Rock's Backpages. Backpages Ltd. http://www.rocksbackpages.com. [Requires a Web browser and an Internet connection. Audio selections require a player capable of playing MP3s. Pricing: individual subscriptions, $30 for six months or $50 per year; institutional subscriptions, $150 per year for public

Rock music journalism is a unique niche, and a peculiarly self-referential and exclusive one. The barrier to entry is low, especially in the era of file sharing, podcasting, and blogging, but with any given article, essay, polemic, or review, the observer may be almost as interesting as the observed. Anyone can dance about architecture, but how did Lester Bangs or Ian MacDonald do it? Reading or listening to really good rock journalism is almost as much fun as experiencing the music itself: this guy really gets it, man. In a way, it's very satisfying to read an original turn of phrase and know that one is looking at tomorrow's rock cliche--as opposed to reading the same cliched opinions about the same artists over and over again. To look back on the rock writing of yesteryear is to see how the attitudes of audiences, as well as those of musicians, have changed--and how they have remained the same. The excesses of heavy metal in the 1980s reappear in today's hip-hop world. It's a funhouse of schlock. Rock's Backpages does not fill this niche completely, but it does include content that is difficult if not impossible to find anywhere else. Here is where the features from Creem, Circus, Kerrang!, and The Face have come to rest--though, it must be said, not all of them.

The reason for this is that although Rock's Backpages does index by artist, publication, and general topic (these range from doo-wop and Merseybeat to drugs and politics), the emphasis here is on particular writers, to a degree not typically found in databases and indexes of literature about music, and the choice of content to include is severely constrained, about which more appears below. Brief biographies of writers are provided, including notable publications. Among the services offered by Rock's Backpages are consultancy and editorial services, as well as putting clients in touch with writers. The Rock's Backpages library forms the core of a larger set of consulting services targeted at music-related businesses such as record labels and book publishers, though subscribers are not obligated to avail themselves of these.

It's worth noting that not all of the organization's content is yet available through the online library, although the selection which is available is very good: it is possible to follow the high and low points of an artist's entire career, assuming that this career falls within the past fifty years. It's all there: the first fresh review of a brand-new record (remember those?), the soundbites of questionable wisdom from the likes of Robert Plant and Axl Rose, the effusive (or not so effusive) live reviews that attempted to instill another stop on a whirlwind tour with significance after the fact. The best rock writers could capture in words something of the visceral ecstasy that is a great rock show, and plenty of examples are included in Rock's Backpages. The budding rock journalist, or the merely curious, will find plenty to relish here.

But does it work for libraries? Yes and no. As a niche resource with specialized content, Rock's Backpages is not an obvious addition to a music collection, the way Music Index or RILM might be. The content is interesting, and often weirdly fascinating, but it is questionable whether a library not already collecting in the area represented by these publications will have a use for it. On the other hand, much of this content is unavailable on the visible Web, and not indexed in widely-used research databases. Although publications like Spin, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times are represented, Rock's Backpages also includes magazines that never quite had the same cachet, but which were a step up from 'zines and tabloids, such as Circus and Metal Edge. As such, they were and are ephemeral; how many youthful readers tore them apart to stick the pictures on their bedroom walls? They nonetheless are an important resource for those with an interest in rock journalism, rock music, or popular culture, and all the more so for their insubstantiality. Libraries associated with record labels, music production companies, radio stations, or institutions such as Seattle's Experience Music Project would get a lot of mileage out of this resource, as would music publishers.

The library's content is current within its scope, and goes back fifty years, which covers almost the entire history of rock journalism. Most of the content was previously published elsewhere and in some cases is quite obscure. Because the library is based around particular journalists rather than particular publications, and includes primarily freelance work, the content is not exhaustive, and this should not be the sole source consulted for research in this subject area. That said, the quality of the content is generally high. The rationale for the site's scope is not expressly stated; in particular, why fifty years is the cutoff date. This limitation, however, is logical: as previously mentioned, it covers the majority of the period that rock journalism has existed as a definable genre, and given the transitory nature of the material and the types of publications covered, finding content more than fifty years old would be difficult. Rock's Backpages claims that its archive is exclusive, and this is largely the case, although a few articles can be found on the visible Web. Google searches for particular articles rank Rock's Backpages high in the search results. The search engine is accessible to and usable by non-subscribers; only the full text is restricted. This sensible policy makes it possible for a librarian or researcher to determine, without cost, whether materials relevant to a project are in the database.

The resource's creators and maintainers are readily identified and appropriately credentialed, consisting mostly of music writers and editors whose expertise makes them well suited to choosing appropriate content. The site designers appear to have primarily commercial experience, which may explain this resource's fairly basic and intuitive search and retrieval functionality. The content is selective, but not biased, although the criteria for including writers is not readily apparent. The page advertising available services solicits writers to offer their freelance articles for inclusion. This suggests that content that is proprietary to various rock publications is not included; it also may explain why so little of this content is found in other music databases.

