Music Festivals, Ephemeral Places, and Scenes: Interdependence at Cornerstone Festival
Publications, Articles Andrew Mall Publications, Articles Andrew Mall

Music Festivals, Ephemeral Places, and Scenes: Interdependence at Cornerstone Festival

Journal of the Society for American Music (2020). Cornerstone was an annual four-day-long Christian rock festival in Illinois that ran from 1984 until 2012, first in Chicago’s northern suburbs and then on a former farm in the rural western part of the state. This article examines the production of space and place at Cornerstone. In doing so, it contributes a vital link between scene theory and the growing ethnomusicological literature on festivals.

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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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Courses Andrew Mall Courses Andrew Mall

Discover/Explore Chicago’s Music Scene

This course introduces students to the diverse musical offerings in the Chicago metropolitan area. Students will learn about the wide variety of music- and arts-related activities across many genres and styles. In addition to the excursions taken during Immersion Week and throughout the Fall Quarter, class discussions will focus on topics central to understanding Chicago’s music scene in both its historical and contemporary contexts.

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Publications, Articles Andrew Mall Publications, Articles Andrew Mall

What Would the Community Think: Communal Values in Independent Music

voiceXchange (2006). An enthusiastic post on a website, a supportive audience in a smoky club, an animated conversation at a local music store—every interaction between fans of independent music binds them in a community. This paper presents my initial research into the ways in which the independent music community’s boundaries and values are expressed and shared in evolving social networks by means of interactions that authenticate participants into this community.

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