A Career in Music

Ryan Giles

Mr. Alburger

English III

22 February 2018
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Ryan Giles

Mr. Alburger

English III

22 February 2018

A Career in Music

Musicians and the music they create appear everywhere in a person’s life and they

significantly influence the culture of the twenty-first century. Music dates all the way back to the

first humans and has received improvements throughout human history. Additionally,

technological innovations greatly impacted the popularity of music, allowing it to become an

important part of media and the arts. This led to opportunities for people to learn and pursue

music as a career and make their living by playing. As a result of millenniums of history and

innovations, musicians can learn, play, and produce music in a multitude of ways.

Since the dawn of humanity people have practiced, played, and passed down music,

innovating and expanding the art as it developed throughout history. Early civilizations such as

Egypt created their own musical instruments that closely resemble those that musicians play

today, including horns, flutes, harps, and a variety of percussion instruments (Moore 12). These

examples of ancient instruments showcase the rich history of playing music and provide the

baseline that musicians have built off of when creating the modern instruments of today. Humans

have also recorded their music in a standard notation system for just as long, with the earliest

examples dating back to the ancient Babylonian and Greek empires. Written lyrics also appeared

early in music’s long history, with the Psalms of David in the New Testament providing the first

instance (Moore 14). Different civilizations modeled the Psalms in their own cultures and
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religions, spreading music throughout much of the known world. While these cultures

contributed to modern music in their own ways, the ancient Greek civilizations had the greatest

influence on modern western music in the aspect of music theory. For example, Greek

mathematician Pythagoras first discovered the sound ratios based on differing playing variables.

This ultimately led to the concept of the octave, an eight note interval which provides a base for

a large part of modern music theory (Moore 16). Although music and the ways musicians

performed it had its innovations throughout humanity's existence, the progress slowed down

beyond that point.

Music as a whole remained the same up until the European medieval times when music

theory and the way musicians played music received major changes. Up until those changes, the

majority of European music came in the form of Gregorian chants, a style of music common in

religious ceremonies where all the singers would sing the same notes (Moore 18). However,

musicians began to experiment with pitches during the medieval times, resulting in the adoption

of different singers singing the same notes but in different octaves. People further developed this

idea of singing different pitches over hundreds of years, which led to the implication of multiple

different notes at once and the creation of harmony. The usage of harmony in songs greatly

impacted music since it allowed musicians to create better sounding and more complex tunes

which aided in the spread of music’s popularity. Harmonic singing also opened up new

opportunities for singers since composers began using niche vocal types such as soprano, alto,

tenor, and baritone singers (Moore 19). The way musicians learned music also changed during

this period due to the revival of written music notation. Previously, musicians solely learned

music by ear and commonly had to memorize over fifty different songs. Now, musicians that
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learned to read music can play more music without having to memorize all of them (Moore 21).

Even though music advanced greatly during the Medieval Times in Europe, it remained

primarily for religious ceremonies and did not receive commercial attention until the

Renaissance.

During the Renaissance, previously forgotten ideas of the Roman and Greek Empires

returned to Europe and in turn brought back music as a social and educational art form rather

than just one for religious ceremonies. However, music remained mostly for the wealthy and

often seen as a status symbol. This caused the nobility of the time to avidly consume music in

order to showcase their wealth and influence as well as to create themselves into a more refined

person. In order to accomplish this, the nobility adopted the art of music into their lives by

practicing and composing their own music. Many nobles and even kings took pride in their skills

and endorsed music for the improvement of themselves and others (Moore 25). The nobility and

aristocracy also hired many musicians and composers to play for their courts to showcase their

wealth. A typical court consisted of less than twenty musicians and the aristocrats competed with

each other in order to hire the best musicians in Europe (Moore 26). Since the Renaissance

caused as much of an economic boom as it did for music, more people amassed enough wealth to

support courts which in turn created more opportunities for musicians to play as a profession. As

a result, musicians would travel throughout Europe in search of work as well as to learn the

different musical styles unique to different regions (Moore 27). The diffusion of talented

musicians in Europe eventually led to the Renaissance developing a new style of music that

resembles the modern music of the twenty-first century.

