Professor / University of California, Los Angeles
Musicology / Music Industry / Comparative Literature / Digital Humanities
David MacFadyen was trained both at the University of London (SSEES) and UCLA, where he received his PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures. Since that time, he has been an avid scholar, promoter, and collector of recordings from East Slavic cultures (Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus). The size of that collection is now approximately two million compositions, constituting a substantial and unique database, recently donated to the Wende Museum in Los Angeles. It is undergoing major archival treatment––specifically with the application of blockchain technology––such that rare audio files may be safely lent in so-called trustless environments to both institutions and individuals. The embedding of AI-assisted metadata is also an essential part of the archive’s improvement.
A resulting ability to track the use(s) of music 24/7 then opens up exciting possibilities in Western markets, preserving the IP of far-flung musicians with timely, fair payments––free of any intermediaries and/or their commissions. Not to mention the fact that the blockchain makes false information about financial dealings cryptographically impossible.
With this focus on technology’s benefit for free speech and free enterprise in both Russia and Ukraine, MacFadyen is simultaneously authoring a series of monographs on the history of Russia’s recording industry––a troubled domain that, on occasion, reflects the same civic abuse that has taken such awful shape since 2022.
He also runs a non-profit (Pacific Sound and Vision) that offers free education to young musicians from Eastern Europe, connecting them to SoCal experts in a range of technical, creative, and financial realms. Work continues with decentralized tech to offer creative solutions to Russia’s centralized destruction
Dept. of Comparative Literature / 350, Humanities Building
Los Angeles, California 90095-1502
NEW BOOKS IN RUSSIAN
SONG AND DANCE / LOVE AND DEATH
SOVIET LITERATURE AND ITS CONTINUATION IN MODERN MUSIC’S ‘Z-SCENE’
Finished monograph on Soviet literature, apoliticism, and metapolitics. Where, put simply, does the worldview of that literature find expression today? State-sponsored popular music reveals itself as the most likely candidate, especially during the war with Ukraine.
Synopsis here; currently in contract negotiation.
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TOO MUCH OF EVERYTHING
A POSSIBLE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN POPULAR AND UNPOPULAR MUSIC, 1987–THE PRESENT
Finished monograph on popular and unpopular music in Russia, 1987-2022. Does the history of mainstream popular song really exist in isolation from the more romantic, underground phenomena celebrated in Western scholarship? The book answers in the negative, outlining in the process a host of aesthetic and ethical tendencies shared by Soviet and post-Soviet musicians, be they on pro-Kremlin television or in some distant bedroom, creating discord and clamor in equal measure.
Synopsis here; currently in contract negotiation.
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RUSSIAN POPULAR SONG PRIOR TO 1917
THE GENESIS OF TODAY’S BROKEN INDUSTRY
A history of nascent celebrity in Russia, Ukraine, and surrounding lands after the emergence of recorded sound, yet before the Revolution. A wide range of instructive parallels transpire with recording industries of the present, be they artistic, political, technological, and/or financial. Based on such parallels, commonsensical proposals are made for a fairer, more legally robust, and democratically inclusive industry for the future.
Synopsis here; anticipated completion date, Winter 2023.
2023-2024: Blockchain music and news publication in repressed societies. Uses a couple of Moralis clones (Spotify and Medium) in order to stream music and publish news articles as NFTs – which in the process protects IP, complicates piracy, anonymizes authorship (if needed), and makes lying about fake news sources cryptographically impossible.
Ongoing (since 2021): Creation and ownership of PSV Music Bootcamps, aiding embattled Russian musicians with international professional and creative exits from a repressive status quo:
2023: Blockchain and web3 for independent musicians and artists
2022: Web3 series
2022: Architecture of a hit song
2022: Designing an electronic press kit / Mental health for musicians
2021: Managing and marketing in the US music business
2021: Songwriting
2023–2024: Three new PSV Bootcamps. Commercial Songwriting, Synchronization, and the SoCal Music Business.
2023–2024: Advanced Professional Certificate in Commercial Songwriting, Berklee School of Music
Harmony
Melody
Writing Hit Songs
Commercial Songwriting
Ableton/Cubase
Current: ongoing translations of Russian lyrics for wide range of performers and independent/dissident voices, For example, “Voyager-1” and “Jordan” for Noize MC (Ivan Alekseev). Work also undertaken for jazz vocalist Tanya Balakirksaya, Aleksandra Almazova, Gaya Marina Garbaruk, Tinavie, and many other performers.
