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Rock's Backpages is the world's most comprehensive online database of pop music writing, a unique resource unavailable elsewhere online. It contains an
ever-expanding collection of primary-source full-text articles from the music and mainstream press from the 1950s to the present day, along with a collection of
exclusive audio interviews.
Subscriptions to Rock’s Backpages are available for institutional or personal use.
For institutions, Rock's Backpages is provided as an unlimited access subscription, meaning that all staff, students and library patrons have
unrestricted remote and on-site access to each text and audio file in the database. For full terms, please click here.
Please visit our Institutional Subscriptions page for further information and to arrange for a trial or quote.
Enter your email address in the field below and we'll send you a password to read all free articles on RBP.
Rock's Backpages is the world's most comprehensive online database of pop music writing, a unique resource unavailable elsewhere online. It contains an
ever-expanding collection of primary-source full-text articles from the music and mainstream press from the 1950s to the present day, along with a collection of
exclusive audio interviews.
Subscriptions to Rock’s Backpages are available for institutional or personal use.
For institutions, Rock's Backpages is provided as an unlimited access subscription, meaning that all staff, students and library patrons have
unrestricted remote and on-site access to each text and audio file in the database. For full terms, please click here.
Please visit our Institutional Subscriptions page for further information and to arrange for a trial or quote.
Signing up for the RBP newsletter provides access to a limited number of free articles, as well as six new free articles every week.
Content Licensing
Rock's Backpages is the world's largest digital library of interviews and reviews from the music press of the past 60 years. We license text and audio content to many third-party publishers, broadcasters, and record companies. We provide exclusive audio clips for use in TV, film and radio documentaries, and text articles for inclusion in books, magazines and album reissues. Click here to contact us with your licensing request.
Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall
Spike Lee's 2016 documentary about the making of Michael Jackson's Off the Wall album, featuring audio clips from John Pidgeon's 1980 interview with Michael
Stay Free: The Story of the Clash
Spotify’s 2019 podcast about The Clash, narrated by Chuck D and featuring audio from Joe Strummer interviews by Howie Klein and Ian Ravendale
Laurel Canyon: Everything They Touched Turned to Music
Alison Ellwood's 2020 Epix documentary, featuring clips from Ted Alvy's 1967 interview with David Crosby and Barney Hoskyns' 1994 interview with Joni Mitchell
T. Rex: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's induction of T.Rex in 2020, using audio from John Pidgeon's 1974 interview with Marc Bolan
David Bowie: Brilliant Adventure [1922–2001]
Text interviews from the RBP archive included in the booklets for Parlophone's series of David Bowie box sets
Blank on Blank: Jimi Hendrix
Blank On Blank's 2014 animation of an audio interview with Jimi Hendrix by Keith Altham, recorded a week before Jimi's death in September 1970
In addition to the text articles and audio interviews currently accessible on the RBP site, we provide scans and digitisations of many other pieces from our physical archive of music magazines in London. Additionally, we have hundreds of audio interviews that are not yet on the site which can be digitised and heard on request.
To hear short excerpts from five of our 800+ audio interviews, please use the player below.
