Music as Labour. Inequalities and Activism in Past and Present

"Music as labour”, edited by Rosa Reitsamer and Dagmar Abfalter, has been published in 2022 by Routledge. Its 13 contributions range from the 19th century until today, from Eastern Europe to the USA, from silent movie theatre music to opera and jazz.  

 

 

In their introduction, the editors Rosa Reitsamer and Dagmar Abfalter focus on primarily Western conditions that frame artistic labour: After World War II, early conceptualization of creativity paved the way for new, but still marginalized approaches to the arts and culture sector. It was only in the 1990s, when the term creativity started a triumphal procession. Acknowledged as a key player, the Department for Culture, Media, and Sports (DCM) of the British New Labour government coined the two-sided concept of creative industries in 1998. Until today, neoliberal tendencies support further understandings of creativity as an economy and the "non-unionised, self-exploiting, always-on flexibly employed worker (…) as role-model of contemporary capitalism” (Peuter 2014, 263 in: Reitsamer/Abfalter 3). 

 

For music creators, Reitsamer and Abfalter clarify the "misleading notion of a single music industry" (p. 5) that results from the focus on the recording industry. They contradict this one-sided approach and point out that a large number of musicians of different genres lived and still live under precarious working conditions in terms of income and social security. Gender and race contribute to this situation, especially when they intersect and, furthermore, are structurally entrenched. Within this rather pessimistic picture, the editors emphasize activism and militant assertiveness, proved by many of the 13 contributions. A variety of methods, such as sociology, media analysis and ethnographic research, tap into structural rooted inequalities and activism.

   

 

The historical case study on mining orchestras in the former Morovian-Silesian region (today Czech Republic) (Fritz Trümpi: "Ironworks as Venues of Music Production") shows rare privileged conditions for male musicians in a very specific environment and thanks to the self-organization in the Austro-Hungarian Musicians' Association. The contrasting example from the same period (Nuppu Koivisto: "From Bohemia to the Balkans") reveals how female musicians without formal training made a living as itinerant musicians in ladies' bands (Damenkapellen). To understand women’s musical work in late 19th century Europe, Koivisto applies a socio-historical analysis that considers the intersection of class and gender. Finally, an astounding media analysis by Mojica Piskor ("The MGM Lion’s Ominous Roar”) captures an instance of transition to demonstrate how technological development made professions emerge as quickly as they vanished on the example of silent movie orchestras. These chapters are of particular interest because there has been only little research on the historical working conditions of musicians and the lessons that can be learned from them for the present.

 

 

From the 1970s onward, the book’s case studies unfold music as counterculture to mainstream industry production. Tim Lawrence ("Work this Body”) focuses on the new space for collective, creative, flexible and, at the same time, precarious labour in the emerging Disco-Universe. John R. Pippen ("Hope, Labour and Privilege in American New Music”) looks at American New Music production and concludes that "labour networks (..) are riddled with forms of social privilege”, theorized as success stories and rhetorically embraced as "entrepreneurship”. Consequently, Rippen questions entrepreneurship books which normalize "privilege and reinforce the hegemony of elite musicians” (p. 92). Finally, Michael L. Jones looks at power relations within the industry, using jazz musicians as an example. Since they depend heavily on live performances, "survival as watchword” unites musicians not only in jazz - and not only during the pandemic that forms the context for his essay "A lockdown Recording Project”.

 

 

Several contributions address the influence of gender. In her qualitative study "Emotional and Relational Labor from a feminist approach," Emilia Barna examines the effects of strong identification of those involved in music production. She picks up, for example, on the topos of insincerity frequently raised in her interviews with musicians as the result of a "normality" of friendly interaction. The gendered dimension of such a "friendship" simultaneously reveals the dynamics of male alliances. Cristina Scharff ("’t is a kind of Macho-Culture’”) explores gender and racial inequalities in the classical musical world. She stresses the importance of constantly and critically analyzing its structural roots in order to promote social change”. Finally, Sally Ann Cross ("Women Working in the Music Industry: An Alumni Study”) notes a positive shift in awareness for improving women's working conditions following ongoing feminist and anti-discrimination initiatives.

 

In her contribution "Towards More Inclusion in the Music Industry," Sophie Hennekam introduces "stigma" as a circumstance that leads to stereotyping or discriminatory perceptions. She examines this using the example of women's gender as well as musicians who can no longer live exclusively from music after the age of 32.   

 

"Afghan Pop in Europe" by Marko Kölbl deals with stereotypes in intercultural encounters and is a rousing read. Using the example of Afghan musicians living in Vienna, some of whom are asylum seekers, he reveals how clichéd beliefs about traditional and modern music-making in Afghanistan even lead to the rejection of the asylum application in one case.

 

 

Martin Cloonan ("Musicians of the World Unite!") studies the International Federation of Musicians, touching on the difficult process of musicians' collective self-organization. This endeavor goes hand in hand with the question of musicians' self-representation, the shaping of their relationship with the music industry, and the conception of work as such. Finally, Antonio C. Cuyler ("Moving beyond @operaisracist") analyzes Blacktivism through the lens of Critical Race Theory. He investigates the role of the Black Opera Alliance (BOA), which emerged after the murder of George Floyd, and considers it as an inspiration for strategic action by oppressed groups in the U.S..

 

 

The contributions unfold a striking complexity of behavior and norms, structures and hegemonies that contribute to poor working conditions of musicians. One of the great merits of the book is the dismantling of narratives, like the dangerous myth of professional pleasure outweighing social security and fair pay. As for structural gender inequalities, the empirical results show how these can be transmitted through subjectification. Such findings appear as highly relevant for any kind of actors that engage in collective and affirmative action. Compared to the creation of union-like organizations and measures such as quotas used, for example, in the EU-funded Keychange movement for gender equality at European music festivals, scholarship seems to lag behind practice. Only recently has research on working conditions and inequality increased and publications such as Banks' "Creative Justice" (2017) gained wider attention.

 

 

Examining the working conditions of those who make possible what the creative industries are praised for shows labour at creativity as exploitation. Only a few aspects appear to have been missed out, such as Horkheimer and Adorno's critique of the "Kulturindustrie”, which is only mentioned but not integrated. The ambivalent meaning of copyright regulations as a recognition of immaterial labor, as a protection of creativity, as a pillar of economization - and royalties as a measure of racist structures, which Cuyler points out - also comes up short. 

 

Overall, "Music as Labour" is a profound compendium on deep-rooted inequalities and activism. The international and cross-genre selection of contributors makes it possible to identify common struggles and similar challenges in welfare states. And the exposure of inequality structures shows that much more is at stake than wages, namely social inequalities and the acceptance of creativity as work. This makes "Music as Labour" an exemplary contribution to shaping the self-concept of cultural management as a socially responsible discipline not only in the mediation but also in the production of art.