Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM)

Each week RILM features one reference work contained in RILM Music Encyclopedias. The encyclopedias of this week is a brand new addition, which joined the collection just last week: Jaimie Vernon’s The Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia: A Biographical Index (Scarborough, ON: Bullseye Canada, 2020) The Canadian pop music encyclopedia chronicles the history of over 2800 Canadian pop music artists, active from 1929 to the present. Among them, one can find familiar names like Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, The Guess Who, Justin Bieber, and Drake, but also obscure groups such as the U.S.-born duo Aarons & Ackley (active from 1971 to 1974) to the progressive/psychedelic rock band Zylan, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia (active throughout the 1970s). Each entry includes an extensive artist or band biography as well as a comprehensive discography of Canadian domestic releases and is accompanied by photographs. The primary criteria for inclusion in the encyclopedia are artists with at least a year experience and a commercially released recording on vinyl, cassette, CD, or Digital file. This is an essential work of reference for anyone seeking information on Canadian popular music past and present. To learn more about the richness and diversity of RILM Music Encyclopedias and its encyclopedias devoted to various types of music and subjects, visit rme.rilm.org.