Andrew Mall 4/17/25 Andrew Mall 4/17/25

How to buy concert tickets — and avoid getting scammed

Portland Press Herald (2025). Anyone who has bought a ticket to live entertainment in the past few years has likely racked up as many questions as they have credit card debt. We talked to industry experts, arts professionals and concert promoters to demystify what third-party ticket sellers are doing and to help you get the best seat for your buck.

Andrew Mall 4/14/25 Andrew Mall 4/14/25

Songs are getting shorter, thanks in part to Spotify and TikTok algorithms

The Washington Times (2025). Songs are becoming shorter as artists tailor their tracks to fit the algorithms of TikTok and Spotify, where quick hooks and replay-friendly formats drive plays and chart success. “Artists, especially new young artists, are simply just creating hooks and trying to circulate those on TikTok,” professor Andrew Mall, who studies music and media at Northeastern University, told The Washington Times.

Andrew Mall 4/4/25 Andrew Mall 4/4/25

Return(s) on Investment: The Value of Local Music Scenes

BFE conference presentation (2025). In this paper, we demonstrate that local jurisdictions’ objectives for investing in and promoting music, grounded in differing forms of value, can result in distinct and competing goals. We argue that advancing cultural policy initiatives that recognize and prioritize noneconomic forms of value in local music scenes is an important step in preserving and improving their resilience and sustainability. This collaborative paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Dublin, Ireland, and Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Andrew Mall 3/27/25 Andrew Mall 3/27/25

Hardcore Community at Furnace Fest: Nostalgia, Belongingness, and Vulnerability

Punk Scholars Network conference presentation (2025). In this paper I reflect on the meaningfulness of the Furnace Fest community to individual participants. My findings are based on four sequential years of fieldwork at Furnace Fest (2021–24) with ever-growing research teams, hundreds of survey responses, and dozens of hours of semi-structured interviews with organizers, community members, and random attendees (around 50 conducted at the 2024 event alone). I argue that nostalgia at Furnace Fest is generative as much as it is reflective, affirming participants’ identities while also empowering them to take risks and be vulnerably transparent in relative safety.

Andrew Mall 2/19/25 Andrew Mall 2/19/25

Beyoncé fans complain of inconsistent ticket prices for Cowboy Carter Tour

CBS Morning News (2025). Some Beyoncé fans say they're seeing inconsistent ticket prices for the Cowboy Carter Tour, with some social media users pointing to seats in the same section going for different prices depending on when you bought the tickets. Andrew Mall, associate professor of music at Northeastern University, joined CBS News to discuss the issue.

Andrew Mall 2/6/25 Andrew Mall 2/6/25

The State of DIY Music: A Roundtable Discussion

The State of DIY: A Roundtable Discussion was a public event held August 4, 2024, at the Lilypad in Cambridge, Mass.

Andrew Mall 2/1/25 Andrew Mall 2/1/25

Funflation: Concert ticket prices have soared, but music fans don’t seem to care

CNBC (2025). 2025 promises to be another big year for live music events. That may also mean concertgoers will be shelling out more for their favorite shows. After rising steadily post-pandemic, admission to movies, theaters and concerts jumped 20% since 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index data. And yet, consumers have demonstrated a high tolerance for the increasing price tag, also known as “funflation.”

Andrew Mall 1/31/25 Andrew Mall 1/31/25

Will Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show push NFL’s buttons or play it safe?

Northeastern Global News (2025). One of the biggest rappers of his generation, Kendrick Lamar is a logical choice for the NFL’s biggest stage. But the politically conscious rapper also stands in stark contrast to the league’s image.

Andrew Mall 12/12/24 Andrew Mall 12/12/24

What is the legacy of Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’? Cultural impact goes beyond music, expert says

Northeastern Global News (2024). Taylor Swift ended her nearly two-year-long tour on Dec. 8. The Eras Tour broke records as one of the highest-grossing tours in history.

Andrew Mall 12/12/24 Andrew Mall 12/12/24

Taylor Swift closed her Eras tour on top of the world. Now what?

Reporting by Agency France-Presse, published by ABS-CBN and other global media outlets (2024). The nearly two-year-long, $2-billion Eras Tour shattered records, made history and quite literally triggered earthquakes -- so what could Taylor Swift, the planet's biggest star, possibly do next?

