A discography is a list of musical recordings that includes basic information about the recordings, such as the dates they were made and the names of the musicians who performed on them. The term “discography” is occasionally used to refer to the study of sound recordings. Numerous books contain extensive discographies for a variety of artists and musical genres, and standalone examples can also be found.
The term is a combination of the words “disc” (as in phonograph records) and “graphy,” a Greek suffix meaning “writing.” The term “discography” comes from the word “bibliography,” which refers to a list of books. A discography can cover any type of sound recording, including records, tapes, compact discs, and digital recordings, with the type usually noted in the margins for the reader’s convenience.
A classic example is a collection of all of a single artist’s or group’s recordings, typically arranged chronologically. People can see which recordings they are missing if they have a complete list, and the list can also be used to highlight rare recordings or stylistic shifts. Complete discographies include everything from B-sides to greatest-hits albums, and compiling a complete version, especially for a prolific artist or group like The Beatles, can take a long time. Scholars may disagree about the contents of some discographies, and scholarly debate can become heated at times.
It is possible to create a discography that covers a genre or theme, such as African-American spirituals or music about water, in addition to compiling lists of music performed specific people. Composer discographies are also available, which can be helpful for people who want to compare and contrast multiple recordings of the same work to see how different musicians and conductors interpret it. Because so many musicians have recorded performances of their works, a discography for well-known composers like Beethoven and Mozart can quickly become intimidating and unwieldy.
Music biographers, as well as scholars and historians who write about music, almost always include a discography in the index of their works for readers’ reference, with the discography serving as a list of sources and materials used in the preparation of a text. For the benefit of fans, bands frequently include discographies with their recordings or on their websites, and sites that collect and distribute information about music may also have a repository of discographies.