Social & Cultural Geography

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Music in factories: a twentieth-century technique

for control of the productive self

Keith Jones

To cite this article: Keith Jones (2005) Music in factories: a twentieth-century technique
for control of the productive self, Social & Cultural Geography, 6:5, 723-744, DOI:
10.1080/14649360500258229

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Social & Cultural Geography, Vol. 6, No. 5, October 2005

Music in factories: a twentieth-century technique

for control of the productive self

Keith Jones
School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

This paper discusses the historical use of music to produce more efficient, more
committed, industrial workers. First emerging in academia early in the twentieth century,
psychological interest in the industrial application of music had grown into a topic of
popular interest and government investigation by the 1940s. Catalysed by the need for
vast increases in production and the desire to cultivate ‘citizenship’ amongst industrial
workers which the Second World War produced, consideration of how music could be
employed as an affective soundtrack in factories—to raise employees’ work rates, to
increase their efficiency, to combat fatigue and boredom, to improve morale, to access and
manipulate their emotions and loyalties—became a prominent area of psychological
research. This paper examines that psychological research and its largest scale application
in the BBC radio show Music While You Work, broadcast daily to millions of British
factory workers from 1940 until 1967. The paper focuses particularly on conceptual-
izations of music’s affective power and its utilization to exert ‘emotional control’ over
spaces of work and the working self. This paper is centrally concerned with the practice of
Music While You Work as a programme broadcasting specifically for factory spaces, and
how this confronted the BBC’s music policies for a national and domestic audience,
impacting on the radical nature of the affective soundtrack to work which was produced.

Key words: sonic geography, music broadcasting, industrial psychology, wartime

workspace.

Where you want to have slaves, there you should psychological research which argued that the
have as much music as possible. (Oral quotation of correct application of music in industry could
Tolstoy to Gorki, in Schafer 2003: 30) have a considerable positive effect on the
productivity of factory workers. The paper
Introduction: sonic geographies and music then goes on to consider the daily BBC radio
in the workplace broadcast Music While You Work (or, for
brevity, MWYW) and the ways in which it
This paper explores the theory and practice of formulated an ‘affective soundtrack’ for
broadcasting music for the factory in the factory space which translated psychological
mid-twentieth century, particularly during research into programming principles. With
the Second World War. It does this firstly this combined focus the paper aims to uncover
through an examination of the contemporary the largely unwritten history behind the

ISSN 1464-9365 print/ISSN 1470-1197 online/05/050723-22 q 2005 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/14649360500258229
724 Keith Jones

imposition of ‘functional’ music—that is, music and society (e.g. Bull 2000, 2004;
programmes of music evaluated primarily by DeNora 2000; Frith 2002; Hennion 2001;
their functional capacity to impact upon Hesmondhalgh 2003) has emphasized the
worker output rather than their aesthetic or ‘mundane’ ‘everyday’ powers of music, draw-
artistic ‘value’—on millions of wartime and ing attention to the fact that music is not
post-war British factory workers. After ‘merely a “meaningful” or “communicative”
describing industrial psychology’s conceptual- medium’ (DeNora 2000: 16) in social life, but is
izations of both the working self and music’s also a powerful ‘material that actors use to
affect—which led to general rules for what elaborate, to fill out and to fill in, to themselves
music should be applied to the factory in what and to others, modes of aesthetic agency and,
manner—this paper will be centrally con- with it, subjective stances and identities’ (2000:
cerned with exploring the programming 74) expanding the repertoire of social studies of
practices of MWYW. Discussion will focus music with a direct empirical focus on music’s
on the central geographical tension which functionality for the consumer. As DeNora
impacted upon its production between: on the argues, ‘in the past decade, socio-music studies
one hand, the BBC’s need to broadcast for ‘the have moved from preoccupation with music’s
nation’ and to produce musical programmes production to concern with how it is consumed
which would educate and entertain an and what it ‘does’ in social life’ (2001: 164).
‘idealized listener’ listening attentively in ‘the Within geography such a concern has recently
home’, and, on the other hand, the urgent need produced rich empirical accounts of listener’s
for the producers of MWYW to design their employment of music. They include Ander-
programmes specifically both for factory son’s explorations of music’s employment by
spaces, so that they might resound appro- listeners at home, to construct ‘immanent
priately through the large industrial spaces utopias’ which transcend the mundane nature
and above the constant mechanical noise of domestic environments (2002), and to
which defined the factory’s sonic landscape, ameliorate negative conditions such as bore-
and for factory workers, so that they could dom (2004b), and Saldanha’s (2002) discus-
impact on the psyche of distracted listeners sion of the ways Western pop music
whilst they were engaged in productive soundtracks the social experience of Banga-
activity. This geographical confrontation, lore’s young and wealthy elite, whilst Michael
between the sonic requirements of factory Bull’s (2000, 2004) analysis of how individuals
space and workers against those of the BBC’s use personal stereos to manage and mediate
national and domestic audience, is argued to urban experience has further contributed to
have exerted a profound influence over the advancing geographical understanding of
ways in which MWYW was produced. music’s functionality for consumers. Work in
This paper’s central concern with functional this area has tended to focus on contemporary
music in factory space responds to, and is consumption practices where listeners are free
embedded within, recent sociological and to choose for themselves, or negotiate with
geographical research on music. It responds others, the music to which they are exposed.
to a contemporary critical turn towards the This paper builds on this recognition of music’s
resounding of music through ‘everyday’ spaces power to aestheticize activity and to re-
and its implication in, and the soundtracking configure everyday spatial experience, extend-
of, mundane ‘daily’ activity. Recent research on ing investigation both historically and into an
 Music in factories 725

