What is the Oklahoma Music Guide?
While no modern printed book can keep up with the rapid information explosion on the Internet, the Oklahoma Music Guide attempts to chronicle the major musicians, musical groups, songwriters, musical traditions, industry professionals, and important historical periods of music from the state of Oklahoma. After a sell-out of the first edition of 2,000 copies in 2003, the next edition of the Oklahoma Music Guide is due January, 2009.
Target Audience: We hope to reach fans of Oklahoma music and musicians, those interested in the cultural history of Oklahoma, as well as public and higher education libraries who collect materials related to Oklahoma history, culture, and music.
Who gets to be in the Oklahoma Music Guide?
As long as a person or group spends some significant portion of their musical career in Oklahoma, they are considered eligible for the guide. Some who are in the guide were born in the state but moved away at an early age (Nokie Edwards, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Edgar Meyer, Chet Baker), but they get in via birthright. Some moved to the state at an early age from somewhere else (Charlie Christian, Roger Miller), but spent their primary early years in the state. Others moved to the state later in life (Roy Clark, Trisha Yearwood), spent some of their professional career in the state (Conway Twitty, Buck Owens, Hank Thompson), or claimed to be from the state, but weren't (Eddie Cochran, Cowboy Copas). The second edition of the guide will address these issues since so many people brought them up at signings and talks by the author for the first edition: "Well, what about so and so?" By explaining some of the misconceptions, future Oklahoma music fans and researchers will have some ready answers about these musicians' connections to the state.
Along with establishing some kind of residency in the state, the primary criteria for a full entry in the Oklahoma Music Guide requires either national or international recognition for musical accomplishment, or extremely significant contributions to the music world in the state of Oklahoma.
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