Working in Music on the Semiperiphery

Local Cultural Production and Global Capitalism
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-963-386-846-1
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, 236 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

While music as labor feeds into the capitalist cultural industries, this book proves that in this sector informality greatly permeates and governs power relations and the allocations of resources. The significant level of informal involvement of the household in the creative and reproductive processes is also explored. It is particularly in the semiperipheral context that the relationship between home-based work and paid work is unbalanced: Emília Barna's field data are from Hungary and range from 2018 to 2021. The same context also implies considerable involvement of the state and its subsidies, as well as the important role of gatekeepers’ political capital.

This book embraces the widest possible range of workers in the music industry. It deals with all music genres from high-flying to commercial and observes various workers in the production chain beyond musicians. Niche segments of the sector, such as YouTube-based commercial hip hop, are given special treatment. Using a variety of empirical research methods, the study examines the trends as workers are pushed towards digital entrepreneurship and platform work, on the one hand, and live performance, on the other. The focus on domestic work and informality offers a feminist analysis of work in music. This approach sheds light on gendered divisions of labor and forms of (self-)exploitation that usually remain invisible. The book proposes a new model of cultural autonomy that takes account of the semiperipheral relationship of music industry workers and institutions to both the market and the state.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Barna, Emília

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Musikveranstaltungen und -organisationen, Aufführungspraxis
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Medien-, Informations und Kommunikationswirtschaft Musikindustrie
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Musikindustrie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Illustrations and Tables

Acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 - CREATIVE AUTONOMY, THE STATE, AND GLOBAL CAPITALISM

CHAPTER 2 - CREATIVE AUTONOMY IN THE “SYSTEM OF NATIONAL COOPERATION”: PROFESSIONALIZATION, INCORPORATION, AND DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

CHAPTER 3 - THE PLATFORMIZATION OF MUSICAL LABOR AND ITS SOCIAL EMBEDDEDNESS: THE CASE OF HIP HOP

CHAPTER 4 - GENDER RELATIONS AND THE ROLE OF THE HOUSEHOLD IN MUSICAL LABOR

CHAPTER 5 - EMOTIONAL LABOR IN MUSIC PRODUCTION

CHAPTER 6 - LABOR, CRISIS, AND SOLIDARITY

APPENDICES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Über Autor(innen)

Barna, Emília
Emília Barna, PhD is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Communication, Budapest University of Technology and Economics. She is a sociologist and popular music scholar, whose main research areas include the music industries and digitalization, popular music and gender, cultural labor, and popular music and politics.