(Provisional) ​Music at work: a critical study of individualised listening in labour

This project is the product of a difficult shift at work. In order to fund my Master’s degree, I
worked as a stagehand at the Barbican. One evening, after a day of seminars and
dissertation-writing, I found myself building an entire stage for the orchestra, alone. With the
hall empty, and my boss in the office, I plugged my phone into the speaker system and put
on my ‘80s Smash Hits’ playlist. Although my shift ended at 2am, I was finished by 1: a free
hour’s pay! But in reality, I’d worked harder, and faster, for someone else’s profit, all thanks
to Whitney Houston. Music had helped condition the way I worked, and the way I felt: but for
whom?
Music constructs, reinforces and maintains who we are, everyday. As Tia Denora
suggests, the function of popular music is often associated with the regulation not just of our
own identities, but also of how we structure our lives (DeNora 2000: 46). An equally
important determiner of the structure of our lives is work. Jacques Attali makes a direct
metaphorical connection between music and work, suggesting that music is a way of
expressing to humans their own labours, and of ‘making heard their condition’ (2002: x). Yet
one is more than merely an allegory for the other: music quite literally influences who we are
and structures our lives at work.
Today, music in labour largely consists of individualised listening, for example
listening to Spotify through earphones. Using both critical theoretical and ethnographic
techniques, this project will investigate the nature, function, and significance of personal
music in labour: what does it mean for the worker, for the employer, for society? What music
people listen to, how they listen to it, and in what ways it affects their work and lives will be
central to my research. Are people who listen to music at work expressing their identity and
agency, or are they merely structuring their lives for the profit of others?

Key research questions:

i) How does contemporary individualized music listening interact with labour and function at
work?

ii) How does individualized listening structure workers’ lives, and how is it experienced?

iii) What does a critical understanding of music at work reveal about contemporary social
relations and future potentialities?

Background & existing literature

The intersections between music and work has been highlighted by numerous scholars
(Adorno 1941; Attali 1977; Hill Collins 2000; Qureshi 2002; Korczynski 2003; Prichard,
Korczynski & Elmes 2007). Much of this literature considers how music conditions work, how
it is used by employees and employers, and more broadly how it structures our everyday
(DeNora 2000). In many ways, it seems odd to dedicate a distinct field of study towards
‘music and labour’, given that all music inherently involves work, be it the action of making
music, or listening. In considering the significance of work and music on each other, we
come across similar problems to ‘sub-disciplines’ like ‘music and philosophy’ (McAuley
2015). In separating ourselves into sub-disciplines and investigating areas like ‘Music and
Marx’ (Qureshi 2002), we consolidate hegemonic common sense which tells us that the
concepts are separable. The reality is, of course, that labour is so central to music (and
vice-versa), that overlooking this fact is part of an ideology which will always de-emphasize
the importance of everyday and unspoken politics in music and society in general.
As such, there is still a dearth of critical research into many of the intersections of
music and labour. Existing literature focuses, as Prichard, Korczynski & Elmes note (2007),
on two strands which are considered largely distinct, as a result of both disciplinary
boundaries, and ideological approach:

i) Empirical work on the function of recorded music in work environments,

which is generally carried out by researchers in psychology.
ii) Work which ‘exposes structures and processes in both music and work’
(Prichard et al. 2007), located more within cultural and critical theory, and some
branches of musicology.

