ABSTRACT
This book looks at labor in the music industries in Hungary today. It addresses the characteristics and conditions of the work of musicians in various popular music genres and segments—pop, rock, jazz, electronic music, hip hop, as well as film and wedding music—as well as behind-the-scenes workers such as sound engineers, technicians, music managers, and live music promoters. Based on qualitative research conducted between 2018 and 2022, it offers an analysis of these cultural workers’ experiences and how these are shaped by various localas well as global-level social, economic, technological, and political forces. I begin by highlighting three distinct, though, in many ways, interrelated, points of departure for my enquiry into labor in music in Hungary. These are followed by a theoretical outline of the analysis and the presentation of the main aims, the methods used, and the book structure.
