This book brings together research at the intersection of music, cultural industries, management, antiracist politics and gender studies to analyse music as labour, in particular highlighting social inequalities and activism.
Providing insights into labour processes and practices, the authors investigate the changing role of manifold actors, institutions and technologies and the corresponding shifts in the valuation and evaluation of music achievements that have shaped the relationship between music, labour, the economy and politics. With research into a variety of geographic regions, chapters shed light on the various ways by which musicians’ work is performed, constructed and managed at different times and show that musicians’ working practices have been marked by precarity, insecurity and short-term contracts long before capitalism invited everybody to ‘be creative’. In doing so, they specifically examine the dynamics in music professions and educational institutions, as well as gatekeepers and mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion.
With a specific emphasis on inequalities in the music industries, this book will be essential reading for scholars seeking to understand the collective actions and initiatives that foster participation, inclusion, diversity and fair pay amongst musicians and other workers.
Author(s): Dagmar Abfalter, Rosa Reitsamer
Series: Routledge Research in the Creative and Cultural Industries
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 234
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Changing Nature of Creative Labour
Music as Self-Organised Labour and Micro-Entrepreneurial Activities
Inequalities and Activism in the Music Industries
References
1 Ironworks as Venues of Music Production: The Ostrava/Vítkovice Case From the 1890s to the 1910s
Introduction
Mining and Factory Musicians: Founding Members of the Austrian-Hungarian Musicians’ Association
Specificities of Working Conditions in Mines and Ironworks
Dual Employments for Mining and Factory Musicians
The Orchestras’ Versatile Work Plans – In the Service of Ironwork’s Hierarchies
Aspects of the Orchestras’ Internal Organisation
A Man’s World – Concluding Remarks
Notes
References
2 From Bohemia to the Balkans: Towards a Socioeconomic History of Itinerant Women Musicians, 1860–1889
Introduction
Musicians in Erzgebirge: An Overview
Women Musicians in Pressnitz, 1870–1889: A Socioeconomic Analysis
Case Study: Theresia Elster’s (1848–1866) Family Background and Career
Conclusions
Notes
References
3 The MGM Lion’s Ominous Roar: (New) Technologies and the Disappearing Profession of Silent Movie Theatre Musicians …
Setting the Scene
The Spectre of (Mechanical) Sound
The White Shadows of Oblivion
Competing Discourses of the Unfolding Technological Drama
In Place of the Closing Credits
Notes
References
4 ‘Work That Body’: Disco, Counterculture and the Promise of the Transformation of Work
Introduction
Herbert Marcuse, Counterculture and the Rise of DJ-Led Party Culture
New Sounds, Professions and Employment Opportunities
The Recalibration of Factory and Office Life
Disco, Post-Fordist Work and Neoliberalism
References
5 Hope, Labour and Privilege in American New Music
New Music: A ‘New’ Hope
Music in Capitalism
Avatars the Work Ethic
New Music’s Privileged Networks of Labour
Conclusion
References
6 A Lockdown Recording Project: Jazz Musicians and Metaphors for a Working Life
Introduction
A Lockdown Recording Project
Lockdown and Industry
Working Together in a New Way
Working Conditions
Practice
Teaching
Careers
The Recording Project
The Valences of Metaphor
Entrepreneurialism
Portfolio Careers
The Gig Economy
References
7 Emotional and Relational Labour in Music From a Feminist Perspective
Introduction
Creative Labour, Emotional Labour, Relational Labour
Relational Labour and Care in Musical Collaboration
The Gendered Dimension of Networking and Friendship
Friendship and Unpaid Labour: The Status of the Amateur Helper
Conclusions
Notes
References
8 Afghan Pop in Europe: Migration, Affect and Musical Labour
Musical Labour, the Refugee Experience and Ethnographic Fieldwork
Afghanistan and the Refugee Experience
Afghan Music as Labour: From Radio Afghanistan to Afghan Star
Working in Music Within the Afghan Diaspora in Europe
Affective Labour and the Refugee Experience
Conclusion
Notes
References
9 ‘It’s a Kind of Macho Culture’: Changes and Continuities in Young Female Musicians’ Talk About Inequalities
Introduction
Details About the Study
Continuities: Individualisation, Progress Narratives and the Positioning of Women as the Advantaged Sex
Changes: Articulating Gender Inequalities and Linking Them to Personal Experiences
Sharing Experiences of Racialised and Classed Exclusions
Discussion and Conclusion
References
10 Women Working in the Music Business: An Alumni Study
Introduction: From a Wrecking Ball to a Reckoning
Theoretical Pathways
Chipping Away at the ‘Brick Wall’: On Becoming a Critical Practitioner
Research Methodology
An Alumni Study
On Bridge Building
On Inequality – The Lift Is Out of Order
On Knowledge Production
Conclusion
Acknowledgement
Note
References
11 Musicians of the World Unite!: The Initial Years of the International Federation of Musicians
Introduction
Part One: Musicians as Workers and FIM’s Formation
Part Two: FIM’s Early Days
Organising Who?
The Record Industry and Performers’ Rights
Technology
Working Abroad
Conclusion
Notes
References
12 Towards More Inclusion in the Music Industry
Introduction
Stigma in the Music Industry
Precariousness in the Music Industry
Lessons Learned
Where Do We Go From Here?
References
13 Moving Beyond @operaisracist: Exploring Blacktivism as a Pathway to Antiracism and Creative Justice in Opera
Introduction
Theoretical Framework
Method
Phenomenon
Timeline of Events
Conclusions
References
Index