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A new, modern style of music came about during the Renaissance that significantly

changed how people created music. The Renaissance style of music consisted mainly of

polyphony, a style of music comprised of “emphasized, sweet sounding music and pleasing

tones” (Moore 28). Musicians used this style to create consonant music which flowed smoothly

and sounded nice together rather than the Medieval style of dissonant music. Additionally,

Renaissance musicians changed how to play the melody of a song. Previously, the lowest toned

singers and instruments carried the melody while the higher pitches merely accompanied the

song for added effect. Then during the Renaissance, higher pitched singers and instruments took

the melody, which eventually became more common in music. By the sixteenth century, soprano

singers, the highest singers in a choir, sang the melody while the lower pitches provided the base

of the song (Moore 28). This strongly parallels modern music in the sense that the higher treble

clef carries the melody of songs while the lower bass clef accompanies the treble with chords and

added tones. This new style of music further developed during the next musical time period, the

Classical Period.

The Classical Period (1750-1830 CE) expanded upon the musical innovations created

during the Renaissance by adding new styles and methods. While the core elements of

Renaissance music remained, composers and musicians created simpler music with

improvements to its overall logic and structure. The three main composers who contributed to

the innovations of music- Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van

Beethoven- all lived in Vienna, Austria and collectively took the name “the Viennese School”

(Moore 54). These composers all created their own style of music that changed the way

musicians wrote and played songs. Haydn developed the extended tune, which changed the tune
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of a song in different parts and created an overall pleasant-sounding melody. Mozart changed the

way different musical styles could fit into songs and utilized these various styles to tell stories.

Lastly, Beethoven experimented with multiple styles of music, each of them invoking different

emotions. His most iconic works, Beethoven’s Fifth and Ninth Symphony, laid the framework of

how future composers and music producers could bring out different feelings from their listeners

(Moore 60-61). This classical style of music dominated the music industry until new

technologies led to the creation of different genres in the late nineteenth century.

As a result of the American music industry in the mid to late nineteenth century, modern

pop music took off and with it created multiple different music genres and a multi-million dollar

business. Pop music started off as live performances which later led to the creation of Ragtime

and Broadway. Then in the wake of the phonograph, musicians could record and play their music

for the masses through these machines. Jazz and Blues artists like Robert Johnson rose to

popularity because of the phonograph and the widespread commercialization of music. In the late

1940s, the first commercial pop stars arose and big names like Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and

eventually Elvis Presley led the recorded music market (“America’s”). Every decade adopted

their own identity in music, each led by very influential musicians. The 60s, due to a worldwide

culture shift, adopted a countercultural style of music with politically influenced lyrics backed up

by a hybrid of folk and rock. Very influential artists came to fame in this era such as Bob Dylan,

The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. By the 70s, the popularity shifted away from the

countercultural movement and more towards funk and soul, led by David Bowie and Curtis

Mayfield (“America’s”). Towards the end of the 70s, music became more relaxed as R&B took

the stage under pop stars like Michael Jackson, Prince, and Madonna. Then by the mid-80s, the
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hard rock craze started and popularized larger-than-life rock bands such as Van Halen and Guns

N’ Roses. Hard Rock turned to Grunge Rock in the early 90s, and Hip-hop also gained

popularity at the same time. Then by the turn of the century, boy and girl groups received the

greatest amount of popularity until the fad wore down and the groups later broke up to become

the modern pop stars of the 2010s (“America’s”). This rise in popularity and the overall growth

that the music industry experienced came as a direct result of inventions and innovations of

music playing technology.

