Hello,
I’m Andrew Mall
a popular music scholar and ethnomusicologist who researches and teaches courses about religious music, music industries, and popular music. I am an Associate Professor of Music at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.
As Associate Professor of Music at Northeastern University, I teach ethnomusicology, music industry, and popular music courses for undergraduate music majors and minors, non-majors, and professional masters students. I also lead independent studies and advise undergraduate honors projects. My research and teaching emphases include, among other topics, categories of mainstream and underground musics; DIY music scenes and communities; ethnographic research methods; histories of the recording industries; music festivals; nostalgia, collecting, and consumption; the organizational practices and hierarchies of music industry institutions; and the political economies of evangelical Christian congregational musics. I hold a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago (2012). Prior to coming to Northeastern, I taught at the University of Chicago and DePaul University.
My books include the monograph God Rock, Inc.: The Business of Niche Music (University of California Press, 2021) and the co-edited volume Studying Congregational Music: Key Issues, Methods, and Theoretical Perspectives (Routledge, 2021). My research has been published in American Music; the Journal of Popular Music Studies; the Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture; the Journal of the Society for American Music; Popular Music; Punk & Post-Punk; Twentieth-Century Music; the Yale Journal of Music and Religion; and several edited volumes published by Ashgate, Bloomsbury, Oxford University Press, Penn State Press, and Routledge.
I have been an active performer of Javanese gamelan since 2006. In Chicago I performed with the ensemble Friends of the Gamelan, where I also served on the board of directors and as the education coordinator. I co-launched a Javanese gamelan program at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. In the Boston area, I perform with Gamelan Laras Tentrem (formerly Boston Village Gamelan) and serve on its board of directors. A longtime volunteer DJ and administrator for college and community radio stations, I helped launch the Chicago Independent Radio Project and served on its board of directors until 2013, having previously volunteered for WLVR, WHPK, and WLUW; in Boston, for several years I served on an advisory committee for WRBB, Northeastern’s student-run radio station. I originally trained as a jazz saxophonist and also play guitar.
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I am currently working on two major projects. The first is an ethnographic study of Furnace Fest and hardcore music scenes more broadly. This has involved collaborative, team-based ethnographic research on-site at Furnace Fest since 2021, annual surveys of event attendees, and regular interviews with organizers, community stakeholders, and attendees. Our findings indicate that participating in close-knit musical subcultures can be beneficial to members’ mental and emotional health, and even help recover from trauma. One major component of this project is a mental health needs assessment to determine the extent to which risk factors in this community differ from those in the general population. My collaborators on this project are Nathan Myrick (Mercer University) and Christie Rizzo (Northeastern University).
My second major project addresses resilience and sustainability in DIY music communities. We are documenting the changes and challenges that face DIY music communities, theorizing the value these communities provide to their participants, and considering strategies that might improve their resilience and ability to remain vibrant. My collaborator on this project is Jaime Jones (University College Dublin).
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If you’d like to know more about my work, invite me to speak, or interview me for your own project, drop me a line and let’s connect.