The main sources are the 'official' National Bibliographies and equivalent
bibliographical sources. Secondly the general bibliographical refence tools, such as
Walford or Ulrich's; thirdly the specialist music refence works and equivalent
bibliographies in monographs and periodicals (e.g. Iwaschkin). Further information is
collected from specialist mail order catalogues (A&R ), catalogues by the publishers
themselves and music periodicals (e.g. Record Collector). Last but not least by
autopsy, i.e. from the books themselves—this overules any other source.
Although I've got a considerable library of music books myself, those relevant to
this bibliography amount only to a small share of all entries. German libraries hold
only a very poor selection of (popular) music publications; and even the central
deposit library for music books in Germany (my 'home' library, the Württembergische
Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart) doesn't hold any Guinness or Whitburn titles!
If I've got something wrong or you can add information on books you own, please help me correcting mistakes and improving BDC.
A brief list of sources and abbreviations is given in the appendices.
Head: Title : Sub-title ; add. / Description of Authorship ; add. —
Volume. — Edition. — Place(s) : Publisher(s), Year. — Pagination : Illustration ; Height (binding)
ISBN: Price
[Classification].
Original Source(s): Classification of orig. source
(Serial Title)
Note1: Disc. Bibl. Index. — Note2. — Note3. — Note4. — Note5.
[Internal ID#]
Source(s), Original Classification:
Country:
Country of origin for the charts that the work is based upon. If a book deals with
charts from more than one country (with no single country clearly outstanding), the
next higher level is used [e.g. UU, EU, INT]. A list of codes appears in Appendix 1.
(Martin Parker: Reading the charts - making sense with the hit parade.
You can mail me at:
Title:
The title given on the title page. If a different title is given on the cover, spine or any source other than the t.p., these differences are given in the Notes section.
Some parts of a title are disregarded for the alphabetic sequence: a) the first word
if an article; b) the title starts with an introductory note mainly consisting of the
author's name (e.g. Joel Whitburn presents the Billboard pop charts).
An index by Title appears in the Index Section of the non-HTML versions.Sub-title / Additional Title:
Same as for Title, except the disregards. Additional information may be given in the
Notes section. The sub-title is separated from the title by " : ", the additional title from the sub-title by " ; ".Description of Authorship:
The expression identifying the authorship given on the t.p. Additional information from
sources other than the t.p. are marked with square brackets. A status as editor,
compiler or contributor is always noted (if known), but this may also be derived from
secondary sources. These are separated from the proper authors by " ; ".
An index by authors appears in the Index Section of the non-HTML versions.Place, Publisher, Year:
Place of publication is always given before the name of the publisher, separated by
" : ". If more than one place / publisher are given, they are
separated by " ; " within their respective sections.
Place names in the USA, Canada and Australia include an abbreviation of the state
or province name. These abbreviations may differ from the 'official' codes as used by
the US Postal Service (e.g. Wisc. instead of WI for Wisconsin).
For periodicals, the place name is followed immediately by the publisher's address in
parentheses.
The year of publication is separated by ", ".
Where information is not known or given, the following abbreviations are used:
Collation:
Collation information has been simplified and includes binding type. Instead of the six
different forms of illustration, only ill. is used, covering all other forms.ISBN / ISSN, Price:
ISBN and ISSN are used in their standard formats, followed by " : " and the price information.
The International Standard Book Number (introduced only in the late 1960's by Whittaker) consists of five parts: the initials ISBN:, a country code, a publisher code, a title/item code, and a check digit. The parts are separated by hyphens.
An index by ISBN appears in the Index Section of the non-HTML versions.
The International Standard Serial Number (for periodicals) consists of the initials ISSN: and two other parts, separated by a hyphen; the third part includes the check digit.
For technical reasons most ISSN's are dealt with as ISBN's, in addition to their inclusion in the Serial Title. This will be rectified with Rel. 0.98.
The given price is that current when an item is published.Serial Title:
The title of the series that this work is part of. If an ISSN is allocated to that series, the actual title is preceded by the ISSN and " = ".
Classification:
The source(s) on which this edition's data is primarily based. Additional sources that
revised the original information may also be given.
A list of sources appears in Appendix 5.
The original classification refers to the classification/class number used by the
precedent classified source. For technical reasons, this field can be placed just behind the serial title. This will be rectified in Rel. 0.98.
An index by DDC appears in the Index Section of the non-HTML versions.
These fields and codes are included on a preliminary basis only and might be
reorganised in the future. Not all codes are used and many entries aren't fully
classified yet. The codes are fully compatible with the chart database (DBCS).
Genre:
Genre of the chart(s) concerned. When a chart deals with no specific or more than
one genre, POP is used. A list of codes appears in Appendix 2.
Format:
The format(s) covered by the chart. A list of codes appears in Appendix 3.
Language:
The language used in the work. If an introduction or part of the work is in another
language, this may be noted in the Notes section. A list of codes appears in Appendix
4.
Notes:
Note 1 refers to the inclusion of:
Note 2 gives comments, such as different title, frequency of periodicals, language,
content of the work, etc., that refer to the whole entry.
Note 3 dito., but refering only to the specific volume or edition.
Note 4 indicates the type of publication:
Note 5 lists citations of reviews in the music press and from other sources. Entries in
{braces} refer to a mention of the work only. This section has been derived
exclusively by autopsy.
Annotation:
This section consists mainly of direct quotes from annotations, reviews, critiques etc. All are clearly marked as quotes and include sources (cf. Note 5). In a few cases I included my own comments & observations, but I haven't even started to write full reviews of chart books, not even for those I own myself. I plan to do this in the coming years, but it's a massive task.
The charts represent a facet of economic life but one that differs in its implications as between producer and consumer. The producer lives and dies by the charts, whilst the consumer can enjoy a form of bounded recreation. The charts are a game that we can envolve ourselves in for a while if we get pleasure out of doing so. Like the football league tables, they invite us to look and to judge, to become commentators and even participants in a small way. Not only can we know who had their
first three hits at number one, but we can volunteer an opinion on them too. [...], pop gives us power.
In: Popular Music; Cambridge : C.U.P.; 10. 1991, 2, p214)
Edited and compiled by Tobias Zywietz, CRP
© 1995 CRP. All Rights Reserved.