Dr George Musgrave
Dr. George Musgrave FRSA FHEA studies the psychological experiences and working conditions of creative careers, with a current focus on mental health and wellbeing in the music industry. He collaboratively undertook a major research project entitled 'Can Music Make You Sick?' alongside Sally Anne Gross on mental health and the music industry exploring the links between anxiety/depression and precarious work, the book of which was an Amazon Number 1 Best Seller in the Sociology of Work. He has also published work on ethical decision-making by music managers, wellbeing in the gig economy. streaming and consumer behaviour, and qualitative research methodologies in journals including Poetics, Cultural Trends, Psychology of Music, and Culture Unbound. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), and a Committee Member of the Royal Musical Association's Music and Mental Health Group.
His work broadly covers three research areas:
• Wellbeing and mental health in the music industry (Musgrave, 2022a, 2022b; Chaparro & Musgrave, 2021; Musgrave, 2020; Gross & Musgrave 2016, 2017, 2020; Gross, Musgrave & Janciute, 2018)
• Cultural entrepreneurship (Athanassiou & Musgrave, 2021; Musgrave, 2014)
• Intermediation in cultural markets (Leisewitz and Musgrave, 2022; Musgrave, 2017)
His work led directly to the establishment of the first 24/7 mental health helpline for musicians - Music Minds Matter - launched in 2017. His research has been featured by media outlets including BBC News, Pitchfork, Mixmag, GQ, The Financial Times, BBC Introducing, The Grammys, Billboard and more, and been cited as informing the development of global therapeutic interventions
He is also a musician who has signed both major recording and publishing deals with EMI/Sony/ATV. His music has earned support from the likes of Mike Skinner, Plan B, Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran, and he has been labelled 'Middle England's Poet Laureate' by BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra DJ MistaJam. Prior to signing to his record deal, he was the first ever unsigned artist to win a place on the coveted MTV 'Brand New' list, and has played at festivals including Reading, Leeds, Wireless and BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend.
EDUCATION:
2014: PhD Politics, ESRC Centre for Competition Policy (UEA)
2010: MA Politics, Philosophy and Economics, University of East Anglia
2009: M.A (Hons) Social and Political Science, University of Cambridge
Gross, S; Musgrave, G (2016) Can Music Make You Sick? A Study Into the Incidence of Musicians' Mental Health - Part 1: Pilot Survey Report, Help Musicians UK/MusicTank
Gross, S; Musgrave, G (2017) Can Music Make You Sick? A Study Into the Incidence of Musicians' Mental Health - Part 2: Qualitative Study and Recommendations, Help Musicians UK/MusicTank
Musgrave, G (2017) Collaborating to Compete: The Role of Cultural Intermediaries in Hypercompetition, International Journal of Music Business Research, Vol.6(2), pp. 41-68
Gross, S., Musgrave, G; Janciute, L (2018) Well-Being and Mental Health in the Gig Economy: Policy Perspectives on Precarity, CAMRI Policy Briefs, University of Westminster Press
Musgrave, G (2019) Making Sense of My Creativity: Reflecting On Digital Autoethnography, Journal of Artistic and Creative Education, Vol.13(1), pp. 1-11
Musgrave, G (2020) Avicii: True Stories - Review, Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, Vol.12(1), pp. 94-97
Gross, S; Musgrave, G (2020) Can Music Make You Sick? Measuring the Price of Musical Ambition, University of Westminster Press
Athanassiou, D; Musgrave, G (2021) Building a Heavy Metal World: Cultural Entrepreneurship in the Polish People's Republic, Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts, Vol.10(1), pp. 1-19
Chaparro, G; Musgrave, G (2021) Moral Music Management: Ethical Decision-Making After Avicii, International Journal of Music Business Research, Vol.10(1), pp. 3-16
Musgrave, G (2022) Lessons from the Loss of Avicii: Business Ethics, Responsibility, and Mental Wellbeing, SAGE Business Cases, Sage Publications Ltd, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781529794601
Musgrave, G (2022) 'Losing Work, Losing Purpose': Representations of Musicians' Mental Health in Time of Covid-19, in, Morrow, G, Tschmuck, P; Nordgard, D (eds) Rethinking the Music Business: Music Contexts, Rights, Data and COVID-19, Springer
Leisewitz, A; Musgrave, G (2022) Does Spotify Create Attachment? Algorithmic Playlists, Intermediation and the Artist-Fan Relationship, Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 14(1), pp. 75-100
Loveday, C; Musgrave, G; Gross, S (2022) Predicting anxiety, depression and wellbeing in professional and non-professional musicians, Psychology of Music, doi: 10.1177/03057356221096506
Musgrave, G (2022) Music and Wellbeing vs Musicians’ Wellbeing: Examining the Paradox of Music-Making Positively Impacting Wellbeing, but Musicians Suffering from Poor Mental Health, Cultural Trends, doi: 10.1080/09548963.2022.2058354
Musgrave, G (2023) Musicians, their Relationships, and their Wellbeing: Creative Labour, Relational Work, Poetics, 96, 101762
Musgrave, G (2024, forthcoming) The England No One Cares About: Lyrics from Suburbia, MIT Press/Goldsmiths Press
Musgrave, G (2024, forthcoming) Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire: Music Education, Mental Health and Our Students' Futures, in, Arditi, D & Nolan, R (eds.) Handbook of Critical Music Industry Studies, Palgrave Macmillan