Biography
Katie Beisel Hollenbach studies popular music, technological mediation, reception, and fandom, particularly in American music culture during World War II. Her work has appeared in Music and the Moving Image and the Journal of Popular Music Studies. Her first book, The Business of Bobbysoxers: Cultural Production in 1940s Frank Sinatra Fandom (Oxford University Press, 2024), reconsiders the story of American popular music, celebrity following, and fan behavior during World War II through close examination of “bobbysoxers.” The book peels back the stereotypes of girlhood idol adoration by documenting the intimate practices of wartime Sinatra fan clubs, revealing a new side of this familiar story in American history through the perspective of the bobbysoxer.
Hollenbach has also served as Archives Trustee for the Ladies Musical Club of Seattle (LMC), Seattle’s longest-running classical music organization founded in 1891. This work included researching and documenting for public use the LMC’s long and varied history, which includes the International Artist Series (1900-1995), Public Concert Series, Music in Schools program, and the Frances Walton Competition for young artists.