recordings, publications, and memorabilia in the world. Important collections include B. B. King's personal record collection, the Jim O'Neal and Amy van Singel / Living Blues Collection, the Trumpet Records Collection, the Sheldon Harris Collection, the John Richbourg Collection, and the Percy Mayfield collection.
Briscoe Center for American History
The music resources of the Briscoe Center at the University of Texas at Austin include some 50,000 commercial and field recordings, embracing every genre of music from traditional cowboy songs to urban hip–hop. These include fiddle tunes, western swing, gospel music, blues, jazz, rock, musical theater, and traditional Anglo, African American, Cajun, Czech, German, and Mexican American folk music. These resources also document the business and cultural activities of musical organizations, producers, and concert venues. And they encompass a wide range of materials, including music recordings in various sound formats, photographs, film and video, oral history, books and journals, newspapers, poster art, and manuscript and printed sheet music.
British Library - Pop Music Recordings
The British Library holds one of the largest and most wide-ranging collections of popular music in the world. It contains commercial releases, documentaries, interviews and live performances from all eras and genres together with magazines, fanzines, books and other publications to provide the user with a comprehensive picture of popular music and its history.
Center for Popular Music (Middle Tennessee State University)
The Center for Popular Music (CPM) was established in 1985. The Center's mission is to promote research in American vernacular music, and to foster an understanding and appreciation of America's diverse musical culture. CPM maintains a large research library and archives, and strives to support local research needs in all genres while providing research-level collections in special areas, specifically in rock music and its roots, various forms of vernacular religious music, and the musical and business activities of Tennessee and the Southeast. CPM's sound recordings collection is strong in rock and roll, blues, R&B, mainstream rock from the 1960s to the present, and alternative rock. CPM also has extensive holdings of rock music periodicals, and biographical, historical, and critical books, and is thought to have the largest collection of southern gospel songbooks held by a non-religious repository.
Cornell Hip Hop Collection
The mission of the Cornell University Hip Hop Collection (CHHC) is to collect and make accessible the historical artifacts of hip-hop culture and to ensure their preservation for future generations. The collection features hundreds of party and event flyers, circa 1977-1985; thousands of early vinyl recordings, cassettes, and CDs; film and video; record label press packets and publicity; black books, photographs, magazines, books, clothing, and more. The CHHC has grown to include the archives of hip-hop photographers, film directors, dance crews, graffiti artists, and zines.
Crossroads of Music Archive (Texas Tech University)
The Texas Music Archive is taking the initiative to collect, process, and preserve the West Texas music legacy. The collections include materials that document the lives and works of the people of the Southwest, particularly musicians, writers, and artists. The vast majority of the archives is comprised of audio and video tapes, films, photographs, letters, and journals, as well as business records, drafts, tour schedules, sketches, older printed material, and oral history interviews.
DC Punk Archive (DC Public Library)
In support of the Washingtoniana mission to collect, preserve and provide access to primary source materials that document the history and culture of local DC, the DC Public Library established a DC Punk Archive in its Special Collections. A year after initiating planning and community outreach, they have received several collection donations, secured grant funding to design an online portal for access to collections, and will further engage the public in the project through programming, volunteer training, exhibits and concerts.
England's Dreaming: The Jon Savage Archive (Liverpool John Moores University)
This eclectic collection, purchased from music journalist and cultural historian Jon Savage in 2002, documents the history of the Sex Pistols and the whole of the punk era. The collection consists mainly of the source materials for England's Dreaming: the Sex Pistols and Punk Rock, Jon Savage's definitive account of punk in British society in the 1970s, and includes fanzines, posters, fliers, graphic designs, original letters and documents, photographs, notebooks, and much more.
