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Music & Sound: Finding books

A guide for students studying Music and Sound at the University of South Wales. Mae'r dudalen hon hefyd ar gael yn Gymraeg

Books

Books give an overview of a subject and provide information on core concepts and theories.  This makes them a good starting point for your assignments. Core books for your subject will be listed on your module reading list.  If you have an online reading list on Blackboard or another learning environment, this will show you the copies of the book available from the library.   You can also find books by searching FINDit, the Library search engine. 
 

Shelf marks

You can browse the collection using the shelfmarks below:

004.6 Computer networks
006.5 Computer sound processing
306.4842 Music and culture 
394.2068 Events management
621.3828 Audio systems engineering
621.3893     Sound recording 
780.1 Music theory
780.263 Songbooks
780.68 Music business / industry
780.72 Musicology / music research
780.89 Ethnomusicology
780.9 Music history
781 Music theory 
781.64 Popular music 
782.42 Songwriting
792.023 Stage management
792.0232 Performance - Production and direction
792.024 Performance - Sound 
792.025 Performance - Lighting / Set design


Use FINDit: Search/Libraries, to perform detailed searches for individual books or for material relevant to your topic or subject.

Looking for a book

1. To find a specific book title, enter the book title or author in the FINDit search box and select the Libraries search option. 

2. To find books on a subject, enter a keyword into the FINDit search box and select the Libraries search option. 

3. Can’t find the book you are looking for? You can request it as an interlibrary loan or Recommend the book to your Librarian 

Recommend a Book

Help us grow our Library collection

  • Is there a book that would make a useful addition to our Library?  
  • Have you found a fascinating read that you’d like to share with other students?  
  • Do you think we need more copies of an important textbook?

Let's work together to make our collection blossom

Fill out the online form or email your librarian.

Useful books

Gender in music production

The field of music production has for many years been regarded as male-dominated. Despite growing acknowledgement of this fact, and some evidence of diversification, it is clear that gender representation on the whole remains quite unbalanced. Ground-breaking in its synthesis of perspectives, Gender in Music Production offers a broadly considered and thought-provoking resource for professionals, students, and researchers working in the field of music production today.

Recording analysis : how the record shapes the song

Recording Analysis: How the Record Shapes the Song identifies and explains how the sounds imparted by recording processes enhance the artistry and expression of recorded songs. The book explores a broad array of records, evaluating the music, lyrics, social context, literary content and meaning, and offers detailed analyses of recording elements as they appear in a wide variety of tracks. An essential read for students and academics, as well as practitioners, in the fields of record production, song-writing and popular music.

Live Visuals

Replete with interviews with key practitioners (both in the book and online) will give up-to-date information on the techniques, forms and concepts used by leading figures in contemporary Live Visuals.

Selling out : culture, commerce, and popular music

The relationship between popular music and consumer brands has never been so cosy. Product placement abounds in music videos, popular music provides the soundtrack to countless commercials, social media platforms offer musicians tools for perpetual promotion, and corporate-sponsored competitions lure aspiring musicians to vie for exposure. Activities that once attracted charges of ‘selling out’ are now considered savvy, or even ordinary, strategies for artists to be heard and make a living. 

Audible infrastructures : music, sound, media

Our day-to-day musical enjoyment seems so simple, so easy, so automatic. Songs instantly emanate from our computers and phones, at any time of day. The tools for playing and making music, such as records and guitars, wait for us in stores, ready for purchase and use. And when we no longer need them, we can leave them at the curb, where they disappear effortlessly and without a trace. This book provides a concerted archaeology of music's media infrastructures. As contributors reveal the material-environmental realities and political-economic conditions of music and listening, they open our eyes to the hidden dimensions of how music is made, delivered, and disposed of. 

Music by numbers : the use and abuse of statistics in the music industry

The music industries are fuelled by statistics: sales targets, breakeven points, success ratios, royalty splits, website hits, ticket revenues, listener figures, piracy abuses, and big data. Music industry statistics are pervasive, but despite this ubiquity they are underexplored. This book offers a corrective by providing new ways by which to learn music by numbers.

Health and safety management in the live music and events industry. 3rd ed.

First published in 2004, Chris Hannam’s major work has been substantially expanded and totally revised to include chapters on all of the legal frameworks for machinery, fire safety, work equipment, employers liability, PPE, working at height, special effects, temporary structures, COSHH, traffic management, working time regulations and more.

The future of live music

What “live music” means for one generation or culture does not necessarily mean “live” for another. Considering established examples of live music, such as music festivals, alongside less obvious and hybridised forms, including live streaming and holograms, the book examines whether new forms stand the test of “live authenticity” for their audiences. It also speculates how live music might develop in the future, its relationship to recorded music and mediated performance, and how it will affect dominant business models in the popular music industry.

Undergraduate research in music : a guide for students

Undergraduate Research in Music: A Guide for Students supplies tools for scaffolding research skills, with examples of undergraduate research activities and case studies on projects in the various areas of music study. Undergraduate research has become a common degree requirement in some disciplines and is growing rapidly. Many undergraduate activities in music have components that could be combined into compelling undergraduate research projects, either in the required curriculum, as part of existing courses, or in capstone courses centered on undergraduate research. 

eBooks

The Library has access to a wide variety of eBooks across all subject areas, these are discoverable and accessible via FINDit.  Type your keywords or title into the search box and choose to search 'Libraries'.

FINDit search for eBooks

Next refine your search to 'Full Text Online' on the left hand side of the search results. 

Refining to eBooks

When you have found a book that you would like to read then click on the title and access via the 'View it' link.

More information can be found in our eBooks Guide.