environment where both individual’s working landscape of consumption (e.g. Sterne 1997)
practices and their musical accompaniment to histories of the background music ‘genre’
were subject to strict managerial control throughout the twentieth century (e.g. Barnes
(Edwards 2003; Rose 1989). Further, it aims 1989; Lanza 1995). As Marek Korczynski
to function as a counterpoint to narratives argues1 ‘there is a huge gap in the sociological
focused directly on music consumers’ experi- knowledge of the role of music within work’
ence (but see Korczynski, Robertson, Pickering since ‘just as sociologists of work have failed
and Jones 2005 for an extensive discussion of to look at music, so the sociologists of music
how women factory workers experienced and have consistently failed to look at work’
responded to the soundtrack imposed upon (2003: 314 –315). This ‘huge gap’ in knowl-
their working practices during the Second edge means that the governmental and
World War) in offering an account of how elite academic project to influence British and
groups, of academics and broadcasters, con- American factory workers with music earlier
ceptualized the listening worker and the effects in the twentieth century, particularly during
of music upon their work. These constructions the Second World War, has largely remained a
of music’s affect by historical elites contrast secret history.
sharply with both the recent academic assess- Finally, research on this topic is embedded
ments of music’s socio-cultural meanings and within critical debate on the cultural politics of
the interviewees understandings of their every- music which has taken place within social and
day musical experiences from which they are cultural geography since the early 1990 s
derived. These contrasts, it will be argued, may (Leyshon, Matless and Revill 1995, 1998;
provide initial insight into the historical Matless 2000; Revill 1991, 2000a, 2000b,
development of academic and popular under- 2004; Smith 1994, 1997, 2000). This wide-
standings of music’s social function and their ranging literature has covered issues such as the
entwinement with the expanding potentialities contested politics of different music’s place in
of recorded sound (Sterne 2003). society, the enrolment of music in expressions
Further, this research responds to a general of national identity and the sonic geographies
lack of investigation of music at work across of both evaluations of artistic value and of the
the social sciences, a topic that has continued claims to authority on which they are
to be overlooked despite recent investigations contingent; whilst consistently emphasizing
into the parallel use of music to influence the that ‘different spatialities are . . . formative of
behaviour of consumers in retail environments the sounding and resounding of music’ (Ley-
(Connell and Gibson 2003; DeNora 2000; shon, Matless and Revill 1998: 4). These issues
DeNora and Belcher 2000; Gilbert and all figure prominently in the cultural politics of
Pearson 1999), which is itself preceded by a MWYW and its position within the institution
small critical literature aiming to expose how of the BBC. The programme strived to be a
background music, often referred to by the show with a singular aim (of increasing
brand name ‘Muzak’, acts to manipulate industrial productivity) aimed at a particular
consumers (see Barnes 1989; Jones and (factory) environment which cut across the
Schumacher 1992; Lanza 1995; MacLeod aspirations of an institution at that time
1979; Radano 1989; Sterne 1997) with foci rigorously concerned with broadcasting for an
ranging from analysis of how background idealized domestic environment and listener;
music infuses and reconfigures a particular an institution which sought to uphold classical
726 Keith Jones

