Nationality American Books Empire of Dirt Role Writer | Name Wendy Fonarow Genre Non-fiction | |
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Occupation Anthropology, Professor, Writer, A&R Education University of California, Los Angeles | ||
Wendy Fonarow has been an anthropology professor at Glendale Community College, writer and music industry professional. She is best known for the book Empire of Dirt, and for her column Ask the Indie Professor in The Guardian.
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Life and career
Wendy Fonarow was born in Los Angeles.
While studying at University of California in San Diego, she worked at the campus radio station. There she was exposed to bands like The Fall, Pink Industry, Wire, Magazine, and the magazine NME. Milo Aukerman of the Descendants also attended UCSD and decided to do a cover of the Beach Boys "Wendy" for her which was later included on The Descendant's album Enjoy! After graduating, back in LA, she started to go to concerts of similar bands.
In 1989, Fonarow was added to the guest list of Something Happens (an Irish band who gave her backstage access. While attending other concerts, she noticed that the spectators (usually) obeyed some unwritten rules, which made her interested in music performance as a ritual. She chose this area as the topic for her PhD thesis .
In 1996, she workied at MCA Records in Los Angeles as an A&R manager.
In 1999, she finished her PhD thesis and in 2006 released a book. She has given lectures and keynotes at Cambridge University, Princeton, Columbia University, UCLA, University of Milan, University of Oslo and the University of Edinburgh as well as conferences, including By:Larm, CMJ, SXSW, Music Finland, and EMP in Seattle, NYC, and Los Angeles.