Andrew Mall 12/7/24 Andrew Mall 12/7/24

Gamelan Laras Tentrem Concert

Gamelan Laras Tentrem concert, December 7, 2024

Andrew Mall 12/4/24 Andrew Mall 12/4/24

“Dynamic pricing” was a top contender for word of the year. Here’s why it got consumers so worked up in 2024

CNBC (2024). “Dynamic pricing” made Oxford University Press’ shortlist for the word of the year in 2024. Although the practice has been around for years, a recent surge in demand for sought-after concert tickets, such as Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, brought dynamic pricing back into the spotlight.

Andrew Mall 11/13/24 Andrew Mall 11/13/24

Why are the best new artists nominees at the Grammys not that new?

Northeastern Global News (2024). Northeastern music expert Andrew Mall sounds off on this year’s Grammy nominations, including Beyonce’s nominations for her first country album.

Andrew Mall 11/5/24 Andrew Mall 11/5/24

Review of Networking the Black Church: Digital Black Christians and Hip Hop, by Erika D. Gault

Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture (2024). In this review of Erika D. Gault's Networking the Black Church: Digital Black Christians and Hip Hop (NYU Press, 2022), I discuss Gault’s digital ethnographic approach to learning more about “digital Black Christians” (her chosen signifier for what others might call Black Millennials) and her findings about how those digital Black Christians — primarily “creatives” and “thought leaders” (or, to others, “influences”) — impact theological discourses and Christian communities outside of defined religious hierarchies and churches.

Andrew Mall 10/2/24 Andrew Mall 10/2/24

What is dynamic pricing and why is it hiking ticket prices for Oasis, Taylor Swift and your favorite artist?

Northeastern Global News (2024). Dynamic pricing was meant to stabilize the market; instead, fans have been hit with spiking ticket costs. How do we fix concert ticketing? A Northeastern music industry expert weighs in.

Andrew Mall 9/12/24 Andrew Mall 9/12/24

Could Fyre Festival happen again? Billy McFarland thinks so, but experts have their doubts

Northeastern Global News (2024). The disgraced founder behind the original Fyre Festival is out of prison and announced his plans to run a second iteration of the failed music festival in April 2025. His intentions to bring back the festival, which led to him doing jail time for wire fraud charges, was shocking to people in the music world.

Andrew Mall 8/27/24 Andrew Mall 8/27/24

Unpacking the magic of music festivals

1A/NPR (2024). Some of music’s most legendary moments didn’t happen in our nation’s storied venues or theaters, but outside, in front of the roaring crowds at music festivals. And festivals have brought the fire for decades. Jimi Hendrix famously performed the Star Spangled Banner in front of 200,000 people at Woodstock in 1969. Half a century later, music festivals big and small attract millions of Americans each year. What keeps people coming back and how do organizers keep so many music fans safe?

Andrew Mall 8/26/24 Andrew Mall 8/26/24

Punk Rock

Punk rock is simultaneously a music genre and a lifestyle, an attitude and a philosophy, a political orientation and a commodified fashion. Insiders, outsiders, in-betweeners—everyone’s perspective on punk is different, distinct, and necessarily individuated. Punk is what you make of it, yes—but it also has rules, boundaries, and its own self-appointed border police: punk is always already what others make of it. In this course, we explore the ideological, musical, and social characteristics of punk rock, its precedents, and its descendants.

Andrew Mall 8/8/24 Andrew Mall 8/8/24

Are Taylor Swift concerts still safe after terrorist threat? Experts explain why stadiums are still viewed as “soft targets”

Northeastern Global News (2024). Authorities in Austria say they’ve subverted a planned terrorist attack targeting several of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concerts in Vienna, shows that would have drawn as many as 200,000 concertgoers to three stadiums.

Andrew Mall 6/22/24 Andrew Mall 6/22/24

Music Festival Chaos: Inside the Deadly Risks at Concerts

Newsweek (2024). Music festivals like AstroWorld, Route 91 in Las Vegas, and Woodstock '99 have turned from parties to tragedies over the years, raising serious concerns about safety and security. These deadly stampedes, shootings, and riots, leave festival goers continuing to question if there are enough safety measures in place to protect attendees.