If you refer to a piece of music in your academic writing, you need to cite it. But how does this work? In this post, we’ll look at how to format in-text citations and the reference list entry for a musical recording in Chicago author–date referencing.
As with any source in Chicago author–date referencing, you can cite a musical recording by giving a name and date of publication in parentheses in the text. And in place of an “author” in the conventional sense, this means using:
You can see examples of citations of musical recordings below:
The lyrics in this version differ from earlier ones (Lee 2004).
In “No Logo,” MC Lars (2009) satirizes these attitudes.
The recording (Britten 1963) has been used in many film soundtracks.
In most cases, you won’t need a pinpoint citation for a musical recording. However, if you’re discussing a specific part of a recording, you can add a track number after a comma. For recordings that aren’t divided into tracks, use a time stamp.
The key components for a musical recording in a Chicago reference list are:
You won’t need all the above for every source! For instance, if you’re citing a full album, you would use the album title in the position of the song title.
In all cases, though, you should try to provide as much relevant detail as possible to help readers find the exact source you’ve used.
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To demonstrate how this works in practice, we’ve prepared some examples below:
Britten, Benjamin, composer and conductor. 1963. War Requiem. With Galina Vishnevskaya and the London Symphony Orchestra. Decca Records B00E3TEGJK, 33⅓ rpm.
Lee, Peggy, vocalist. 2004. “Fever.” Additional lyrics by Eddie Cooley and John Davenport. Recorded May 19, 1958. Track 14 on Things Are Swingin’. Capitol Records, Spotify.
MC Lars. 2009. This Gigantic Robot Kills. Horris Records OGL71003-2, compact disc.
This Is the Kit. 2020. “Was Magician.” Track 10 on Off Off On. Rough Trade RTO148CD, compact disc.
As you can see, each line after the first should be formatted with a hanging indent.
If required, you can also place musical recordings in a separate “Discography” so they’re clearly distinct from the print sources in your reference list. However, this is only necessary if you’ve cited a large number of musical recordings.
Chicago referencing is a very adaptable system, but this can make it easy for errors or inconsistencies to creep into your work. And this means it helps to have an expert proofreader check your writing before you submit it for marking.
Want to find out what this involves? Then try our free trial offer today.
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