Amateur Archivists and the Hidden Histories of American Popular Music

Abstract

This paper will examine the role of amateur archivists in the revival of American rock and roll of the 1960s. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with fans, artists, and label producers, I explore the production of reissue albums of a genre of 1960s rock music called garage rock. I show how the work of producing reissues involves more than simply selecting tracks, designing album covers and writing liner notes; rather, it is a form of archival work that entails tracking down “forgotten” bands and their recordings, uncovering their stories, navigating property rights, and compiling this material in album form. While most reissue albums of this genre of rock are “bootleg” productions that are exploitive of the original bands and their rights, I focus on examples of collaborative productions between the original musicians and reissue producers. This paper asks, what does the technical work of producing reissue albums tell us about the material cultures through which popular music circulates today? Likewise, how do reissue producers generate new forms of value through practices of curation and restoration? Lastly, I ask, what might music scholarship learn from these archivists in how to approach the hidden histories of popular music in a more ethical and collaborative way?