The Role of Music in Work Activities

Abstract

This article discusses the role of music in work activities by considering music an intersemiotic discursive practice. It uses an interdisciplinary approach composed of discourse analysis, ethonomusicology and ergology in order to be able to examine the topic including music and work factors, put together by discourse. Firstly, the boundaries of traditional work songs are expanded through two unconventional examples: one in an advertisement, and the other one in a product packaging. Then through that expanded framework, it explores examples of two Brazilian communities, one from Bahia and the other one from Maranhão (both in Brazilian Northeast) that sing while they work in extractivist and agricultural activities. The conclusion points out that the relationship between music and work far surpasses the traditional framing of work songs. To better understand the role of music in the discourse of work activities, scholars need to take into account the renormalization which is brought into play and the discursive communities concerned by those complex discursive practices.