Whether for weavers at the handloom, labourers at the plough or factory workers on the assembly line, music has often been a key texture in people's working lives. This book is the first to explore the rich history of music at work in Britain and charts the journey from the singing cultures of pre-industrial occupations, to the impact and uses of the factory radio, via the silencing effect of industrialisation. The first part of the book discusses how widespread cultures of singing at work were in pre-industrial manual occupations. The second and third parts of the book show how musical silence reigned with industrialisation, until the carefully controlled introduction of Music while You Work in the 1940s. Continuing the analysis to the present day, Rhythms of Labour explains how workers have clung to and reclaimed popular music on the radio in desperate and creative ways.
• A landmark study on the important and long neglected relationship between music and work, which draws on a great range of research across multiple time periods • Explores the development and influence of music in the working environment in Britain, from the work songs of the pre-industrial age to the broadcast music of the twentieth century • Features historical and contemporary cases, including many examples of the music that was created and heard by workers
Contents
1. Introduction: music at work and the sound of silence; Part I. Music at Work in Pre-Industrial Contexts: 2. From work song to singing at work; 3. Hearing the British Isles singing; 4. Fancy and function; 5. Community; 6. Voice; Part II. Industrialisation and Music at Work: 7. Silenced; 8. Fragments of singing in the factory; Part III. Broadcast Music in the Workplace: 9. Instrumental music? The rise of broadcast music; 10. Music and meaning on the factory floor; 11. Conclusion: learning from the history of music at work.
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