Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Emília Barna
Publisher:   Central European University Press
Imprint:   Central European University Press
ISBN:  

9789633868461

ISBN 10:   9633868467
Pages:   236
Publication Date:   24 June 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables List of Appendices Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 1.1 Points of Departure Working(?) in Music on the Semiperiphery Digitalisation Gender Relations 1.2 Background and Theoretical Framework Approaches to Cultural and Musical Labour A Feminist Approach to Musical Labour on the Semiperiphery 1.3 Aims, Methods, and Book Structure 2 Creative Autonomy, the State, and Global Capitalism 2.1 Theories of Creative Autonomy in the Cultural Industries Art versus Commerce: Conceptions of Cultural Autonomy in the Global Core Creative Autonomy and the Missing State 2.2 Creative Autonomy on the Eastern European Semiperiphery Working in Music during State Socialism Creative Autonomy in Postsocialist Hungary: Limitations of a National Perspective 2.3 Summary 3 Creative Autonomy in the “System of National Cooperation”: Professionalisation, Incorporation, and Digital Entrepreneurship 3.1 Creative Autonomy and the State between 2010–2020 Public Service Popular Music: MR2 Petőfi Popular Music and the National Cultural Fund 3.2 Creative Autonomy, the State, and the COVID-19 crisis 3.3 Gatekeeping, Gender Relations, and Digital Entrepreneurship 3.4 Constructing the “Music Industry” 4 The Platformisation of Musical Labour and its Social Embeddedness: The Case of Hip Hop 4.1 The Hip Hop Segment 4.2 The Platformisation of Popular Music and the Labour Process 4.3 Platform Music: Labour in the Hiphop(ified) Music World Networks of Cooperation Connection, Competition, and Platform Governance The Informality of Production: Music Videos Relations of Dependence: The State and the Market Gender Relations and Income 4.4 Summary: the pop-rock and hip hop worlds through the labour process 5 Gender Relations and the Role of the Household in Musical Labour 5.1 Reproductive Labour and the Household in the Capitalist World-System 5.2 Musical Labour and the Household in the 1980s 5.3 Musical Labour and the Household after 2010 Material Resources Infrastructural Resources Emotional Resources Other Reproductive Labour Creative Resources Other Productive Labour 5.4 Music and Motherhood 5.5 Musical Labour and the Semiperipheral Household 6 Emotional Labour in Music Production 6.1 Emotional Labour and Relational Labour 6.3 Friendship, Gender, and Power in the Music Industries 6.4 Managing Work and Friendship: The Amateur Helper 6.5 Social Media, Emotional Labour, and Genre 7 Labour, Crisis, and Solidarity 7.1 Yielding Place to the New and an “Older” Order 7.2 Crisis and Organising 7.3 Social Reproduction and Solidarity Appendices Bibliography Index

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Author Information

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.

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