Music in the Workplace in the Digital Age

I recently started reading a collection of papers on how technology is shaping music and culture. “21st Century Perspectives on Music, Technology, and Culture: Listening Spaces (Pop Music, Culture and Identity)”, edited by Richard Purcell and Richard Randall explores how advances in technology are impacting how people interact with music and each other.

I found Kathy Newman’s paper, Headphones are the New Walls: Music in the Workplace in the Digital Age, a fascinating exploration of something as simple as headphone use in the modern office. Modern office design has emphasized open work spaces and workers have responded by listening to music through headphones, not only because they want to, but also to maintain their personal space and sanity. With physical walls being removed, a software engineer described headphones as the new walls.

Newman’s article traces the history of music at work as outlined by Marek Korczynski a sociologist in his seminal work Social Theory at Work. Korczynski noticed that very little pop music today has lyrics about work even though most adults spend the vast majority of their time at work. He tracked how before industrialization, music and singing were essential parts of working. Singing was often used by workers to keep time in the field or even sailors to coordinate their activities on ships. During industrialization, this relationship changed as machines, such as time clocks, were used to keep time and singing was viewed as disruptive. Music also became more commoditized as it became something people could purchase, rather than having to produce themselves through singing.

A new field actually emerged to study how music could impact worker productivity. By 1972, Newman argues, there was a broad consensus that music enhanced productivity for factory workers. But there arose the question of what impact music had on white-collar office workers. Did it enhance productivity? What kind of music? It was during this period that the famous study about the “Mozart Effect” was conducted. It stated that listening to classical music enhanced the ability of children and the elderly to perform tasks better. In the years that followed, women listened to Mozart during pregnancy to try to enhance their child’s development. Newman even noted that there was one type of music that was universally viewed as not having a positive impact - co-workers singing out loud.

While there is research that supports both sides of the argument about music’s impact on worker productivity, one recent change has been the proliferation of personal listening devices and open workspaces. Company managers in general would prefer workers not to have headphones on, while workers prefer to have some degree of control over their work environment. What is most interesting for me about this paper is that I always thought of music as something that brought people together. It created a shared experience and could be used to coordinate activities or to rally people (as in protest movements). Ironically, it is now being used by individuals to create walls and private spaces in an environment designed to enhance collaboration and cooperation.