2022-23: UCLA Founding Faculty, Music Industry Interdepartmental Degree Program
2023: Specialization in Music Supervision (UCLA Extension / Distinction):
Copyright Law in the Entertainment Industry
Music Licensing Law
Contemporary Music Publishing
Music Supervision in Film and Television
2023: Introduction to Planet9 history of Russian punk (see above)
2023: Translated screenplay for animated feature “Hodja” (dir. Timur Bekmambetov)
2022: Mellon Foundation Award, “Data, Justice and Society” (Blockchains and Freedom of Speech)
2022: Google Cloud and Moralis “Defining DeFi” Hackathon Prizewinner (“Social and Entertainment Blockchains”)
2022: UCLA Social Medicine PhD planning committee
2022: Jury, Russian World Music Awards
2022: Graduate program design for UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine (“Medicine and Media” MSc/MA)
2022: Development of online ten-week asynchronous course: “Social Media and Storytelling” (UCLA Humanities)
2021-Present: Curator of Music, Wende Museum of the Cold War (Los Angeles)
2021: Softlanding IT Program (Skolkovo Innovation Center, Moscow)
2021: Head of Special Interest Group, Media and Entertainment @ Hyperledger (Permissioned Blockchains)
2021-Present: Guild of Music Supervisors (Los Angeles)
2020: Linux Foundation Training for Hyperledger Fabric Developers
2020: Certificate in Data Science (with distinction, UCLA Extension)
2020-Present: Faculty Lead, EPIC (Excellence in Classrooms and Innovative Pedagogy [Mellon Foundation])
Seminars in Teaching Excellence (co-taught Health Humanities / completed Inclusive Classrooms)
…and more
2019-20: Blockchain Developer Credentials (B9 Academy)
Primary Timeline
2018: Full-Stack Web Developer Credentials (UCLA Extension)
2018: University of California Distinguished Teaching Award
2018: Eby Award for the Art of Teaching, UCLA
2017-19: Chair, Dept. of Comparative Literature UCLA
2011-Present: Full Professor, Comparative Literature and Musicology / UCLA Affiliated
2011-Present: Faculty, Center for Digital Humanities (UCLA)
2007-10: Chair, Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures (UCLA) Promoted to Full
2004: Professor, UCLA
2001: Tenured as Associate Professor, UCLA
1991: Tenured as Assoc Professor: Dalhousie University, Canada
1995-99: Assistant Professor: Dalhousie University, Canada
1990-95: Doctor of Philosophy: University of California, Los Angeles
1987-89: Foreign Exchange Trader, Republic Bank of New York (London)
1987: M.A. Russian Language and Literature: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London (UK.)
1986: B.A. Russian Language and Literature / Italian: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London (UK)
Prior to 1986: Plenty of farm work amid prehistoric monuments
Additional Research
HEALTH HUMANITIES
Construction of nine-month “Medicine and Media” master’s program for UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine
PEDAGOGY
Management of Mellon Foundation grant for Excellence in Pedagogy and Innovative Classrooms
Archive of Far from Moscow festivals and the mapping of East European music (click image)
2. Pacific Sound and Vision (non-profit initiative / click image)
3. The music collection (Russia/Ukraine/Belarus + the Baltics). Click for expanded view. See Digital Humanities tab for details.
4. Archival Work with Wende Museum, Los Angeles (click image)
RESEARCH PROJECT 2023
A major archival project with the Wende Museum (Los Angeles), specifically the creation of a unique - and huge - database of recordings from two geographic and cultural spheres. These are East “Slavdom” (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) and the Baltic nations (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania).
The mission of the Wende Museum is to preserve Cold War art, culture, and history from the Soviet Bloc countries, inspire a broad understanding of the period, and explore its enduring legacy. Named for the Wende (pronounced “venda”), a German word meaning “turning point” or “change” that has come to describe the transformative period leading up to and following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Wende Museum:
• collects and preserves artwork, artifacts, archives, films, and personal histories from Cold War–era Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union relating to the period 1945–1991;
• challenges and engages the public through experimental exhibitions and interdisciplinary programming inspired by the collection;
• illuminates the past and informs the present through creative collaborations with contemporary artists and designers; and
• promotes rigorous scholarship, educates students, and stimulates general interest through lectures, symposia, and publications.
The Museum’s location in Culver City, California, provides independence and critical distance from current political debates in Europe, and also facilitates the questioning of preconceived ideas about our past and present. Moreover, the Museum’s physical remoteness from Central and Eastern Europe has enabled it to attract significant artifacts and collections that might otherwise have been destroyed as a result of emotional and political reactions.
Blockchain work continues on a distributed platform. This will help to protect the copyright of Russian authors and artists, using a track-and-trace system that can also aid the licensing and monetizing of media assets that are usually stolen and/or pirated.
Languages
ONE: Doctoral Level and Beyond / TWO.: Tangential Research Use
TWO
Ukrainian
Belarusian
Latvian
Lithuanian
Estonian
ONE
Russian
Polish
Old Church Slavonic
French
German
plus
Italian (B.A.)
Regular translation work focuses on language assistance for young East European singers and songwriters. Larger televisual projects include official subtitles for the twelve episodes of Valery Todorovsky’s award-winning drama Ottepel’ (The Thaw).
long ago…