sensibilities of artistic value and, ultimately, Psychology (NIIP) in 1921, an organization

cultivate and define the musical taste of the which, alongside the Industrial Fatigue
nation (Briggs 1970, 1985; Frith 1988; Research Board founded in 1918 (later the
Nicholas 1996; Scannell and Cardiff 1991). Industrial Health Research Board), was central
This internal conflict of values between in co-ordinating psychological research into
competing idealized geographies of broadcasts industry between the wars (Bunn, Lovie and
reception is reconstructed using material from Richards 2001). Myers’ 1927 text Industrial
the BBC Written Archive Centre in Caversham Psychology in Great Britain provides a detailed
in the third section of this paper, while the survey of the field from his vantage point as the
fourth and concluding section draws out some NIIP’s director at a time when American and
implications of this historical case for work on British perspectives had shifted into closer
sonic geographies. Before all of this, the next alignment. In this Myers stated:
section explores the tests and recommen-
dations used within the discipline of industrial Industrial Psychology[’s] . . . chief aim is to reduce
psychology to produce a functional music for needless effort and irritation and to increase interest
the factory, to understand the field from which and attention throughout the workers in industry. It
MWYW’s radical programming principles is concerned with the study, inter alia, of—
were translated.
(a) the psychological relations between labour
Industrial psychology: theorizing and and management,
testing music’s influence on the working (b) the incentives to work,
self (c) the arrangement of the worker’s materials and
the nature of the implements with which he works,
The vast majority of mid-twentieth-century (d) the posture and the movements of the worker,
Anglo-American research on music in industry (e) the training and the selection of the worker,
can be situated within the then new discipline (f) the distribution of periods of rest and work,
of ‘industrial psychology’. A discourse gener- (g) the physical environment of the worker,
ally positioned as being founded on Hugo (h) psychological factors influencing the
Munsterberg’s 1910 monograph Psychology sale of products, e.g. advertising, designing,
and Industrial Efficiency, industrial psycho- salesmanship, etc. (1927: 11)
logy ‘was peculiarly American at its inception’,
particularly in its close allegiance to the A decade later, carefully selected music for the
approach of F. W. Taylor’s scientific manage- factory was being presented variously as
ment (Landy 1997: 467). In Britain, industrial beneficial for factors (a), (b), (d), (f) and (g),
laying claim to a wide range of applications.
psychology was not a recognizable sub-
Myers’ industrial psychology, however, makes
discipline until after the First World War, and
no reference to music’s application despite
was far more sceptical of the approaches of music being one of his personal research
Taylor and his disciples (Bunn, Lovie and concerns (see Myers 1914 , 1922). Myers’
Richards 2001; Myers 1927). Key to the British research on music’s psychological effects was
development of industrial psychology was confined to the laboratory, and to the home.
Cambridge academic and president of the His 1922 paper on ‘individual differences in
British Psychological Society, C. S. Myers, who listening to music’, explores the transportive
established the National Institute of Industrial effects and physiological sensations caused by
 Music in factories 727

