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Article Insecurity, professional sociability, and alcohol: Young freelance musicians’ perspectives on work and life in the music profession Melissa C. Dobson University of Sheffield, UK Psychology of Music 39(2) 240–260 © The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: sagepub. co.uk/journalsPermission.nav DOI: 10.1177/0305735610373562 pom.sagepub.com Abstract Research addressing a link between musical creativity and mental disorder has predominantly considered composers rather than performers, and has been dominated by the questionable use of retrospective biographical research methods. This article calls for research to explore more widely the stressors and challenges that living musicians face in their work and lives. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 18 young musicians (nine freelance classical string players and nine jazz musicians). The participants expressed concern over their lack of job and financial security, and stressed the importance of reputations in the networks of musicians in which they operate. Socializing professionally was identified as a key means of advancing work prospects, in which alcohol consumption often played a strong role. Drinking patterns were also associated with the demands of performance, with alcohol consumption arising either as a consequence of pressure or boredom. These results are discussed in light of the limited existing research investigating musicians’ uses of alcohol. Keywords alcohol, freelance musicians, jazz, job insecurity, musicians’ lifestyles, reputations, social competence, string players This study emerged from an interest in the possibility of a relationship between creativity and psychopathology, particularly in reference to music practitioners. This purported relationship, and the romanticized notion of the ‘mad genius’ creator with which it is associated, have attracted attention in both academic discourse and popular media (Schlesinger, 2002). Much research in this field has employed retrospective biographical research methods, whereby researchers examine the biographical sources of creative individuals for indications of psychiatric disorder (e.g., Jamison, 1993; Ludwig, 1995; Post, 1994). 1 Among studies using these methods on music practitioners, classical performers have largely been neglected, with a focus instead on jazz musicians (Tolson & Cuyjet, 2007; Wills, 2003) and classical composers (Frosch, Corresponding author: Melissa C. Dobson, University of Sheffield, Department of Music, Jessop Building, 34 Leavygreave Road, Sheffield, S3 7RD. [email: melissa.dobson@hotmail.co.uk] Downloaded from pom.sagepub.com at University of Sheffield on November 2, 2011
Dobson 241 1987; Trethowan, 1977): groups of musicians perceived to exhibit ostensibly higher levels of creativity in their work than classical performers (Cottrell, 2004; cf. Seddon & Biasutti, 2009). Yet research on living classical musicians finds that their work can exert detrimental effects on their physical and psychological health (Brodsky, 2006; Parasuraman & Purohit, 2000), and opponents of the use of retrospective biographical methods have called for a broader investigation of the factors which affect musicians’ well-being (e.g. Schlesinger, 2003). This research attempts to deconstruct the ‘mad genius’ myth in relation to performing musicians, demonstrating the increased relevance of findings emerging from a study of living individuals, and presenting a realistic picture of the pressures and challenges that freelance musicians face. Two large-scale studies examining the biographies of ‘eminent’ individuals for evidence of mental disorder indicate that, in relation to composers, a link between musical creativity and psychopathology is less concrete than often portrayed. Ludwig (1995) found that composers possessed the lowest lifetime prevalence rates for mental disorder among the arts professions, while Post’s (1994) survey of biographies indicated that composers exhibited the second lowest prevalence rates for incidence of psychopathology among a sample of scientists, politicians, artists, thinkers and writers. Frosch (1987, p. 322) stated that there is ‘no compelling evidence’ for a ‘pathology of musical creativity’ in composers, arguing that ‘our image of the mad creator is drawn from those few vivid examples, such as Schumann, and draws its strength from nineteenth-century romantic notions of the hero’ (p. 321). Indeed, the allure of viewing artistry as a tortured process is exemplified by research which seeks to find ‘evidence’ of psychopathology in composers’ musical works (e.g., Caldwell, 1972) or which uses biographies to attempt to identify psychological problems experienced by specific composers. Taking Mozart as an example, studies have variously asserted that he suffered from a wide range of medical conditions, including cyclothymia (Davies, 1987) and Tourette’s syndrome (Simkin, 1992), although more recent literature has disputed these claims (Ashoori & Jankovic, 2007). More widely, researchers interested in a creativity–psychopathology link have questioned the use of biographies as reliable sources (Poole, 2003; Schlesinger, 2004b) and raised objections to the use of ‘psychological autopsies’ as research methods (Schlesinger, 2004a, p. 184). These recent methodological critiques were prompted by research by Wills (2003), who formed psychiatric diagnoses from the biographies of jazz musicians eminent between 1945 and 1960. He found that 28.5% of the sample suffered from affective disorders, 27.5% from alcohol-related disorder, and 52.5% from heroin-related disorder (pp. 256–257). While living performers’ uses of substances have been explored in relation to both amateur (Groce, 1991; Grønnerød, 2002) and professional rock musicians (Raeburn 1987a, 1987b), there is little contemporary research into the role of work-related alcohol consumption in professional jazz and classical musicians. 2 Of Raeburn, Hipple, Delaney, and Chesky’s (2003) two convenience samples used to survey popular (including jazz) musicians’ health, 10% and 16% of the respective groups indicated that substance use had affected their performances over the past year (p. 116). The International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) study of symphony orchestras found that 21% of musicians were worried about the effects of their alcohol consumption (Fishbein, Middlestadt, Ottati, Straus, & Ellis, 1988), but as with Raeburn and colleagues’ (2003) study, its findings cannot necessarily be generalized beyond prevailing attitudes held in the United States (US) towards drinking. Given the differences in drinking cultures between countries (Bloomfield, Greenfield, Kraus, & Augustin, 2002; Kuntsche, Rehm, & Gmel, 2004), there is a clear need for research in this area to be undertaken in countries other than the US – as demonstrated by the inexorable reliance on anecdote that was evident in a recent United Kingdom (UK) media debate on orchestral musicians’ drinking habits (see Higgins, 2009; Nwanoku, 2009). Downloaded from pom.sagepub.com at University of Sheffield on November 2, 2011
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Page 5 and 6: Dobson 243 Table 1. Participant pro
Page 7 and 8: Dobson 245 problems in musicians th
Page 9 and 10: Dobson 247 then … it can be a ver
Page 11 and 12: Dobson 249 people, yeah and I do ce
Page 13 and 14: Dobson 251 involved in performance,
Page 15 and 16: Dobson 253 professional socializing
Page 17 and 18: Dobson 255 of professional music-ma
Page 19 and 20: Dobson 257 Jamison, K. R. (1989). M
Page 21 and 22: Dobson 259 Appendix Interview sched

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