Skip to Main Content

20th- & 21st-Century Music: A Guide to Research and Resources

This guide presents basic and specialized resources for researching the music composed during the 20th- and 21st-Century. It broadly covers all the styles, genres, cultures, creators, and social aspects of music that flourished during this time period. Co

Locating Printed & Electronic Books

All books cited in this guide are available in either electronic or printed form, with some in both options. To connect to an e-book, click the citation link, and then click on the link under Online in the catalog record, which leads to the book on a publisher or vendor website. In most cases, access is available only to authorized Princeton users. To locate printed books in the Mendel collection, click on "Where to find it" beneath "Location" in the catalog record. E-books sometimes bear dates later than the print but do not necessarily offer corrected or revised texts of the print version.

Common Library of Congress Subject Headings for 20th- & 21st-Century Music

Here are some of the most common Library of Congress subject headings (controlled vocabulary) for 20th- and 21st-Century music history, criticism, genres, and various other aspects to use for keyword or subject searches. Use the facets in the left sidebar and the sort options to refine the results by format, date, language, author, genres, and other options. Click on the links to browse all the library materials on the particular subject. Note that these subjects may have further subdivisions.