The site itself is simply organized and reasonably easy to use. Search and retrieval features are readily apparent and easy to navigate. Access can be regulated by password, IP address, or click-through link, at the discretion of the subscribing institution. Once past the entrance page, the user is greeted by the main library page. This page features the Rock's Backpages search engine, as well as lists of recent and popular additions to the library. These lists do not merely include recent content, but consist presumably of additions from Rock's Backpages' own archive; a list from the week of 12 March 2006 included features on John Lennon and Eric Clapton from 1973 and an interview with David Bowie from 1976.

The search functionality is a bit different from what users of online databases and retrieval systems have grown used to. The "Quick Search by Artist" feature consists of eight drop-down menus listing artists in alphabetical order, with each menu covering a different section of the alphabet. Personal names are alphabetized by the artist's last name, and the usual stop words are excluded. "Quick Search by Writer" and "Quick Search by Subject/Genre" work in the same way. Only below this does the user encounter a keyword search box, along with a link to an advanced search page where primitive Boolean searching and some search limits are available. Among these are limiting the search to a specific publication and/or specific year; the ability to specify date ranges would be helpful here.

The quick searches function more like browsing, and are a reasonably effective way to get a sense of what content is available. As the repository grows, the publisher may want to revisit how this is done, lest the lists become unmanageably long. Already, if one is looking for an artist or term toward the end of an alphabetic range, it can take a long time to scroll down.

Search results from the quick searches are presented according to which list the user used to generate them, and there is clearly some straightforward but rigorous indexing behind them. Results using keyword or advanced searches are headed "Search results," and it is not entirely clear what is being searched: presumably an article's full text. Results are presented in chronological order; this cannot be changed to reverse order, relevance, or any other sorting rationale. This can make a search for, say, everything about a particular artist within the past five years somewhat tedious.

Each link in the search results leads to an article's full text, in HTML format. An entire article is presented on a single page; since most articles in this genre are not particularly long, this does not present a page-load problem. (The complete artist and writer lists do sometimes take a long time to load, even on a fast connection.) Printer-friendly versions are available, along with links to articles on related topics. Only the text is available; these are not scans, and any photographs or sidebars that originally ran with the content are not included. Citations include title, author, publication, and date published, although not volume and issue numbers or original pagination, which may or may not be an issue. Searches previously performed are not preserved, nor can one e-mail result sets or articles, or export citation information.

Rock's Backpages requires only a Web browser to access textual content. Some audio is also available, of tape-recorded interviews that served as the basis for some of the articles in the library. The selection here is very small, worthy of curiosity though not sufficient to make the site's audio offerings a major reason to subscribe. Audio files are mostly in MP3 format and the sound quality is variable, particularly for older recordings that have been subject to inevitable media degradation. The site's sound quality ratings are somewhat optimistic, particularly in the case of Ozzy Osbourne, who has a tendency to be almost incomprehensible even when the audio quality is crystal clear. Still, there's some interesting content in this section, such as a 1979 interview with Pete Townshend and one with Joey and Dee Dee Ramone in 1985. Only a handful of writers are represented here (presumably the ones who assiduously saved their tapes), and the dates of some of the recordings are obscure.

Rock's Backpages is easy to contact via e-mail, and there is also an online forum for discussion among users. Relatively little of this forum is given over to user support for the site, and that area of the forum is among the least used. Most of the discussions are between rock aficionados on such eternally favorite topics as the best songs of all time, favorite bands and movies, and the best new bands. High Fidelity's Rob Gordon would fit right in here.

Librarians may conclude that Rock's Backpages is not primarily intended for libraries, and they would be right to do so. The audience for this resource is very specialized: rock writers and aficionados, pop music researchers, and anyone else who might be interested in tracing the meteoric rise and fall of bands like Guns N' Roses. When compared to other textual music resources, Rock's Backpages is primitive in terms of features and functionality, yet most of its primary user base will be satisfied with what is currently available. With its content filling such a specialized niche, it is arguably unnecessary for this resource to become more sophisticated unless its collection grows much larger in size and/or scope. Although it will find a limited reception among libraries, this is an excellent if optional resource for the right audience.

GENEVIEVE WILLIAMS

Pacific Lutheran University

EDITED BY PAUL CARY

This quarterly column offers reviews of music resources in a variety of digital media, excluding any in purely digital audio format that would normally be reviewed as sound recordings. This includes CD-ROM products, World Wide Web sites, online subscription services and databases, and music-related software of any kind. This may include both free and fee-based resources. Some reviews may cover a number of related sources together. All Web sites were last accessed 31 May 2006.