In your quest to find helpful responses to your background research questions:

1) first try google searches and wikipedia search

2) You can also try the Gale Virtue Reference Library or the Oxford Music Online Database.   You can access these databases via the Baruch Library page.   When you see the yellow search box, look at the small print underneath where it says “Databases.”  Click “By Name.”  Then you can click the appropriate letter range for either of the two databases.

3) If you’re not finding anything or not finding enough, try  breaking down your background question into keywords.   Then search not only for those keywords, but also for synonyms for that keyword.

4) For background on music artists, songs, and lyrics, you might try Rolling Stone Magazine ,  XXL Magazine, Variety, Complex Magazine, Alternative Press (AP), BBC Music, or Billboard .   You might need to look at the archives of older issues for these magazines. To a point some of them will have archives on their cite, but they won’t go back very far.  You can access some like Rolling Stone via Baruch’s library.  They say they have an electronic source as well.