The invention of the record player and its later innovations greatly impacted the

popularity of the American music industry. The record player first entered the national scene in

1877 after its invention by Thomas Edison. It later received different adaptations to make it

available for commercial use in 1889 when it received a coin slot. The coin-operated phonograph

revolutionized the global music industry by putting the current hits at the hands of the everyday

consumer (Boehlert). This greatly influenced the industry since anyplace can have music

playing, not just concert halls, which allowed music to become a primary part of American

culture and life. It also allowed musicians to receive greater exposure since people could listen to

their works autonomously instead of through a radio station. This allowed for the musician’s

work to avoid censorship by station jockeys who refused to play new and different music genres

such as jazz and country (Boehlert). In 1927, the Automated Musical Instrument Company

adapted the phonograph into the first electronically amplified multi selector phonograph, also

known as the jukebox. Jukeboxes improved upon the common flaws of its predecessor by

providing a louder sound, decreasing the hissing produced, and expanding the song library. It

also charged less per song, which helped music maintain its popularity during the Great
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Depression. Additionally, the massive popularity of jukeboxes resulted in every location from

pizza parlors to drugstores having one, allowing for artists and their work to become a part of

American pop culture. The numerous amount of jukeboxes in America also provided outlets for

controversial and smaller musicians to gain in popularity and further their careers (Boehlert). The

jukebox ruled the music player business throughout the majority of the twentieth century and

continued to help grow the music industry. However, an online technological revolution at the

end of the twentieth century created a new form of media which took the stage as the leader in

music distribution.

In the 1980s and 90s, inventions such as the internet and the MP3 player revolutionized

how consumers listened to music and how producers created music. With the introduction of the

MP3 player, listeners now have autonomy when it comes to the music they listen to. They no

longer had to listen only to songs played on the radio or the set songs loaded onto a CD or

Cassette tape. Instead, the MP3 player allowed listeners to become their own DJs in the sense

that they can create their own listening experience with custom playlists (AnČić). MP3 players

and files gave music producers new freedom as well since they could release hit songs one by

one onto music sharing websites at their own pace. Before this, creators would have had to

record a full album on either a cassette tape or on vinyl with up to a dozen songs on it (AnČić).

Smaller producers benefited greatly from MP3s since they could now receive more attention by

uploading their songs onto the internet rather than creating and selling physical copies of their

work (AnČić). These producers would upload their music to websites like Napster, iTunes, and

Spotify, which allowed for a large number of people to listen to artists’ work who otherwise

would not have bought their CDs or heard them on the radio. The increased exposure due to
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music sharing websites caused more musicians to receive more popularity and allowed for more

people to pursue music as a career (AnČić). The new developments in the twentieth and

twenty-first century not only increased the exposure of musicians but also allowed more people

to enter into the music industry.

New technology and the internet greatly expanded the music industry by allowing new

ways to produce music, inspiring creativity. The new technologies that came about during the

twentieth century such as synthesizers and pre-made tracks and loops opened the doors to new

possibilities when creating music. These tools aid musicians when creating their songs by

providing them easy to access and simple to use beats. They also allow inexperienced and new

music producers to create familiar and catchy music which draws the attention of new audiences

and increases their exposure (Maglov). Additionally, with advancements in online music and

digital file sharing, producers do not have to create their own music and can mix pre-existing

songs instead. These producers act both as a consumer and a producer at the same time as they

mix, rearrange, transpose, and add to their favorite music to create their own unique product.

Electronic DJs fall into this category since they create music by sampling hit pop songs and

adding their own tracks and beats to create an entirely new piece altogether (AnČić). All of these

new technologies allow musicians to take multiple different paths when creating their music and

career. Additionally, due to technology’s role of spreading music, people gravitate towards the

industry and strive to learn how to become professional musicians themselves by attending

universities all across the United States and throughout the world.

