Resources for selecting popular music recordings

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to assist music selectors at academic and public libraries by providing resources useful for selecting popular sound recordings, while emphasizing the ongoing need for monitoring trends and new releases in popular music. Design/methodology/approach - This paper identifies key resources to aid the selection of popular music recordings, beginning with the challenges unique to popular music. The resources are divided into four major sections: online tools, print tools, periodical tools, and staying current. Findings - Popular music is widely collected by libraries, yet selection and acquisition is made difficult by the numerous genres and constant rotation of popular artists and albums. The utilization of a variety of online and print resources is ideal in order to build or maintain a well-stocked popular music collection. Originality/value - This paper offers guidance to librarians responsible for sound recordings. No previous discussions of music selection have considered popular music as a whole, while popular music recordings are widely collected by libraries and require a great deal of currency.