Grateful Dead Archive (University of California San Diego)
The Grateful Dead Archive contains show files of tours and concerts, with posters, photographs, tickets, merchandise samples, backstage passes, and laminates, as well as stage backdrops, instruments, and recording equipment. Original, primary resources, including business papers, contracts, and material associated with Ice Nine Publishing are also included, as are personal artifacts and correspondence of band and Grateful Dead family members, thousands of decorated envelopes mailed to the band’s ticket office, fan art and correspondence, and copies of the historic Dead Head mailings and newsletters. Beyond the primary material, the archives houses collections of publications and commercial productions made by the Grateful Dead and others, including complete sets of audio and video recordings, radio broadcasts, fanzines and journals, books by and about the Dead, and a large press clipping file.
Great American Songbook Foundation
A collection of 3,000 books, 12,000 audio recordings, 800 DVDs and 40,000 pieces of sheet music related to the Golden Age of Broadway and Hollywood musicals. The papers of Meredith Willson, Gus Kahn, Ray Charles (the arranger) and arrangements for Natalie Cole, Sammy Davis, Jr., Alice Faye, Dolores Hope, and Dinah Washington are also located here.
H. Wiley Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music (HISAM, Brooklyn College, City University of New York)
The H. Wiley Hitchcock supports American music scholarship, pedagogy, and performances. They recognize and seek to connect diverse local, national, and global musical practices across a broad spectrum of oral, popular, and art music traditions. They represent scholars, performers, and creators that reflect the racial, economic, and gender diversity of our students, faculty, community, and the world. Through their biannual publication, American Music Review, the Polycultural America Speaker Series, monographs, collection of oral histories, and forums for public musicology, the faculty and staff of HISAM seek to resist systems of oppression, acknowledge the privileges of whiteness, strive for social justice, and publicly promote antiracism.
Hip-Hop and Rap Across the Smithsonian
Explore hip-hop and rap-related collections from across the Smithsonian that offer perspective on the African American experience and its impact on American culture. The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap includes 9 CDs with more than 120 tracks and a 300-page book with 11 essays and never-before-seen photographs and designs by Cey Adams, artist and founding creative director of Def Jam Recordings. The Anthology captures the evolution of hip-hop from its earliest days in the late 70s up to contemporary artists of today. Learn more about the diverse history of hip-hop with Meaning in Music, a five-part video series from the Smithsonian Channel and MTV News, featuring experts from across the Smithsonian Institution. The series is free to watch and share on Facebook.
Hiphop Archive & Research Institute
The Hiphop Archive and Research Institute's mission is to facilitate and encourage the pursuit of knowledge, art, culture and responsible leadership through Hiphop. We are uncompromising in our commitment to build and support intellectually challenging and innovative scholarship that both reflects the rigor and achievement of performance in Hiphop as well as transforms our thinking and our lives. Toward these goals, our website: hiphoparchive.org provides information about all of our activities and projects and serves as a resource for those interested in knowing, developing, building, maintaining and representing Hiphop.
Hiphop Archive & Research Institute (Harvard University)
The Hiphop Archive & Research Institute was officially established in 2002. It found its permanent home in the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute in January 2008. The Institute curates all forms of hip-hop material culture including recordings, videos, websites, films, original papers, works, references, productions, conferences, meetings, interviews, publications, research, formal proceedings, etc. The archives documents specific hip-hop activity as well as activities that have developed within and in response to hip-hop, including academic courses, arts and community organizations, underground performances and venues, spoken word, political organizations, religious programs, and much more.
Hogan Jazz Archive (Tulane University)
The Hogan Jazz Archive is the leading research center for the study of New Orleans jazz and related musical genres, including New Orleans ragtime, gospel, blues, R&B, and Creole songs. Among its holdings are 2,000 reels of oral history interviews with musicians, family members, and observers that document the stories surrounding the emergence of jazz in New Orleans from the late 19th century forward. Other holdings include sound recordings, film, photography, sheet music, personal papers, records of the American Federation of Musicians local 174-496, ephemera, and realia.
