ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the historical development of the publications since 1970, their emphases, and the use made of them by record collectors. The music press is an important part of popular music culture, and is a key part of the infrastructure of record collecting. The scope of record collecting continues to follow the areas marked out by the early literature, in terms of its emphases on particular genres, artists and formats. In addition to identifying and valuing recordings, the early guides, and their later counterparts, generally provide information on finding, caring for and cataloguing the collection. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw the publication, in both the United Kingdom and the United States, of a number of record collecting price guides. Contributing to the collecting process are discographies, fanzines and, most importantly, the dedicated record collector magazines.
