Featured In, Interviews Andrew Mall Featured In, Interviews Andrew Mall

Musi, a new, free music streaming app, begs the question: Can anything compete with Spotify?

Northeastern Global News (2024). A new music streaming service –– Musi –– is turning heads with its free, silent ad-based platform that runs on audio from millions and millions of YouTube videos. Musi isn’t like major streamers like Spotify or Apple Music, but its entry into the streaming wars begs the question: Can anything compete with the likes of Spotify, or is the music streaming landscape set in stone?

Read More
Featured In, Interviews Andrew Mall Featured In, Interviews Andrew Mall

Taylor Swift keeps releasing different vinyl editions of “The Tortured Poets Department.” Is this wasteful?

Northeastern Global News (2024). Billie Eilish recently called out artists who make multiple variants of the same vinyl like Swift does. But Swift is not the first artist to do this, said Andrew Mall, an associate music professor at Northeastern University. Swift is part of a larger trend of those “gamifying” vinyl collecting, where consumers will buy every variant of a record — whether they offer a different cover, record color, or bonus tracks — in order to complete their collection.

Read More
Conferences Andrew Mall Conferences Andrew Mall

Hardcore Community at Furnace Fest

IASPM-US conference panel (2024). In 2023, our six-member team was on site in Birmingham, Alabama for five days, building upon over two years of prior research in 2021 and 2022. In this panel, four fieldwork team members share their findings along distinct themes. Together, we explore the ways in which community is substantiated and maintained at Furnace Fest.

Read More
Hardcore Nostalgia at Furnace Fest
Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall

Hardcore Nostalgia at Furnace Fest

MEIEA conference presentation (2024). What is the nature of hardcore, and how does hardcore nostalgia reflect its values and meet its needs? More than merely a marketing ploy, is hardcore nostalgia also an invitation to revisit and romanticize the anxieties of our youth; an attempt at a do-over; or perhaps even an act of emotional and mental self-care? In this presentation, we trace these trends in hardcore and emo to ask: what do we do with nostalgia that asks us to remember when we were young and angry and sad?

Read More
Featured In, Interviews Andrew Mall Featured In, Interviews Andrew Mall

Songs by Taylor Swift, Drake and More Are Starting to Disappear from TikTok. Here’s Why

Associated Press (2024). TikTok may look (or sound) a little different when you scroll through the app going forward. Earlier this week, Universal Music Group — which represents big-name artists like Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Drake — said that it would no longer allow its music on TikTok following the Wednesday expiration of a licensing deal between the two companies. Avid TikTokers are already seeing the effects. Here’s a rundown of where things stand.

Read More
Courses Andrew Mall Courses Andrew Mall

Sound and the Sacred

Music plays important roles in religious contexts: among other things, it connects worshippers to spiritual realms, centers practitioners within continuous traditions, distinguishes between sacred and secular spaces (and places), enables communal cohesion, facilitates transcendent experiences, imbues everyday activities with religious intent, orients believers to ritual practices, and contributes to religious identities, both at the individual and the collective (or congregational) levels.

Read More
Courses Andrew Mall Courses Andrew Mall

Seminar in Music Industry

In this capstone course for music industry students, we explore contemporary analyses and issues with an eye toward critically assessing and engaging the music industries. Each student brings to the classroom a unique set of skills and experiences, including those grounded in coursework and experiential learning (such as co-ops, internships, research, service learning, study abroad, and other activities). During seminar, we learn together as a class from these individualized experiences and sets of expertise—the sum of our knowledge, in essence, is greater than its individual parts.

Read More
Featured In, Interviews Andrew Mall Featured In, Interviews Andrew Mall

From Kate Bush to Glass Animals, How TikTok and TV Help Give Music a New Life

Northeastern Global News Magazine (2023). Whether it be reviving a decades-old holiday classic or breathing new life into an older release, TikTok, television and movies hold great sway. Where DJs and dance clubs once influenced people’s musical tastes, social media and entertainment are the new tastemakers as they introduce or resurrect music. This leads to songs released years ago hitting charts in a way they didn’t upon release.

Read More
Featured In, Interviews Andrew Mall Featured In, Interviews Andrew Mall

Is Beyoncé’s Renaissance concert film a sign of things to come for movie theaters and the concert experience?

Northeastern Global News (2023). Part concert film and part behind-the-scenes tour documentary, “Renaissance” promises to give fans a glimpse into the famously private superstar’s life during her recent Renaissance tour. It also promises to be a bright spot for movie theaters in the post-Thanksgiving box office doldrums. But could “Renaissance” be something more: a sign of things to come for the movie theater business and the theatrical experience?

Read More