You can search for books in the Duke Libraries Catalog. Tip: Use quotation marks, such as "love songs" to search words together as a single phrase.
The Books & Media search in the catalog will give you the best result for books.
How to Write about Music: excerpts from the 33 1/3 series, magazines, books and blogs with advice from industry-leading writers
Love Songs: The Hidden History by 
What's Love Got to Do with It?: : emotions and relationships in popular songs by 
Music and the Language of Love: seventeenth-century French airs by 
Richard Wagner and the Centrality of Love by 
Torch Singing: performing resistance and desire from Billie Holiday to Edith Piaf by 
The Musical Heritage of Al-Andalus by Browsing by subject in the library catalog:
Oxford Music Online
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the WorldFor very recent musicians, current newspapers and magazines are likely to be the best sources for information. Some newspaper databases focus only on current content, and others include older issues; coverage is indicated below.
Dissertations can be surprisingly good sources for your research, since they are scholarly, can be very focused investigations, and often shed new light on a topic.
The 33 1/3 book series is one of the best sources for album reviews. You can search the full list of titles here.
You can search album reviews on these websites:
You can search CDs and vinyl records on the Music Library homepage. Click the "recordings only" button to limit search to CDs and records.
Many CDs have liner notes with information and musical analysis.
