Presentations
Publications
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Selling Out or Buying In? Archival Research of Consumer Discourse about Christian Record Label Consolidation
Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall

Selling Out or Buying In? Archival Research of Consumer Discourse about Christian Record Label Consolidation

MEIEA conference presentation (2018). In this paper I consider the role of archival research in music industry studies to address fan discourse as a barometer of anxieties over corporate consolidation. As a result of MEIEA-funded research into CCM magazine (at Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Popular Music), I discuss methodological approaches for discerning the diverse range of opinions expressed by committed fans (as a kind of historical ethnography and reception study) and present my findings not only in light of their importance to the historical record but also in terms of their practical significance to music and entertainment industry decision-makers considering an acquisition today.

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Tuning in to Locality: Participatory Musicking at a Community Radio Station
Publications, Chapters Andrew Mall Publications, Chapters Andrew Mall

Tuning in to Locality: Participatory Musicking at a Community Radio Station

The Routledge Companion to the Study of Local Musicking, Routledge (2018). This chapter examines how marketplace factors affect programming decisions made within radio stations at the macro level, and illustrates their local impacts through a case study of the Chicago Independent Radio Project (or CHIRP). I argue that stations like CHIRP facilitate public intimacy and personal relationships in local spaces and places via imagined communities that are more social than they are imaginary. Through participatory musicking, their staff, volunteers, and listeners help construct musical locality together.

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“As for me and my house”: Nashville, the Home of Christian Music
Conferences, Roundtables Andrew Mall Conferences, Roundtables Andrew Mall

“As for me and my house”: Nashville, the Home of Christian Music

IASPM-US roundtable (2018). For this roundtable, current and former Christian music professionals who have worked in A&R, executive leadership, higher education, music ministry, publishing, and radio promotions, among other roles, address the unique challenges that face Christian music. With many combined decades of experience in organizations large and small, our panelists are well-attuned to the city’s centeredness to the Christian music industries. We consider how Christian music has impacted Nashville, address the difficulties of maintaining a profitable business while conducting a ministry, and consider the boundaries of Christian music—increasingly porous as they are—in the broader contexts of globalized entertainment.

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Sound as Religion
Conferences, Roundtables Andrew Mall Conferences, Roundtables Andrew Mall

Sound as Religion

AAR conference roundtable panelist (2017). While interdisciplinary interest in the phenomenon of sound has been growing apace, understanding the diverse ways in which sound is implicated in religious practice and spiritual experience remains under-researched in the field of religious studies. This lacuna can be attributed in part to the dominance of textual, visual, and liturgical paradigms in the field, but also the challenges of conducting research on sound (including music), noise, and silence. At this juncture, we feel the need to team up and share resources in order to promote more research and theoretical reflection on the auditory and acoustic dimensions of religion.

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Resistance, Renewal, and Congregation at Christian Music Festivals
Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall

Resistance, Renewal, and Congregation at Christian Music Festivals

AAR conference presentation (2017). Based on interviews with festival staff and attendees, historical research, ethnographic fieldwork at Cornerstone in 2009–2012 (including two summers volunteering as festival staff), and fieldwork at AudioFeed and Wild Goose in 2017, this paper examines the production of space, place, and community at Cornerstone, AudioFeed, and Wild Goose.

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Conferences, Roundtables Andrew Mall Conferences, Roundtables Andrew Mall

The Ethnomusicology of Religion: Fieldwork Methods and Ethics

SEM conference roundtable panelist (2017). Ethnographic fieldwork is often shaped by logistical issues including access, documentation, rapport, and fluency (both cultural and linguistic). Ethnomusicologists researching musics within religious or sacred contexts, however, face additional challenges. For example, moments of spiritual transcendence complicate participant-observation, both for ethnographers who belong to the faith tradition they are researching and for those who do not. Similarly, the varied expectations of the researcher’s audiences problematize documentation and representation. In this roundtable, participants consider these and other issues, addressing the ethical and methodological challenges of fieldwork posed by the ethnomusicology of religion.

