The Care Work of Musical Fields

Who “maintains” [Ukeles, M. (1969). Maintenance Art Manifesto 1969! Proposal for an Exhibition “CARE”] fields of cultural production and how are such social relations key to understanding the field itself? How has “care work” [Miles, A. L. (2019). Gender & Society, 33(1), 41–63] been excluded from our understanding of cultural fields and what are the consequences of these exclusions? Drawing upon Angel Love Miles [(2019). Gender & Society, 33(1), 41–63, p. 50), we define care work as “participating in the social, emotional, intellectual, and physical labor associated with identifying, requesting, denying, and managing the people, services, and resources that enable individuals to advance and maintain their health, well-being, and overall way of life.” In this chapter, we seek to examine how different forms of gendered invisible labor [Badger, G. and Himada, N. (2016). “What is Invisible Labor?” MICE [Moving Image Culture Etc.] Magazine, Spring 2016.], including reproductive [Mies, M. (1986). Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labor. London: Zed Books; Ukeles, M. (1969). Maintenance Art Manifesto 1969! Proposal for an Exhibition “CARE”.], organizational [Zimmerman et al. (2020). Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 13, 65–90; Worth, E. and Paterson, L. (2020). Past & Present, 246, 318–343], and emotional labor [Hochschild, A. (1983). The Managed Heart: The Commercialization of Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press; Chong, P. (2009). Servitude with a smile: An anti-oppression analysis of emotional labor, Global Labor University Working Paper, No. 7, International Labor Organization (ILO), Geneva; Wharton, A. (2009). Annual Review of Sociology, 35, 147–165; Alexander, K. (2015). Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Culture, 7(2), 120–128; Hartley, G. (2018). Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward. HarperOne.], are crucial elements of the “care work” of musical fields, and all cultural fields more broadly [Bourdieu, P. (1993). The Field of Cultural Production, edited and introduced by Randal Johnson. New York: Columbia University Press.]. We illustrate that the invisible work by unwaged, exploited, and other support networks of artists and unpaid support personnel is the strategic and intellectual foundation upon which musical fields are built. We highlight how this invisible “care work” operates differently depending on an artist’s location within the field of musical production, and how the strategies available to artists depend partly on the care work afforded them. We draw upon qualitative interviews with popular music makers, and published studies, to make our arguments. In doing so, we offer a theoretical reformulation of music fields through the lenses of maintenance/reproduction [Ukeles, M. (1969). Maintenance Art Manifesto 1969! Proposal for an Exhibition “CARE”; Mies, M. (1986). Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labor. London: Zed Books], organization [Zimmerman et al. (2020). Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 13, 65–90; Worth, E. and Paterson, L. (2020), Past & Present, 246, 318–343], and emotions [Hochschild, A. (1983). The Managed Heart: The Commercialization of Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press; Chong, P. (2009). Servitude with a smile: An anti-oppression analysis of emotional labor, Global Labor University Working Paper, No. 7, International Labor Organization (ILO), Geneva; Wharton, A. (2009). Annual Review of Sociology, 35, 147–165; Alexander, K. (2015). Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Culture, 7(2), 120–128; Hartley, G. (2018). Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward. HarperOne.] to highlight how all fields of cultural production are also fields of cultural maintenance.