These are useful for getting up to speed (a crash course) on music concepts, topics, biographies, etc.
Music Online: Garland Encyclopedia of World MusicThis link opens in a new windowOnline version of the 1997 print encyclopedia and accompanying CD recordings. Each volume includes overviews of geographic regions, surveys of regional musical heritage, and descriptions of specific musical genres, practices, and audio performances.
Read the full encyclopedia entries for the following resources: Encyclopedia of Popular Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Grove Music Online, and The Oxford Companion to Music.