Cylinder recordings, which predated vinyl records, were the first commercially produced sound recordings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. On this site, hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Cylinder Audio Archive, readers will find more than 10,000 cylinder recordings that cover the gamut, from popular songs to vaudeville acts to opera, and more. To...

If you don't know analog from digital, you may wish to spend a few hours reading up on the nuances of electronic music right here. Created by the University of California at Santa Cruz Electronic Music Studios, this site features over a dozen illustrated essays that explore different subjects related to the production of electronic music. The subjects covered here include "Sound Propagation",...

The rotating first image on this site sums it all up: whether visitors are treated to "The Girl I Loved Out in the Golden West," "The Cowboy Rag," or "Dreaming on the Silv'ry Rio Grande," all of the covers invoke the American west. This musical archive contains hundreds of pieces of music, which visitors can browse alphabetically. Those with a geographical bent may wish to look over pieces of...

The University of New Hampshire continues its wonderful tradition of digital collections with these celebratory offerings of music and dance. Here, visitors will find two primary publications: Northern Junket and American Squares. This first publication was a collection of New England folk dances, songs, and square dances published between 1953 and the mid-1980s. Published by Ralph Page, visitors...

The University of South Carolina Music Library has an extensive collection of over 10,000 pieces of popular, sacred, and classical sheet music that can be easily searched, due to the digital sheet music project on the School of Music website. Additionally, the cover and page images are available for those pieces in the public domain. The top 5 searches are listed on the homepage, and the titles...

Created by two Finnish designers, Until AM is a web-based DJing app that draws from the music in your hard drive (e.g. iTunes) and music from SoundCloud (an enormous social sound platform, where anyone can post their music for free). To get started, drag and drop songs onto the left and right "turn tables." From there, use the volume fader, pitch fader, cross fader, and play/pause buttons to bring...

There's a wide range of research going on at the University of Rochester, and this specialized website brings together the work of the hundreds of students, professors, and others who work at this institution. Visitors can start by just typing words into the Browse/Search function on the homepage - they might do well to try broad ideas like biology, composition, or anthropology. Further along,...

The Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum, a project of the Smithsonian Institute, curates exhibitions on soul music and social change. The museum "tells the story of musical pioneers who, for the love of music, overcame racial and socio-economic barriers to create the music that shook the entire world." At the link above, readers can enjoy a virtual tour of the museum led by Executive Director John Doyle....

With a dramatic geological flourish, the cover of the music for the 1890 song, "Alice's reverie" features an exploding volcano. Interestingly enough, the volcano is not spewing forth lava or ash, but rather what appears to be sheet music, direct to the waiting hands of delighted onlookers. This sheet music for this tune, along with 9000 others, can be found at this website, which was created by...

MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, uses blogging, podcasting and other Web technologies to create the WACKsite as a component of WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, a major show of feminist art created between 1965 and 1980. The WACKsite includes 42 Installation views of the exhibition, as well as a series of images from Walks Through the Revolution, a tour of the show held...