music and concludes that music has significant the work. It is not unlikely that it performs both of
psychological effects, arguing that ‘Nowhere in these functions. (1921: 357).
art or nature as in music do we more keenly feel
this “uplifting of the soul” as we term it, or as Pioneering though this study was, it had little, if
we may come to term it, this “uplifting of the any, material impact. It did not immediately
unconscious”’ (1922: 71). The tone and style of prompt any further investigation and is only
this piece, however, is far removed from
cited occasionally in later literature. It is a
suggesting that this is a power that could be
report of sixteen years later—Wyatt and
harnessed in an industrial way. For Myers
music’s power was in its intellectual appeal, Langdon’s (1937) study of ‘fatigue and bore-
its beauty and, fundamentally, in its art---an art dom in repetitive work’ conducted in Britain
that must be in the foreground, fully for the Industrial Health Research Board—that
concentrated on and followed carefully for it is almost universally accorded foundational
to be appreciated by the listener. status for this field. Over twenty-four weeks
Wyatt and Langdon tested the effects of six
However, a year earlier American psychol-
differing temporal programmes of ‘dance
ogist Esther Gatewood made the first clear
music’, ‘foxtrots’ and ‘waltzes’ on twelve
steps toward an industrial psychology of
women making paper crackers in a confec-
music, which used music as a background to
tionary factory. Wyatt and Langdon theorized
work. Her study of music’s effects in an
music’s effect as primarily one of psychological
architectural drafting room, at the Carnegie
stimulation which relieved the boredom of this
Institute of Technology, addressed whether or
repetitive task, arguing that it alleviated:
not music was beneficial and, further, investi-
‘awareness of monotonous conditions’ without
gated ancillary issues including:
distracting visual and cognitive attention.
What type of music is most preferred? Crucially, unlike Gatewood, they quantified
If music is desirable, in what way does the worker their claims of music’s power through directly
feel that the music helps? measuring production, contending:
If music were constantly available, in what time
units would it be used to the best advantage? In general . . . the type of music played under the
(Gatewood 1921: 351 –352) varying conditions of this experiment produced an
Gatewood concluded that familiar, instrumen- increase in output during the playing period ranging
tal music had a positive influence on pro- from 6.2% to 11.3%. (Wyatt and Langdon
ductivity and that ‘To have music frequently 1937: 38)
and for short periods appears to be most
desirable and beneficial’ (1921: 358). Gate- Wyatt and Langdon employed this quanti-
wood argued that the music acted both to tative evidence to make the generalization and
physiologically entrain the movements and recommendations that:
psychologically stimulate the mind of the
working self, contending that: In all forms of simple repetition work there can be
little doubt that the effects [of music] will be
the aid of music is of two sorts. Many feel that it beneficial, and since this type of work is very
actually speeds movement, and practically all the common in industry, there is clearly plenty of scope
workers find that it has a beneficial effect on for its use . . . Those employers who are inclined to
the mood or spirits, which in turn is reflected in introduce music into their factories should begin
728 Keith Jones

with a varied programme of popular dance tunes . . . on music in industry.3 Firstly, it is a literature
The total duration [of music] should be not less than that exclusively targets the factory
one hour or more than two hours in each spell of floor. In all cases research proceeds from an
work. (1937: 71) assumption, which is not empirically tested,
that music will only aid ‘manual’, ‘physical’ or
Wyatt and Langdon’s (1937) report therefore ‘industrial’ tasks of a repetitive nature and
gave the first quantified ‘scientifically testable’ will conversely act to distract and hinder
claim of music’s industrial potential, and the those engaged in ‘mental’, ‘white-collar’
first academic recommendation for general ‘office’ work.
use of music in industry. For Benson, it is ‘the This focus on the factory floor relates to a
first factual report’ on the topic (1945: 60) dualistic conceptualization of music’s affect as
whilst Kaplan and Nettle regard it as ‘the first acting physiologically (to combat the physical
practical evidence we have to consider’ (1948: condition of fatigue) and psychologically (to
129). Wyatt and Langdon’s findings were combat the mental condition of boredom);
publicized by the Industrial Health Research actions assumed a priori to be ‘distracting’ to
Board itself and, further, were quickly those undertaking ‘skilled’ or ‘intellectual’
recognized and promoted by the Industrial work. For some researchers music’s primary
Welfare Society and the NIIP. The champion- utility was in its perceived capacity to entrain
ing of music in industry by these three physiologically the workers’ movements. They
organizations ultimately led to British govern- believed that music could override workers’
mental involvement and to the BBC pro- natural tendency to slow their pace of work
gramme MWYW (see Korczynski and Jones over time by entraining them with the pace set
2005, for a full account of these develop- by the rhythm of the music. With the music’s
ments). In the USA also, Wyatt and Langdon’s rhythm providing a physiological cue for the
work initiated much further psychological rhythm of work, regulating musical tempo
research on the topic which grew to become a was believed to control work speed. A
sizeable body of literature after the USA dominant interest in music’s physiological
entered the Second World War in December influence was significantly more common
1941.2 Benson, in an American guide to the amongst American researchers than it was
topic for managers in industry, offers an amongst British researchers, arguably due to
extensive bibliography of both ‘research’ and the much stronger implication of Taylor’s
‘popular interest’ articles on the subject ‘Scientific Management’ in the history and
(1945: 73 – 80). Of the total 135 articles development of industrial psychology in
cited by Benson, ninety-eight (or around 73 America.
per cent) were published between 1940 and Where music’s basic impact was regarded as
1945 and 117 (or around 87 per cent) were being in the psychological stimulation it
published in 1935 or later. Further, virtually provided, the ‘right’ tempo was less crucial.
all the articles published before 1935 cover Instead, the ability to relieve boredom without
music’s effect in far more general terms not distracting workers from their tasks was the
specific to industry. key criterion. Thus, music that was ‘familiar’
For the remainder of this section I wish to and ‘simple’ was valued over that which
highlight some general features of the, largely was regarded as ‘new’ or ‘complex’ (Uhrbrock
American, body of wartime research literature 1961).
 Music in factories 729