Institute of Jazz Studies (Rutgers University)
The Institute of Jazz Studies (IJS) is the largest and most comprehensive library and archives of jazz and jazz-related materials in the world. The archival collections at IJS consist of personal papers, and archives of record companies and jazz-related institutions and organizations spanning from 1920 to the present. Highlights include the Jazz Oral History Project Collection, Mary Lou Williams Collection, Women in Jazz Collection, Benny Carter Audio Collection, and Benny Goodman Audio Collection.
Internet Archive - Audio Archive
The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access to historical collections that exist in digital format. This library contains recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by users. Many of the audio files and MP3s are available for free download.
Jazz Studies Online (Columbia University, Center for Jazz Studies)
Jazz Studies Online (JSO) brings together a rich and varied collection of digital resources - journal articles, books and book chapters, video and audio, teaching materials, and an extensive index of outside resources. The interactive archives is designed for use by jazz scholars, musicians, educators, journalists, and dedicated fans. In addition to collections of related resources, JSO includes subject guides on jazz-related topics; a collection of syllabi from professors who are bringing jazz into academic institutions around the world; bibliographies, discographies, filmographies, and other research tools; Jazz Across the Arts, an innovative search tool that locates resources exploring the interconnections between jazz music and poetry, fiction, drama, dance, visual art, and more; and a multimedia index of vocabulary specific to the interdisciplinary field of jazz with more than 250 terms.
Library of Congress - Music Division
The collections of the Library of Congress Music Division number approximately 20.5 million items and span more than 1000 years of Western music history and practice. These holdings include the classified music and book collections, music and literary manuscripts, iconography, microforms, periodicals, musical instruments, published and unpublished copyright deposits, and close to 500 special collections in music, theater, and dance.
Louisville Underground Music Archive (University of Louisville, Archives and Special Collections)
The Louisville Underground Music Archive (LUMA) Project documents the history and culture of the Louisville rock music scene from the 1970s to the present, with a focus on the 1980s and 1990s. The goal of the project is to address the gap in the historical record related to independent/underground rock music culture in Louisville. The collection includes a wide variety of materials, including oral histories, show recordings, set lists, photographs, zines, posters, flyers, t-shirts, ephemera, correspondence, business records, and early web history related to the rock/indie/punk/hardcore music scene.
LSC Punk Archive (UCLA)
The LSC Punk Archive was created to document punk music and lifestyle as it has developed and been expressed in Los Angeles both within and outside of the traditional LA/Hollywood punk narrative. We are collecting the primary source materials of punk musicians, promoters, producers, managers, photographers, roadies, groupies, reviewers, artists, and any voices involved to highlight the diverse music and culture of LA punk. By archiving and preserving personal and business papers, photographs, sound recordings, oral histories, 'zines, publications, ephemera, flyers, buttons, and other items, it is our mission to inspire punk discovery and advance punk research.
Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive
In 2016, University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston launched the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive with an initial donation by Pacey Foster of recordings from the Lecco's Lemma radio program, a local rap music show that was founded by Magnus Johnstone and ran from 1985 to 1988. The Lecco's Lemma collection contains nearly 300 demos by local artists that were given to Magnus, as well as nearly 200 recordings of the show made by Willie "Loco" Alexander.
Minnesota Underground Music Archive (University of Minnesota, Performing Arts Archives)
The Minnesota Underground Music Archive documents independent bands and artists in Minnesota. In addition to recorded music in CD, tape, and vinyl formats, the collection contains live and promotional photographs, posters and flyers, publications, and ephemera (primarily band merchandise and promotional material).
Music Library & Bill Schurk Sound Archives (Bowling Green State University)
The Music Library and Sound Recordings Archives supports research in music, popular culture, and American culture studies. With almost a million recordings, the Bill Schurk Sound Archives represents the largest collection of popular music recordings in an academic library in North America. The collections also include books, scores, and video formats covering music studies from multiple angles.
