Modern/current popular music in all its various genres has been analyzed in dissertations -- particularly those with an interdisciplinary bent. Dissertations are the final project for the doctorate (usually PhD) degree and presents original research on a topic. Sound good? How do you find these?
While some resources such as Music Index and OneSearch/Summon index many dissertations, your best bet is to search
- Dissertations and Theses
- Full text for many dissertations is provided through this resource -- and don't forget the bibliographies/works cited in dissertations can be quite helpful in locating other resources.
But what if the full text is not available through this resource and it's a recent dissertation? Two possible answers exist:
- Google Scholar or good ol' Google may provide a link to the full text.
- Many universities provide direct access to theses and dissertations (and other scholarly works) through Insitutional Repositories
- The author has not released the dissertation for the wider audience for a certain number of years
- Also called an embargo
- You can contact the dissertation author directly and ask if they are willing to share a copy. For the purposes of this course, your best bet is to locate another resource for your paper (minimum of 5 sources)
What if the full text is not available and it's not a recent dissertation?
- Try searching the author in OneSearch or in a resource called WorldCat (think of it as the library catalog for almost the world)
- You may be able to find a copy of the dissertation to request through interlibrary loan (which can take 2-3 weeks to arrive)
- If you find an article by the author in OneSearch, dig deeper -- it may be a section of the author's dissertation!