A number of researchers valued music then measure the rate and quality of production,
simultaneously for psychological and physio- lateness, early departure, absences, accidents, and
logical impact. The most well developed of any discoverable indices of employee morale,
theories that bring together notions of without the worker’s knowledge that he is a
physiological and psychological effect is that subject, you have a valuable technique for the
put forward by Burris-Meyer (1943). His idea study of emotional control and can . . . find out what
of music’s impact rests on physiological music in industry is good for, and how good it is.
generation of emotional stimuli: (1943: 262)

By auditory stimuli, we can control metabolism. We These powerful effects were not to be over-
can increase or decrease muscular energy. We can used, or their impact would be diminished.
increase respiration. We can increase or decrease Whilst possibilities up to, and including,
pulse rate . . . We can change the threshold of continuous music programmes were tested,
sensory perception, and this is very important in there was a consensus that short periods of
precision work. We can reduce, delay or increase music distributed across the working day—
fatigue. By the control of these phenomena it is and matched to ‘fatigue curves’ employed by
possible to establish a physiological basis for the industrial psychologists more generally—were
generation of emotion. (Burris-Meyer 1943: 262) most effective (Antrim 1943; Burris-Meyer
1943; Kerr 1943, 1944; Smith 1947; Uhrbrock
In other words, Burris-Meyer is arguing that 1961). Generally several bursts of between
so many physical ‘variables’ of a person can be fifteen and thirty minutes of (continuous)
entrained, that music can be used to ‘simulate’ music, often as replacements for breaks, were
differing emotional states, and the autonomy recommended for optimum productivity.
of the workers’ emotional self can be over- What music was recommended, and how
ridden by the music-selecting psychologist. musical ‘types’ were differentiated, was more
Burris-Meyer makes it abundantly clear that variable. How music was categorized related
interest in physiological stimulation is, for to what model of musical effect was employed.
him, ultimately about controlling the Benson, for example, is overtly concerned with
emotions of workers to enhance their pro- psychological stimulation and consequently
ductivity: employs a cultural model of musical types
based on genre classifications, relating such
Our interest is in emotional control. We are observations as:
interested in exerting it directly by emotional
stimulus, and by inducing physiological change as Hawaiian music, waltzes, and South American
the basis for emotion. In industry the ends to be music are very good work music. (1945: 25)
achieved by emotional control obviously are: To [T]he possibility of five or seven hundred people
suit the man to his task; to give the work the status silently eating their lunch while listening to hot jazz
of a calling; to make it for the man, not what he pouring forth from the loudspeakers is a bit
lives by, not that which produces the pay envelope, ludicrous! (1945: 26-27)
but a major element in living. If that can be done . . . To date, scientific surveys have led us to
the work improves and the employee likes it. If you believe that classical music as such should not be
have control of the stimulus, if you can define it in played in a factory, either during work or rest periods.
terms of intensity, spectrum and cyclic quality and (1945: 29)
730 Keith Jones

