University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2016 Living in an Artistic Labour Market: The Experiences of Gig Musicians in Calgary Wall, Laurent Wall, L. (2016). Living in an Artistic Labour Market: The Experiences of Gig Musicians in Calgary (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26776 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/3235 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Living in an Artistic Labour Market: The Experiences of Gig Musicians in Calgary by Laurent Wall A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN SOCIOLOGY CALGARY, ALBERTA AUGUST, 2016 © Laurent Wall 2016 Abstract Musicians who perform for pay are seen in every city in the world, but the work of musicians is rarely framed as a practice which warrants sociological attention. Instead, popular culture discourse systematically focuses on the work of musicians by talking about individual artists, their ingenuity and their inspirations. People may view musicians as professionals, but this profession is rarely understood as a practice which has many layers and nuances. This study provides such an understanding by asking musicians who play gigs for a living in Calgary about what they do to survive as artists. Through in-depth interviews with sixteen individuals and ethnographic analysis of the various activities that musicians do, this study reveals the diversity of orientations and ways in which musicians do musician work, and the profoundly important social context in which musicians are able to sustain themselves as cultural workers. ii Acknowledgements As I learned the hard way, a thesis takes time and is not written alone. There are key people who are the backbone of this thesis, and I would like to express my thanks to them in this formal way. I am extremely grateful for the long conversations, the gentle prods, and the many words of encouragement at every stage of this process from my supervisor, Dr. Liza McCoy. Your calm and patient attitude towards ethnographic work has really imbedded itself within me, and will be carried through every step of my life. Liza, you have has been a kind, rigorous, and extremely helpful mentor, and your style of working with your students has made my work so much better. To Kate, I would like to say, thanks for waiting. Writing this thesis has been a long and difficult process – and finally I can look you in the eye and tell you “Yes, I am done my thesis!!” As my zookeeping partner in all of our wonderful adventures together, you have been with me for so many years and now we won’t have this thesis stand between us anymore. Instead, we can go on caring about each other and enjoying our lives in new ways. A special thanks to those who donated their time and wonderfully eloquent words to me. Without you all, especially a particular friend who helped jumpstart the recruitment process, this study would never have been so rich and fruitful. As anonymous people, I want to thank you for your thoughtfulness, your passion, and your drive to play live music. I hope you see that your words are the ones that make up this thesis and that I have done justice to them. Finally, I would like to give a nod to a graduate student from the sociology department who has shared my interest in cultural studies, Nazario Robles-Bastida. Through our own little drinking club, we managed to talk about Bourdieu, art theories, the consumption of culture, aesthetic judgement, and music snobbery in both profound and frivolous ways, and we even deliberately chose to forget about school work when we wanted to. To you Nazario, I say salud! iii Table of Contents ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...............................................................................................III TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. IV LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ VI CHAPTER 1: THE WORK OF MUSICIANS AS A SOCIOLOGICAL FIELD OF INQUIRY ....................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: STUDYING MUSICIANS - THE RESEARCH CONTEXT ......................9 2.1. The Work and Lives of Musicians ............................................................................9 2.1.1. Sociological research methods for studying musicians ....................................9 2.1.2. Musician labour markets ................................................................................11 2.1.3. Social capital and musicians ...........................................................................14 2.1.4. Why do musicians play? .................................................................................16 2.1.5. Making music .................................................................................................17 2.1.6. Music genres ...................................................................................................18 2.1.7. Musicians and gender .....................................................................................21 2.2. The Context of Musicians’ Work ...........................................................................24 2.3. The Sociology of Art: Becker and Bourdieu ..........................................................26 2.3.1. Art Worlds ......................................................................................................26 2.3.2. The Field of Cultural Production ...................................................................28 2.4. Relevance and Summary ........................................................................................30 2.4.1. How does this all relate to musicians? ...........................................................30 2.4.2. Summary .........................................................................................................32 CHAPTER 3: SETTING THE TONE – METHOD AND METHODOLOGY ................34 3.1. Methodological Influences .....................................................................................34 3.1.1. Art Worlds ......................................................................................................35 3.1.2. The Field of Cultural Production ...................................................................39 3.1.3. Summing up Becker and Bourdieu .................................................................41 3.2. The Research ...........................................................................................................43 3.2.1. Recruitment ....................................................................................................43 3.2.2. Interviews and analysis ...................................................................................49 3.2.3. Summary .........................................................................................................55 CHAPTER 4: WHAT DOES A GIG MUSICIAN DO? ...................................................56 4.1. Music Work and the Calgary Gig Market ..............................................................57 4.1.1. What is gig work in Calgary? .........................................................................57 4.1.2. Music genres and gig work .............................................................................61 4.1.3. Summary .........................................................................................................72 4.2. Supporting the Music ..............................................................................................73 4.2.1. Non-music work .............................................................................................74 iv 4.2.2. Music related work .........................................................................................75 4.2.3. Merchandising ................................................................................................78 4.2.4. Grants and awards ..........................................................................................80 4.2.5. Summarizing non-gig work ............................................................................81 4.3. The Seasonal Market of Gig Musicians ..................................................................82 4.4. Managing Poverty ...................................................................................................87 4.4.1. Strategies for making ends meet .....................................................................87 4.4.2. Reframing systemic poverty ...........................................................................90 4.5. Summarizing What Musicians Do ..........................................................................92 CHAPTER 5: THE COMMUNITY OF MUSICIANS .....................................................94