December 8, 2007

Downtown Music, 1971-87: An Overview and Resource Guide

Click here to go directly to the Downtown Music Guide

In early 2007 I wrote a research guide to downtown music of the 70s & 80s for NYU's Fales Library. It was posted online in December 2007. Fales has major archival collections in the area of downtown arts of that period, and the guide is intended as an additional resource for researchers in downtown arts and culture as well as a collection development tool. This blog has been created as an additional entry point to the guide and a point of communication to the author. In the posts below readers can comment on the guide in general or suggest resources I may have overlooked.

This guide is an attempt to provide an overview of the major strains of downtown music during the years 1971-1987, a period of remarkable artistic ferment. It should be seen as an aid to further research rather than a comprehensive summation. It covers "new music" (i.e., contemporary classical), jazz and improvised music, and rock, with particular attention to the intermixing of styles and genres that was characteristic of downtown arts in the 'seventies and 'eighties. Each section provides a brief historical overview followed by selected resources, including lists of significant artists and venues, selected bibliographies and discographies, and web resources. Bibliographies and discographies are not intended to be comprehensive but rather are suggested starting points for research on a specific genre or subgenre. The discographies, in general, focus on compilations that give a broad overview of the music; where possible, links have been provided to more detailed web-based discographies.

The guide's home page has a table of contents with links to the various sections. Starting with the Introduction you can page through sequentially via links at the bottom of each page.

Click here to go to the Downtown Music Guide

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is an excellent resource! Thanks for all of the work that went into this project.

Anonymous said...

Interesting blog you got here. I'd like to read a bit more about that theme. Thnx for giving this information.
Joan Stepsen
Technology pharmaceutical