Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire: Music Education, Mental Health, and Our Students’ Futures

Tools

Musgrave, George. 2024. Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire: Music Education, Mental Health, and Our Students’ Futures. In: David Arditi and Ryan Nolan, eds. The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Music Industry Studies. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 119-135. ISBN 9783031640124 [Book Section]

No full text available

Text
Musgrave, Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire AAM.pdf - Accepted Version
Permissions: Administrator Access Only until 29 September 2025.
Download (282kB)

Official URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-03...

Abstract or Description

Recent studies have highlighted high incidences of anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions amongst both career musicians and those working in the music industries, with psychosocial features of the contemporary music industry working environment cited by some as a contributory factor. Despite these reported affective challenges of musical work, music industry education within higher education (HE) has never been more popular with young people who dream of working in ‘the music industry’, evidenced in the growth of courses dedicated to music business management, music industry studies and, relatedly, popular music and music production. This popularity has consequently led to an increased interest in how graduates of these programmes manage their transition from education into the music industries. This chapter builds on this literature by asking, how meaningfully are broadly defined music graduates being prepared for the emotional challenges they might face in their careers? By presenting personal reflections as an educator working within music and entrepreneurship education in HE in the United Kingdom, this chapter offers some introductory thoughts around how to best prepare students to enter a working environment typified by poor mental health outcomes. By considering curriculum-based opportunities and challenges—and asking questions as much as promising to answer them—this chapter contributes towards scholarship concerned with graduate transitions into the creative industries as well as pedagogical developments within music education.

Item Type:

Book Section

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64013-1_8