NEO Sound (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library & Archives)
NEO Sound comprises a substantial group of archival collections (including personal papers, correspondence, photographs, song manuscripts, business records, posters, and rare audio and video recordings) and library materials (including books, dissertations, magazines and journals, commercial audio and video recordings, and sheet music) that focus on popular music, musicians, radio stations, record labels, recording studios, music venues, concert promoters, booking agencies, and music publishers in Northeast Ohio. NEO Sound was established to preserve this important part of Northeast Ohio’s cultural heritage for future generations and to create an in-depth resource for researchers of all kinds. NEO Sound also serves as a vehicle for locally-relevant public programs at the Library and Archives, including lectures, panel discussions, performances, and other events.
New Brunswick Music Scene Archive (Rutgers University)
The New Brunswick Music Scene Archive was established to close the gap documenting the local music scene between 1980 and today. The collection furthers the mission of Special Collections and University Archives to collect, preserve, and provide access to materials that document the history and culture of New Jersey. Musical life in New Brunswick can be traced as far back as the early 1800s. Throughout the 19th century, the Hub City boasted numerous theaters, an opera house, music shops, local and traveling musicians, musical associations such as the New Brunswick Band, and the largest musical string manufacturer in the world, the National Musical String Company.
New York Public Library - Music Division
The New York Public Library's Music Division documents the art of music in all its diversity: classical and opera as well as the whole spectrum of popular music, including spirituals, ragtime, jazz, musical theater, film, rock, and world music. Particularly noteworthy is the American Music Collection. From the first edition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to Native American songs to extensive manuscript collections of American composers such as Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Henry Cowell, John Cage, and Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the division has made the documentation of American classical and popular music a major priority. Resources include printed scores, books, and periodicals; clippings and programs; photographs; set and costume designs; archival collections; music manuscripts; and sheet music.
NOLA Hiphop Archive Project Collection (Amistad Research Center)
The goal of the NOLA Hiphop Archive Project is to add to the growing body of documentation of hip-hop and bounce oral histories in New Orleans, Louisiana in order to highlight the music's role as an important community art form. The collection consists of a series of videotaped interviews with hip-hop and bounce artists and pioneers in New Orleans. Additional interviews will be added as they are completed, as will ephemeral material including show flyers, posters, etc.
Popular Music and Culture Collection (Georgia State University, Special Collections and Archives)
The Popular Music and Culture Collection collects and preserves unique and rare historical materials documenting 20th century American popular music and culture. Highlights of the collection include Johnny Mercer and music of his era; early country, bluegrass, and Southern gospel music in Atlanta; and WSB and radio broadcasting in Atlanta. Additionally, the collection contains more than 12,000 pieces of published sheet music, Tune-Dex cards, and arrangements by American songwriters, as well as 60,000 recordings from a variety of genres.
Richard Hell Papers (New York University, Fales Library and Special Collections)
The Richard Hell Papers consist of comprehensive documentation of Richard Hell's career as a poet, novelist, author, publisher, musician, and filmmaker. Hell was a member of the bands Television, the Heartbreakers, and the Voidoids. Hell became known in the mid-1970s as an originator of the punk movement. His album Blank Generation (Sire/Warners, 1977) was chosen by the New York Times as one of the ten best albums of the decade. Collection materials include personal journals, manuscripts, and materials relating to the publication of several works, correspondence, clippings, reviews, posters, photographs, film, video and audio materials, and objects and artifacts. In addition, the collection contains financial and legal documents pertaining to Hell's publications and musical career. The materials span 1944-2003 with the bulk of the material covering 1969-2003.
Riot Grrrl Collection (New York University, Fales Library and Special Collections)
The Riot Grrrl Collection is an attempt to document the evolution of the Riot Grrrl movement, particularly in the years between 1989 and 1996. Because Riot Grrrl was (and is) both a political and a cultural movement, its output was diverse, including writing, music, performance, film, activism, photography, video, and original art, as well as documentation of activism and performance. This research collection provides primary resources for scholars who are interested in feminism, punk activism, queer theory, gender theory, DIY culture, and music history. The primary area of collecting is the personal papers of those involved in the creation of early Riot Grrrl zines, music, and activism.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
A branch of the New York Public Library, the Schomburg Center houses numerous collections related to hip hop across the center's divisions.