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Despacito and One Sweet Day: How pop culture “reflects the fabric of our society”
Interviews, Featured In Andrew Mall Interviews, Featured In Andrew Mall

Despacito and One Sweet Day: How pop culture “reflects the fabric of our society”

News@Northeastern (2017). This month, “Despacito” came precipitously close to being the longest-running No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Andrew Mall, assistant professor of music industry and ethnomusicology, said that the increasingly heterogeneous listening patterns of an increasingly diverse U.S. population means it’s not surprising Carey held on to the title for so many years. He added that this new, splintered listener base means that more variety is showing up on big charts like the Billboard Hot 100.

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Courses Andrew Mall Courses Andrew Mall

Music Industry Co-op Seminar

This directed study is designed specifically for graduate students in the Masters of Science in Music Industry Leadership program who are working on co-op. The course content and activities will help you reflect on the ways in which you are learning, the attitudes and behaviors that influence how you approach professional challenges, the motivators that influence your decision-making, and how this experience relates to your overall career goals. Your overall objective is to gain a deeper and broader understanding of your role’s importance within the music industry. By doing so, you will begin to see interactions and intersections with other professional areas, your academic work, and your prior background and professional work experience.

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Festivals and Musical Life
Conferences Andrew Mall Conferences Andrew Mall

Festivals and Musical Life

SAM seminar (2017). In this seminar, we examine the multiple ways in which festivals—understood as music communities (or scenes) concentrated into limited temporal and geographic frames—affect musical life in the Americas at the micro and macro levels, both historically and in the ethnographic present. Seminar participants should be prepared to present case studies that investigate and discuss the cultures, histories, values, and spaces developed in music festivals in the Americas.

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Abandoning Shelters: Christian Popular Music and Crossover Strategies
Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall

Abandoning Shelters: Christian Popular Music and Crossover Strategies

IASPM-US conference presentation (2017). In this paper, I critically analyze the strategies of two crossover cases: Amy Grant, who became the first Christian pop singer with a number-one Billboard Hot 100 single following the 1991 release of “Baby, Baby,” and Tooth and Nail Records, a Christian metal and punk label whose artists straddle multiple margins, crossing over from one to another. In doing so, I build upon the works of Hebdige, Toynbee, Weisbard, and others to theorize crossover as a process through which niche markets change over time.

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Courses Andrew Mall Courses Andrew Mall

Historical Traditions: America

In this course, we will survey the musical heritage of the United States in various cultural and stylistic contexts. How has the musical diversity in the U.S. reflected this country’s social and cultural diversity? In what ways has the commercial marketplace affected American musical life? What values have informed the emergence, performance, and consumption of the various genres and styles of art, folk, popular, and sacred musics in the U.S.?

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“This is a chance to come together”: Subcultural Resistance and Community at Cornerstone Festival
Publications, Chapters Andrew Mall Publications, Chapters Andrew Mall

“This is a chance to come together”: Subcultural Resistance and Community at Cornerstone Festival

Congregational Music-Making and Community in a Mediated Age, Ashgate (2015). Based on historical research and ethnographic fieldwork in 2009–2012, including two summers volunteering as festival staff, this chapter examines the ways in which Cornerstone’s imagined community was constructed, manifested, perpetuated, and mourned. This work participates in a growing literature on contemporary Christian congregational music practices and contributes to scholarship in ethnomusicology and popular music studies that address explicitly peripheral musical activities.

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Worship Capital, Evangelicalism, and the Political Economy of Congregational Music
Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall

Worship Capital, Evangelicalism, and the Political Economy of Congregational Music

SCSM conference presentation (2016). Building upon the works of Pierre Bourdieu, analyses of music industries, and contemporary discourses of intellectual property, this paper outlines a theoretical framework for the political economy of worship music and considers barriers to integrating this framework into our scholarship and practice. This research emerges from several years of ethnographic fieldwork at the Anchor Fellowship, a non-denominational evangelical church in Nashville, Tennessee, and advances the concept of “worship capital” to capture the various ways in which individuals and institutions invest in worship.

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Music Festivals as Scenes: Producing Ephemeral Space Annually at Cornerstone Festival
Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall Conferences, Presentations Andrew Mall

Music Festivals as Scenes: Producing Ephemeral Space Annually at Cornerstone Festival

SEM conference presentation (2015). Based on interviews with festival staff, historical research, and ethnographic fieldwork in 2009–2012—including time working on the festival’s setup, stagehand, and teardown crews—this paper examines the production of space and place at Cornerstone Festival. In doing so, it contributes a vital link between scene theory and the growing ethnomusicological literature on festivals.

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