Welcome to the Music Bibliography.

The University of Minnesota Human Rights Library Music Bibliography is a collection of songs that pertain to human rights.  The Music Bibliography contains 250 human rights related songs from nearly 150 different artists and the song’s biographical information.

This is not meant to be an exclusive listing, but merely an attempt to organize music that has been written about human rights topics into a single area.  The songs in this collection relate to many themes of human rights, such as themes of women’s rights, poverty, anti-war, homelessness, and refugees.

The music and lyrics are presumptively the property of the artist and label, and are simply listed here as an educational information resource only.  This is a work in progress and more songs will be added.

Using the Music Bibliography.

The songs are organized in two main ways: by artist and by genre. 

Artist Listing

The artist listing is organized alphabetically and is split into three sections, A-I, J-R, and S-Z.  Simply select the link that corresponds to which listing you would like to view.

Alphabetical listings are typically by the artist’s last name and the word, “the” is omitted.

For example, Bob Marley, is classified under “M” for Marley.

Another example, The Clash, is classified under “C” for Clash.

Once you have selected the section, you will find a list of all the artists that are included in that section.  Each artist’s name is a hyperlink, and when you click the name of the artist the document will scroll down to the location for that particular artist. 

Under the artist’s section will be a listing of all the songs contained in the bibliography for that particular artist.

            For example, in the A-I section, if you click on "Joan Baez", you will be directed to:

Joan Baez

                        Birmingham Sunday

                        Oh Freedom

Genre Listing

The genre listing is organized into thirteen different genres: Alternative, Blues, Country, Folk, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Pop, Punk, R&B, Rap, Reggae, Rock and Soul.  Genres are meant in the broadest sense possible, and therefore are not drilled down.  For example, a “heavy metal” styled song would mostly be under the Rock genre.

Genres are exclusive, so one song will not be found in more than one category.  The genre listing is only meant as a tool to help classify the style of music, not as an authoritative definition of the style of any song.

Once you have selected the genre you would like to view, you will find a list of all the artists that are included in that section.  Each artist’s name is a hyperlink, and when selected will scroll down to the location for that particular artist.  All songs contained in the bibliography for that particular artist will be listed under the artist’s name.