UC Berkeley

This dissertation engages the concept of precarity to explore the labor practices of professional performers in Scotland’s traditional music scene. Through developing a critical understanding of precarity as both an ontological and socio-economic condition, this study asks, what can we learn from people who perpetually function in the margins with minimal funding and support? And how do musicians’ labor practices aid in their ability not only to survive, but also to thrive in this environment? By considering the many facets of Scottish musicians’ lives and livelihoods, I show the diverse practices that musicians have used over time to cope with precarity and the creative tactics they have developed to achieve success.

The first half of this dissertation focuses on the labor that musicians perform behind the scenes to build and maintain their careers. I examine how musicians operate within the traditional music economy and the factors that they consider when choosing to take on a gig. Through interdisciplinary analysis, I investigate how British social expectations of self-deprecation have manifested within the traditional music scene and have shaped how musicians manage their relationships and networking practices. Here, I consider both a Glasgow-centric approach used widely by young musicians, and contrasting examples of established musicians from outside that center. Technology emerges as a key theme throughout this project, as I explain how musicians adapted their labor and performance practices to the virtual realm during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, I analyze Scottish musicians’ self-presentation through social media to explore how the pandemic leveled the playing field such that musicians of varying fame started gigging using virtual tip jars, and also how it caused musicians to develop enhanced networking practices using tactics such as collaboration videos.

The second half of this dissertation moves onto the performance stage, where I describe the shifting sonic aesthetics of traditional music, and the use of spectacle and theatricality in contemporary live performance. This section draws heavily on my ethnographic research at venues ranging from small folk clubs to large festivals, such as Celtic Connections, to explore the ironies and juxtapositions of the self-deprecation mentality with virtuosic music making, flashy stage performance, self-presentation, and audience interaction. As masters of performance, Scottish musicians offer unique insight into how self-presentational skills facilitate audience engagement both on and off the stage. For the final chapter, I turn to the institutionalization of traditional music and the rise of credentialing opportunities through competitions and higher education programs such as the traditional music degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. I also detail the infrastructures – with case studies of Creative Scotland and Help Musicians – which have been built to support the creative industries and provide safety nets for health and welfare in Scotland. Throughout this project, I argue that in order to build and maintain their careers, musicians must simultaneously act as individuals with an entrepreneurial ethic and rely on the infrastructures of support available to them within the scene.