Almost all students can attend an in-state school to obtain their music degree. In North

Carolina, aspiring musicians can attend Lenoir-Rhyne University, one of the state’s best music
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colleges. Here students can receive a Bachelor of Music focused on music education with

additional tracks for furthering their music playing skills. In order to gain admission into the

program as well as to join any music ensembles, an applicant needs to perform an entrance

audition (“Lenoir-Rhyne”). Once admitted, a student can enroll in multiple different fields of

music education such as instrumental, keyboard, or vocal education. Lenoir-Rhyne also allows

students to seamlessly transfer into the University's Master of Arts in Teaching program once

they complete their Bachelor's program. While students work towards their music teaching

degrees, they can also join one of the university’s many choirs and orchestras such as Jazz

Ensemble and Pit Orchestra. These allow students to sharpen their playing skills and open the

possibility to play as a side job (“Lenoir-Rhyne”). While attending an in-state college provides

students with the lowest cost, many dedicated musicians can also attend some of the preeminent

music schools in the United States.

Juilliard, one of the world’s most prestigious art schools, attracts aspiring musicians from

all around the world who want to receive the world-class training the school offers. In order to

gain acceptance into Juilliard, applicants need to perform multiple tasks to showcase their

musical ability and passion. Applicants must complete a preliminary application with essays and

recommendation letters. Afterwards, the school will select certain applicants to perform a live

audition which will ultimately decide who will gain acceptance into their desired program

(“Juilliard.”). Juilliard offers multiple different music majors in conducting, composition, vocal

arts, and multiple fields of instruments. Students learn about virtually all aspects of their selected

discipline through multiple different playing groups, inter-art collaborations, and classroom

courses (“Juilliard.”). After obtaining a degree, graduated students then work in their desired
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fields and play with orchestras and music groups all around the world as their daily life and

career.

The daily life of a musician differs greatly due to the vast amounts of opportunities

people have in the field of music. A select few can play as a full-time job, mostly as orchestral

musicians with big metropolitan companies or as big-name pop stars with their own producing

team. The majority of the other musicians play music as a side-job coupled with their day-job,

often times at community events or productions (Bassett). Musicians can get jobs for orchestras

through a multitude of ways. They can perform a traditional audition where they play a provided

piece from a concerto, they can receive an offer based on their education, or they can have other

musicians vouch for them to get jobs. Word of mouth and recommendations from multiple

sources play huge roles in musicians acquiring gigs, which comes as a result of experience and

reliability. So while musicians get few jobs when they first start, as they progress through their

careers they will gradually receive more offers of higher prestige due to their experience in the

industry. For example, when most musicians first start out they play any gigs that they can get,

whether with small community theatres or with colleges. Then, as they play more gigs and

receive recommendations, they can get better jobs in pits or with Broadway-style productions

(Bassett). After musicians receive a gig, they then need to focus on the actual performance,

whether big or small, and prepare properly for it.

The style and size of gigs musicians receive differ greatly from event to event. Some

could have one or two shows for each contract while others could have up to thirty or forty,

oftentimes with a children's or community theatre. While they can vary greatly in duration, most

gigs only last the length of a season, often times for holiday events. Many large churches hire
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orchestras for their holiday performances, and a well-experienced musician could receive job

offers from multiple churches at one time. Musicians also receive offers to perform at private

events like cocktail parties and wedding ceremonies, which provide them with income in

between their big performances (Bassett). Musicians often take multiple gigs throughout the year

to supplement the income they receive, whether from a corporate or a teaching job. Since they

work during the day, they have very little time to prepare and rehearse with the entire performing

group. Most performances get the orchestra together to practice no more than three times before

a show and the musician needs to memorize their parts on their own time. They prepare by

playing and listening to the pieces, which they typically receive about one to two months prior to

the show. However, as a musician plays more gigs, they hone their skills and become adept sight

readers, allowing them to have the ability to play their part without out any preparation.

Musicians who need less time to prepare for single performances have the ability to play more

gigs at a time, and in turn earn more money (Bassett). The amount of money they earn varies

from performance to performance, which means some musicians can earn more than others for

the same amount of shows.