Smithsonian Folkways
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. They are dedicated to supporting cultural diversity and increased understanding among peoples through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound. Through the dissemination of audio recordings and educational materials - a growing legacy that currently comprises more than 3,200 albums and 45,000 tracks - they seek to strengthen people's engagement with their own cultural heritage and to enhance awareness and appreciation of the cultural heritage of others.
Smithsonian Institution Archives Center, American Music Collections (Washington, D.C.)
The American Music Collections document this country’s diverse popular music and performance traditions. The strength of these collections is the music of the late nineteenth through the twentieth centuries including Big Band jazz, Gospel and African American sacred music, and folk music. Among the largest of these collections are the Duke Ellington Collection, 1927-1988 spanning nearly the entire life and career of one of America’s most recognized musicians and the Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music containing images, music, and lyrics of American life and culture between 1790 and the 1980s.
Southern Folklife Collection (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)
The Southern Folklife Collection (SFC) is an archival resource dedicated to collecting, preserving, and disseminating vernacular music, art, and culture related to the American South. SFC holdings extensively document all forms of southern musical and oral traditions across the entire spectrum of individual and community expressive arts, as well as mainstream media production. Centered around the John Edwards Memorial Collection, the SFC is especially rich in materials documenting the emergence of old-time, country-western, hillbilly, bluegrass, blues, folk, gospel, rock and roll, Cajun, and zydeco musics. The SFC contains over 250,000 sound recordings, 3,000 video recordings, and 8 million feet of motion picture film, as well as tens of thousands of photographs, song folios, posters, manuscripts, books, serials, research files, and ephemera.
Special Collections in the Performing Arts (University of Maryland)
Special Collections in the Performing Arts includes the DC Punk and Indie Fanzine Collection (DCPIFC), Hugo Keesing Collection on Popular Music and Culture, and the Ephraim Goldberg Collection on Benny Goodman, among others. The DCPIFC contains fanzines - publications produced by enthusiasts, generally in small runs - created by members of the D.C. punk and indie music communities, as well as fanzines from outside of D.C. that include coverage of D.C. punk and indie music. The collection includes primarily paper fanzines, but it also includes born digital fanzines and digitized PDFs of some paper fanzine materials. The Hugo Keesing Collection of Popular Music and Culture consists of books, serials, recordings, sheet music, clippings, and memorabilia related to 20th century American popular music, in particular rock and roll, and Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Roy Orbison, and Fats Domino.
Urbana-Champaign Local Music Preservation Initiative (University of Illinois, Sousa Archives and Center for American Music)
In 2013, the Urbana-Champaign Local Music Preservation Initiative was launched to better document the community’s vital music heritage. Working in collaboration with an advisory board that includes representatives from the Champaign County Historical Archives, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, and local music stakeholders, this initiative seeks to identify, acquire, and preserve historical records and artifacts of Urbana-Champaign’s vibrant popular music scene. Since 2013 the historical documents and artifacts acquired through this project have been made available to researchers and the general public through exhibitions, educational programs, and public performances hosted by the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music.
Wisconsin Music Archives (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
The Wisconsin Music Archives contains over 25,000 items representing all Wisconsin musical traditions from the 1850s to the present. Strengths of the collection include published sheet music (1850s-1960s), folk and ethnic music recordings and field notes, published and unpublished scores by contemporary Wisconsin composers, and the recordings of state performers and those issued by Wisconsin labels (1910s to the present).
Women Who Rock (University of Washington)
The Women Who Rock collection brings together scholars, musicians, media-makers, performers, artists, and activists to explore the role of women and popular music in the creation of cultural scenes and social justice movements in the Americas and beyond. This multifaceted endeavor reshapes conventional understandings of music and cultural production by initiating collective methods of research, teaching, and community and scholarly collaboration. Women Who Rock encompasses several interwoven components: an annual participant-driven, community engagement conference and film festival; project-based coursework at the graduate and undergraduate levels; and an oral history archive that ties the various components together.