Both approaches neglect the benefits of the other: psychological studies into the effects of
music on productivity, for example, should not make the mistake of ignoring the politics
present in their findings; similarly, theoretical approaches which seeks to uncover the
processes and structures at work in music and labour should not overlook the effect on
individuals.
Empirical research focusing on the use and effects of music in work environments
(Oldham et al. 1995; Furnham & Bradley 1999; Oldham 2000; Hagen & Bryant 2003; Oakes
2003; Reybrouck 2004; Lesiuk 2005) provides a useful background for understanding its
literal impact on the individual but is limited. This research has generally shown that music
can indeed ‘increase work performance’ and ‘reduce workplace turnover and enhance mood’
(Oldham et al. 1995). As a result of the post-industrialization of work, the ability to regulate
work ‘through the use of iPods and personal stereos’ became of increasing importance not
just to the individual, but also to the employer (Prichard et al. 2007:10). We should therefore
be critical of the booming interest in research on music’s role in productivity and reducing
tiredness or beneficially structuring work, because it could stand to benefit capitalist systems
of labour exploitation.
The problem with this literature is twofold: first, it tells us ​how​ and ​why​ music may
effect and structure human labour, but it does not approach any conclusions critically—the
question of why music’s effects matter is rarely posed, as is the question of individual
experience and agency, a result of more quantitative research; secondly, this literature
generally considers only a narrow focus of the types of labour and of music and listening
technologies, with research limited to ‘iPod use’ and ‘high-tech workplaces’, or ‘knowledge
workers’ such as software engineers (Lesiuk 2005; Prichard et al. 2007). As such, some of
the most fruitful and important areas of research in music and work are ignored, for example
in manual labour-intensive or service-sector jobs. These insufficiencies are broadly a result
of this limited extant work originating in psychological and ‘scientific’ areas of research. As
Prichard et al. argue, the interdisciplinary potential of this research is limited by it having
historically been ‘primarily the reserve of psychologists’ (2007: 11).
The second strand of research, more often from the fields of cultural theory, media
and communication studies, and musicology, considers the function and effects of
background music in structuring our lives (Radano 1989; S. Jones & Schumacher 1992;
Sterne 1997; DeNora & Belcher 2000; Oakes 2000; North, Tarrant & Hargreaves 2003;
Korczynski & Jones 2006). Much of this literature is ‘more critically oriented’ (Prichard et al.
2007: 12), and considers how music affects the people living and experiencing both work
and consumer environments. In particular, S. Jones and Schumacher (1992) and Sterne
(1997) have argued that capitalist ideology drives approaches to the use of music in
structuring human work and consumption. Marx makes a metaphorical connection between
the control of orchestral players by a conductor, to the field of work (1976: 448), and the
same may be literally true of music: it helps employers control and regulate workers,
regardless of the fact that the role of music in labour has evolved from piped tunes from
factory tannoy speakers, to the individualized listening of today.
There are many limitations of this body of literature. The majority of studies into
music’s structuring and regulating effects on humans consider primarily its impact on
consumers​, not on the workers themselves: S. Jones and Schumacher (1992) and North et
al. (2003), for example, critically assess the effect of music on consumers in service
environments, finding that it generally has a positive effect on spending and reduces
people’s frustration. However, as Prichard et al. note (2007: 10), there are important
research opportunities regarding the experience of workers. While DeNora and Belcher
(2000) study the way in which music in service environments conditions both customers and
staff, there is ‘considerable scope’ for research which explores music ‘in and around work
environments’ (Prichard et al. 2007: 12), its ‘effect on service workers, and individualized
listening in contemporary workplaces’. Prichard et al. also highlight here how there is little
work on the realities of modern work, in which ‘individualized listening’ is an increasingly
important part, be that listening to music while stacking shelves, or while picking up litter.

Contributions of this project to the field

As such, there is at present no critical research into the nature, function and political
significance of individualized listening in contemporary work. Beyond the existing literature
above, my project will fill this research gap and offer new contributions in two key ways.
First, this project will offer a ​critical​ study of music in labour which draws on
approaches from both empirical and more theoretical-focused research. I aim to address the
insufficiencies in both while utilising their most productive aspects to further my work. There
is a pressing need to understand our condition under capitalism, and the intersections of
music and labour offer significant potentialities to do this, as Attali observes (2002: x).
Current research is either ignorant of the impossibility of separating politics from the study of
music in work, or, as in the case of Adorno (1941; 1991), discourages engagement with lived
experience and material human labour by simply accepting characterizations of popular
music as ‘offering little more than an affirmation of the hierarchical relations of capitalism’
(Prichard et al. 2007: 10), thus leading to what Prichard et al. describe as a ‘casual disdain’
of the sociologist towards the affected people themselves.
In this way, the second key aspect of this project is that it foregrounds ethnography of
those whose lives and identities and influenced by music in their work. As Grazian argues
(2004), such ethnographies are ‘one of the key research opportunities in the sociology of
music’, and yet continue to be ignored. As such, my work will not only aim to meet the call for
‘extant research on individualized listening’ which centers primarily on workers and not
consumers (Prichard et al. 2007), but will also include significant ethnography of the people
themselves. This project aims to offer critical and potentially liberatory accounts and
understandings of music in work which go beyond the existing literature, dealing directly with
the connection between music and labour not by either ignoring the individual entirely (as is
the case in much critical theory [eg. Adorno 1991; S. Jones & Schumacher 1992; Sterne
1997]), or using them as the subjects of a psychological or anthropological study (Oldham et
al. 1995; Oakes 2000, 2003; Hagen & Bryant 2003; North, Tarrant & Hargreaves 2003), but
instead by allowing them to speak. In this way, an ethnography of music in labour allows us
to offer a politically more useful understanding of our condition than the totalizing theory of
Adorno and other critical theorists: following Latour’s ‘Actor Network Theory’ (2005; Piekut
2014), and the work of Karen Barad (2003, 2007), the importance of ‘agency’ in the lived
experience of labourers cannot be ignored. In other words, it is not helpful to understand
(popular) music in everyday life as merely a reflection of the structures of capitalism (Adorno
1990).

