Southern Music
Many quintessentially American music forms--Jazz, Blues, Country, and others--were born in the South. You can interpret a genre's lyrics and melodies to understand the events, cultures, and time periods of the South. Visit History Matters for tips on using music in your work. Here are a few resources to start off your research:
Online Music
American Memory Project--Gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. Offers scores and audio clips of historic American music.
Country Music Television--current videos, reviews, broadcast times.
Free Music Archive--use the "By Genre" tab to find Southern styles.
Goldbrand Records (from University of North Carolina)--offers a great collection of historical Southern music ranging from Cajun to Blues to Country.
Hillbilly Music--"brings together stories, sounds and images of country folk music as it developed from oral tradition to recorded style in the 1920s."
Naxos Music Library--thousands of songs, search by keyword, or select a Southern style from the "Genre" tab.
Playlist--songs from every Southern genre.
Search Engine Guide--specialty search engines for finding music, just be sure the sites are credible sites.
Sheet Music--find sheet music online and in the UA Libraries.
Yahoo! Music Search--special part of Yahoo! for music.
Journal Articles
International Index to Music Periodicals
Music Encyclopedias
Blues is "a secular, predominantly black American folk music of the 20th century, which has a history and evolution separate from, but sometimes related to, that of jazz...Influential in its development were the collective unaccompanied work-songs of the plantation culture, which followed a responsorial ‘leader-and-chorus’ form that can be traced not only to pre-Civil War origins but to African sources."( . "Blues." Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online. 2 Dec. 2010.)
Discover the roots of blues in the struggles of African-Americans in the chapter "Of the Sorrow Songs" by W.E.B. DuBois.
Visit this site from History Matters to watch how historians used Blues music in their research.
Watch BB King, a native of Mississippi and "The King of Blues", perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival...
For more on King and his background, see the official BB King site.