CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The Joy of Music (album)

2022 studio album by Ben Rector

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ123221453 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Joy of Music is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Ben Rector, released on March 11, 2022, through OK Kid Recordings. Rector co-produced the album with John Fields. The first draft of music was recorded in January 2020, but most of the album was scrapped and recorded throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and completed in December 2020. The pandemic cancelled his ongoing tour at the time and withheld other deadlines, leaving Rector to focus exclusively on the album's creation.

The album was designed to evoke joy in the listener; Rector also constructed the album around this philosophy, by writing music and collaborating with artists he would enjoy, and explore new ideas out of his comfort zone. He performed on various TV shows to promote the album and also issued a short film in December 2021 in the lead-up to its release. The Joy of Music was positively received by critics, who praised it for its diversity and lyrics. The album peaked at number 189 on the US Billboard 200, and appeared on multiple other Billboard charts.

Background

After Rector released his seventh album Magic (2018), his success grew, and his career as an independent artist shifted to business and management. With this change, Rector realized that making music was not as exciting to him as it was in his college years.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Joy of Music (album)” as 2022 studio album by Ben Rector. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2022, 2020, 2021, 2018—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2022-03-11. The account is most persuasive where Music, album and studio can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 2022 studio album by Ben Rector. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q123221453. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2022, 2020, 2021 and 2018.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Joy of Music (album)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Joy of Music (album) primary sources, The Joy of Music (album) archive and Music research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Joy of Music (album)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Joy of Music (album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.