Young musicians’ career identities: do bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities compete or cohere?

Abstract

One of the most-discussed tensions in the cultural and creative industries is that between art and commerce, creativity and business, the artistic and the economic logic. This paper investigates in how far this discrepancy manifests itself in young musicians' career identities. Based on extant qualitative research, we distinguish between bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities. The goal of our study is to understand whether the two compete (stand in tension) or cohere (harmonise). We address this in a quantitative manner, by surveying 146 music students from two Dutch music schools. An exploratory factor analysis reveals three components of musicians' career identities, which pertain to 'open-mindedness', 'career-mindedness' and 'money-mindedness'. The former two unite bohemian and entrepreneurial career identity items. None of the components exhibits exclusively bohemian career identity items. This leads us to conclude that young musicians do not necessarily experience tensions between bohemian and entrepreneurial imperatives. Rather, they hold career identities that combine bohemian and entrepreneurial elements in a synergetic manner.

When theory and practice meet: Avenues for entrepreneurship education in music conservatories

“…One of the main characteristics in the artist–industry relations is the tension generated by the idea of art versus commerce, creativity and business, or artistic logic and economic logic. These discrepancies appear in young musicians when it comes to defining their professional identity and their future career (Schediwy et al., 2018). The professional identity of the musician is one of the most important factors of motivations, choices and actions that someone carries out in relation to the artistic career path, and is a vital precursor to the successful development of said career (Murnieks & Mosakowski, 2007).…”

“…In the arts, and by extension the industries of culture and creation, an ambivalence has been recognized between the ‘bohemian’ and ‘entrepreneur’ imperatives (Caves, 2000). In the context of music, Schediwy et al. (2018) have investigated the tensions in the cultural and creative industries between art and commerce, creativity and business, the artistic and the economic logic, and the impact of those discrepancies in the young musicians’ career identities, distinguishing two types of identities: bohemian and entrepreneurial.…”

“…Schediwy et al. (2018) provide an overview of the key features of a bohemian identity based on their broad review of existing literature (see Table 1).…”

“…An entrepreneurial identity is marked by versatility and the artist’s desire to acquire a wide range of competencies. Thus, to be able to face the challenges of the music industry, musicians should consider the possibility of expanding into various musical genres, some of those with wider acceptance in the market (Schediwy et al., 2018).…”

“…Table 2 shows the main characteristics of the construct ‘entrepreneurial professional identity’ developed by Schediwy et al. (2018) to build an instrument to measure the professional identity of the musician.…”