{{Short description|Online archive of music journalism}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox bibliographic database | title = Rock's Backpages | image = Rbp logo1.gif | caption = | producer = Rock's Backpages | country = United Kingdom | history = 2000–present | languages = | providers = | cost = Subscription | disciplines = Music | depth = Full-text | formats = Articles | temporal = | geospatial = | number = 56,000 | updates = | p_title = | p_dates = | ISSN = | web = {{URL|1=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/|2=rocksbackpages.com}} | titles = }} '''Rock's Backpages''' is an online archive of music journalism, sourced from contributions to the music and mainstream press from the 1950s to the present day. The articles are full text and searchable, and all are reproduced with the permission of the copyright holders. The database was founded in 2000 by British music journalist Barney Hoskyns.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Willman |first=Chris |date=2021-12-12 |title=Rock's Backpages Celebrates 20 Years of Archiving a Museum of Essential Music Journalism |url=https://variety.com/2021/music/news/rocks-backpages-anniversary-barney-hoskyns-rock-journalism-1235131341/ |access-date=2024-03-11 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref> As of March 2025 its database contains over 56,000 articles, including interviews, features and reviews, which covered popular music from blues and soul up to the present date.<ref>"[http://www.rocksbackpages.com/group.html Group subscriptions]". Rock's Backpages.</ref> Rock's Backpages also features over 900 audio interviews with musicians from Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash to Kate Bush and Kurt Cobain.
The articles are sourced from magazines including ''Creem'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''New Musical Express'', ''Melody Maker'', ''Crawdaddy!'' and ''Mojo''. The database contains contributions from over 800 journalists, primarily from the US and UK, including Dave Marsh, Nick Kent, Charles Shaar Murray, Nick Tosches, Mick Farren, Vivien Goldman, Al Aronowitz and Ian MacDonald. While some articles are free to read, access to most requires a subscription.
Since 2018, Hoskyns has co-hosted the Rock's Backpages podcast with his colleagues Mark Pringle, Martin Colyer and Jasper Murison-Bowie: guests on the almost 200 episodes have included the abovementioned Kent, Murray and Goldman, along with fellow RBP contributors Neil Tennant, Val Wilmer, Nick Hornby, Simon Reynolds and Ann Powers. Non-RBP guests have included Joe Boyd, Chris Blackwell, Pamela Des Barres, Midge Ure, Billy Bragg, Penelope Spheeris and Peter Guralnick.
Rock's Backpages has also published anthologies of articles about Radiohead, Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. In 2024, Barney Hoskyns and Jasper Murison-Bowie co-edited ''Phew, Eh, Readers?'' a collection of pieces by (and about) the late Tom Hibbert.
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == *[http://www.rocksbackpages.com Rock's Backpages] *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090329060941/http://www.rocksbackpagesblogs.com/ Rock's Backpages Writers' Blogs]}} *[https://www.theguardian.com/internetnews/story/0,,584290,00.html Review of Rock's Backpages] in ''The Guardian'' (1 November 2001) *[https://archive.today/20130629162107/http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2011/12/reference/best-databases-2011-librarians-decide-which-databases-make-the-grade/ Library Journal Best Databases review] (December 2011), archived from [http://www.reviews.libraryjournal.com/2011/12/reference/best-databases-2011-librarians-decide-which-databases-make-the-grade the original] on 29 June 2013 *[https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Pages/PressRoom/LibraryJournalApr2017 Library Journal review] (April 2017)
Category:Cultural studies Category:Internet properties established in 2000 Category:Popular music Category:Online music and lyrics databases Category:British music websites