Music as Labour: Inequalities and Activism in the Past and Present

This book explores the relationship between music, labor, the economy, and politics through the lens of cultural industries, management, antiracist politics, and gender studies. It investigates the changing roles of actors, institutions, and technologies, as well as the valuation and evaluation of music achievements, and sheds light on the precarity, insecurity, and short-term contracts faced by musicians. It emphasizes the collective actions and initiatives that foster participation, inclusion, diversity, and fair pay amongst musicians and other workers.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 226 pages
Publication date: 29 January 2024
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

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.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- Non Commercial- No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Weight: 453g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367713621