The salary of musicians differs greatly from case to case and depends on their popularity,

talent, and where they perform. A part-time musician’s salary can vary from contract to contract

and they typically receive money based on the prestige of their work. For example, a musician

could receive only $150 per show for a local musical or receive as much as $800 for

performances in a contract orchestra (Bassett). Full-time musicians playing with orchestras earn

more money than part-timers since they receive a salary from where they play. Musicians in the

Los Angeles Philharmonic receive a salary of $148,720 for playing while other top American
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orchestras like the St. Louis Symphony pays their musicians $81,892 a year. Musicians in other

countries, such as England, receive less than their American counterparts but earn a set salary

from their orchestra nonetheless. For example, the City of Birmingham Symphony in England

pays their musicians about a $50,000 a year (Smith). Though due to the waning interest and

popularity of orchestral performances, many orchestras have had to cut the salaries of their

musicians to compensate for the lost revenue due to fewer performances. One such instance

occurred in October of 2013 to the musicians of the Memphis Symphony, who received a 38%

pay cut. Similarly, the Minnesota Orchestra had to cut the salaries of their musicians from

$135,000 to $102,284 (Smith). While orchestral musicians receive money based on every year or

performance they play, the wages and earnings of independent music producers differ greatly

from musician to musician.

The earnings of independent musicians also vary greatly based on their experience and

popularity. At any festival or concert gig, multiple different performers can receive vastly

different wages even though they all performed on the same day. Big name performers like Paul

McCartney can earn up to four million dollars from doing a performance while less experienced

performers progressively receive less. Standard, well-known bands such as Arcade Fire can

receive between two to three million dollars while lesser-known bands can get as much as 500

thousand dollars. This trend continues as a performer’s experience and popularity decreases, as

new local bands can only get around five thousand dollars for performing at the same festival

(“How”) While five thousand appears small compared to the four million the big stars make,

local bands and new musicians often have dozens of gigs throughout the year which allows them

and other musicians to gain popularity and make music their careers. While not all musicians
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receive the same amount of attention and money, any musician who applies themselves to their

work can create a career out of playing music.

The innovations and new methods of how to make music that came throughout human

history now allow modern musicians to learn and produce music in many different ways. Music

received many changes during its extended history in both theory and in practice which, coupled

with technological innovations, led to the style of playing seen in the twenty-first century. Now,

musicians have countless paths they could take in education and in their careers so they can work

in what they love. Since music plays such a huge role in modern society, aspiring musicians

should have the resources and opportunities to master the art first developed millenniums ago.
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Work Cited

“America’s Pop Music History.” ​Kent State University Hugh A. Glauser School of Music.​ Kent

State University, 2017.

<​https://musicedmasters.kent.edu/americas-pop-music-history/​>

AnČić, Ivana. "Sound from the Cloud: Metamorphoses of Technical and Artistic Paradigms in

the Social Reception of Sound and Music." ​New Sound: International Magazine for

Music,​ no. 48, Dec. 2016, pp. 81-96.

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Bassett, Jennifer. “PRIDE Paper Interview.” Email Interview. 6 February 2018.

Boehlert, Eric. "Put Another Nickel in." ​Billboard​, vol. 106, no. 44, 11/1/94 Supplement, p. 93.

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"How Much Do They Get Paid?." ​Rolling Stone,​ no. 1209, 22 May 2014, p. 19.

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“Juilliard.” ​The Juilliard School,​ 2017.

<​https://www.juilliard.edu/​>

“Lenoir-Rhyne University School of Music.” ​Lenoir-Rhyne University,​ 2017.

<​https://www.lr.edu/music​>

Maglov, Marija. "Past Music, Future Music: Technology and Music Institutions in the 20th

Century." ​New Sound: International Magazine for Music,​ no. 48, Dec. 2016, pp. 53-64.
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Moore, Shannon Baker. ​A History of Music.​ ABDO Publishing, 2015. Essential Library of

Cultural History.

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Smith, Charlotte. "How Much Is an Orchestral Player Worth?." ​Strad​, vol. 125, no. 1496, Dec.

2014, p. 27.

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