Methodology

Considering the lives and experiences of workers is of the utmost importance in this project,
and therefore I will support my theoretical and critical understanding of the relationship
between music listening and work with qualitative research. To this end, I aim to conduct
interviews with workers from a variety of types of labour such as service roles, and ‘office
jobs’. I will use both social media, and direct contact with companies, to gather interviewees.
In previous research at both SOAS and KCL, I have utilised similar approaches: I conducted
studies into the use of background music on London’s underground system, and into the
effect of Spotify on live music, both of which aimed to provide a critical theoretical
understanding, supplemented by empirical research including interviews with officials and
members of the public, and internet surveys. These research methods will be key to the
legitimacy of my critical study.
 This project will be fundamentally interdisciplinary. As stated, many of the
insufficiencies of existing literature stem from obstinate disciplinary boundaries and an
unwillingness to borrow productively and concurrently from the empirical research in
psychology (Oldham 2000; Oakes 2003), critical theory (Adorno 1941, 1991; Attali 1987),
and sociological theory (Latour 2005; Piekut 2014). In this project I aim to allow critical
theory and ethnographic research to inform each other.

Brief timescale

October 2019 - May 2020:​ In-depth reading and research in areas e.g. Music and
productivity, music in labour (historically), social theory on work and contemporary
capitalism, agency within labour and music.

June 2020 - September 2020:​ Write-up literature review, methodology etc. Plan and
organise ethnographic research (interviews, surveys), draft key questions, continue
theoretical research.

October 2020 - May 2021: ​Conduct and complete ethnographic research, continue
theoretical research.

June 2021 - September 2021: ​Organize and draft findings, situate within theoretical and
critical research.

October 2021 - September 2022:​ Complete all research and final write-up.

References

Adorno, T. W.,​ The culture industry: Selected essays on mass culture​ (London: Routledge,
1990).

Attali, J., ​Noise, the political economy of music (​ B. Massumi, Trans.), (Manchester, UK:
Manchester University Press, 1990).

Bowen, D. E., & Siehl, C., ‘Sweet music: Grateful employees, grateful customers, “grate”
profits’, ​Journal of Management Inquiry,​ vol. 1, iss. 2 (1992), 154-156.

de Nora, T., ​Music in everyday life ​(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Jones, S., & Schumacher, T., ‘Muzak: On functional music and power’, ​Critical Studies in
Mass Communication,​ vol. 9 (1992), 156-169.

Korczynski, M., ‘Music at work: Towards a historical overview’, ​Folk Music Journal,​ vol. 8,
(2003), 314-334.

Korczynski, M., & Jones, K., ‘The social origins of broadcast music in British factories’,
Popular Music,​ vol. 25 (2006), 145-164.

Latour, B., ​Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory​ (Oxford, UK:

Oxford University Press, 2005).

Marx, K., ​Capital: A critique of political economy (​ Vol. 1) (London: Penguin, 1976).

Oakes, S., ‘The influence of music-scape within service environments’, ​Journal of Services
Management​, vol. 14 (2000), 539-556.

Oldham, G., Cummings, A., Mischel, L., Schmidtke, J., & Zhou, J., ‘Listen while you work?
Quasi-experimental relations between personal-stereo headset use and employee
work responses’, ​Journal of Applied Psychology,​ vol. 80 (1995), 547-564.

Piekut, B., ‘Actor-Networks in Music History: Clarifications and Critiques’, ​Twentieth-Century

Music​, vol. 11, iss. 2 (September 2014), 191-215.

Prichard, C., Korczynski, M., & Elmes, M., ‘Music at Work: An Introduction’, ​Group &
Organization Management​, vol. 32, iss. 1 (February 2007), 4-21.

Qureshi, Regula B., ​Music and Marx: Ideas, Practice, Politics​ (London: Routledge, 2002).

Radano, R. M., ‘Interpreting Muzak: Speculations on musical experience in everyday life’,

American Music​, vol. 7 (1989), 448-460.

Taylor, T., ​Music and Capitalism​ (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016).

Weber, M., ​The rational and social foundations of music​ (Carbondale: Southern Illinois
University Press, 1958).