Andrew Mall 3/5/26 Andrew Mall 3/5/26

Unboxing hidden music history: Lou Curtiss’ Whimsical Collection and vinyl’s survival.

The Finest (podcast, 2026). Lou Curtiss dedicated his life to preserving forgotten music — and now his extraordinary personal collection is being shared with the community he nurtured for decades. At Folk Arts Rare Records, thousands of vinyl records, CDs, tapes and rare recordings are being unboxed, cataloged and placed on shelves for music lovers to explore and purchase. In this episode, we meet Brendan Boyle, who began shopping at Folk Arts as a teenager and now owns and runs the store. Along the way, we explore how vinyl survived the '90s and 2000s and why physical media still matters in an age of streaming and digital fatigue.

Andrew Mall 1/8/26 Andrew Mall 1/8/26

Folk Arts Rare Records brings Lou Curtiss' music collection to the people

KPBS (2026). Andrew Mall, a professor of music at Northeastern University in Boston, studies media, music consumption and collecting. He said record stores — and the people who work in them — are crucial to local music scenes. In many cities, including San Diego, record stores function as gathering places where people share influences and resources.

Andrew Mall 8/22/25 Andrew Mall 8/22/25

Taylor Swift’s new album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ is being sold on cassette. Who’s buying?

NGN (2025). After Taylor Swift announced her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” fans began pre-ordering limited-release vinyls, CDs and even cassette tapes. While it may have been a while since the average person has bought a cassette tape, Andrew Mall, associate music professor at Northeastern University, says cassettes have percolated on the music scene and have become popular again over the last 10 to 15 years.

Andrew Mall 8/1/25 Andrew Mall 8/1/25

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are reissuing an album that’s been out of circulation for 50 years. Why reissue ‘Buckingham Nicks’ now?

NGN (2025). “Buckingham Nicks” was released in 1973 to minimal fanfare; the couple’s label, Polydor Records, dropped it within months of their release. The following year, the couple joined Fleetwood Mac, making them the notable figures they are today. But while you can easily find copies of or stream all of the duo’s other work — both in Fleetwood Mac and as solo artists — “Buckingham Nicks” was never reissued. Why reissue “Buckingham Nicks” now, after decades that were filled with breakups, makeups, reunion tours, and lawsuits for the pair? Andrew Mall, an associate professor of music at Northeastern University, thinks it could be a sign that things are thawing between the two exes.

Andrew Mall 7/21/25 Andrew Mall 7/21/25

Caught vinyl fever? Our music expert has tips

NGN (2025). Andrew Mall, associate professor of music, has a collection of 1,500 records. He gives his top tips for those venturing into the world of buying vinyl records.

Andrew Mall 9/16/22 Andrew Mall 9/16/22

Open Decks DJ Set, Sept. 2022

I DJ’ed a 30-min set on vinyl at Open Decks on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. Click through to the full post for my setlist.

Andrew Mall 10/1/21 Andrew Mall 10/1/21

Vinyl Revival

Journal of Popular Music Studies (2021). At the turn of the twenty-first century, vinyl records had remained a steady if unsubstantial component of recorded music revenue in the United States. But sales of physical media started declining steadily in 2001 in a seemingly unstoppable slide the RIAA attributed to digital piracy. Then a funny thing happened: although CD sales continued to shrink, by the end of the decade vinyl record sales had started growing, reaching $88.9 million in 2010—a revenue level not seen in two decades. In this article I trace these trajectories in more detail, considering how the trajectory of vinyl record sales in the twenty-first century both confirm and frustrate concepts of revival.

Andrew Mall 5/31/09 Andrew Mall 5/31/09

“Never Mind What’s Been Selling, It’s What You’re Buying”: Capital Exchange in Buying, Collecting, and Selling Vinyl Records

IASPM-US conference presentation (2009). Who holds the upper hand at record fairs? The dealers sell the commodities, yes, but the collectors decide what to buy, from whom, and (often, via bargaining) for what price. While dealers frequently self-identify as collectors, interactions between dealers and collectors necessarily rely upon the commodity status of music recordings and their role in the exchange of economic, cultural, and social capital. Through ethnographic research at Chicago-area record fairs, I explore the tensions between record dealers and record collectors, and investigate the ways in which capital and exchange contribute to musical meaning.

Andrew Mall 5/15/09 Andrew Mall 5/15/09

“I Heard You Have a Compilation of Every Good Song Ever Done by Anybody”: Subjectivity, Exchange, and Interaction at Record Fairs

MIDSEM conference presentation (2009). Record fairs are regular events where dealers rent tables from the organizers to sell vinyl records, CDs, and music memorabilia to the general public. Through ethnographic research at Chicago-area record fairs and interview data, I examine the different expectations—both of record dealers and collectors—that can help us examine the subjective, one-to-one economic interactions that make up the lived experiences of the record fair event.

Andrew Mall 11/19/06 Andrew Mall 11/19/06

Steady Diet of Nothing: Affinities, Sacrifices, and Change at Record Fairs

SEM conference presentation (2006). Building on Will Straw’s confluence of cosmopolitanism (“attentiveness to change occurring elsewhere”) and connoisseurship in his study of communities within popular music, this paper explores issues of everyday practice and changing identity through an ethnography of record dealers—individuals who act both as mediators and audience members within popular music exchange—using record fair events as the primary public cultural space.