With a direct concern for musical ‘style’ was often seen as limiting music’s effect on
leading her to make observations as specific as: production. As Burris-Meyer argued:

Five piano artists who are not good for work music Little of the music used in the factory is germane to
are Art Tatum, Eddy Duchin, Hazel Scott, Fats the endeavor it accompanies . . . The transcription
Waller, and Earl Hines. Save their recordings for carries something composed for the concert hall, the
lunch music. (1945: 19) stage, or the night club. At best, it is only adapted to
industrial use by reorchestration and arrangement.
By contrast Humes, subscribing to the (1943: 264)
hypothesis that music physiologically entrains
workers’ actions—and that over time the pace Antrim (1943) saw the ‘adaptation’ of
of the music will ‘set’ work speed, differen- music for industry as a ‘primitive’ phase in
tiates music using the ‘technical’ classification the development of this science, as illustrated
of beats per minute (bpm); separately testing by this comparison which she makes with the
the effects of ‘fast’ music (defined as 104-152 evolution of music for film:
bpm) and ‘slow’ music (defined as 63-80 bpm)
on productivity (1942: 577). The development of industrial music is now at
Another fundamental split was the issue of about the stage of the early sound-film when
whether vocals were an appropriate accom- incidental music was being brought in to heighten
paniment to factory work. Some psychologists the dramatic action . . . At first, attempts
regarded vocal music as too distracting. For consisted of lifting bits from existing
example, Farnsworth whimsically observed: compositions and patching them together into a
sort of music mosaic. This method was finally
The British as a matter of fact rule out all vocal abandoned, and recognized composers were given
music because they have noticed a tendency for the contracts to write original scores. (1943: 289 –
laborer to stop work and write down the lyrics he 290)
particularly enjoys. (1971: 218)
If industrial use of music was really to
Whilst, in contrast, Kerr argued: develop as composing for the films had (see
Adorno and Eisler 1994), the development of
Manual workers . . . interpret records with vocals as an ‘industrial music’ formulated according to
cures for boredom rather than as distractions from psychological principles was needed. Such a
work; they want vocals and there is no evidence that music was certainly the ultimate goal of
vocals impair productive efficiency in typical Burris-Meyer who concluded his piece in
factory operations. (1943: 248-249) Scientific American with the following dream
of a new industrial music genre:
Despite differences in classification and
outlook, researchers on music in industry When the composer starts to think of his work as
had the common problem of adapting music being first and oftenest performed in a factory,
designed for entertainment and participation before people who are working while they listen;
to function as a background accompaniment when he proceeds as some composers are already
to work. This tension between the musical doing, by treating proved auditory emotional
‘art’ and the ‘science’ of its implementation stimuli according to musical pattern; when he sets
 Music in factories 731

himself the task of making the work sing, then we MWYW’s most influential figure, Wynford
may well have a musical idiom which is something Reynolds who produced the show from May
new on earth. (1943: 264) 1941 until early 1946, was a composer and
conductor of ‘light’ music who had regularly
The next section discusses MWYW’s appeared on the BBC with his ‘Felixstowe
attempt to broadcast an ‘industrial music’, Spa Orchestra’ in the 1930 s.
constructed according to scientific principles MWYW was based directly on the research
for optimum worker productivity, within an of Wyatt and Langdon (1937) and emerged
institution devoted to promoting music’s from extensive consultation with the key
artistic value and serving a national audience. professional bodies of British industrial psy-
chology (see Korczynski and Jones 2005). A
‘preliminary report’8 outlining the rationale
Music While You Work: broadcasting for for MWYW’s approach from three days before
workers and factory workspace the first show’s airing, states in its introduc-
tion:
MWYW, a BBC radio show specifically
designed for relay in British factories, was The following report is made up from impressions
first broadcast on 23 June 1940 on both ‘The gathered in the course of visits to various factories,
Home Service’ and ‘The Forces Programme’ and in conversation with workers, managements,
and was a permanent fixture of the BBC and officials of the Industrial Welfare Society,
radio schedule for the next twenty-seven the National Institute of Labour Management, the
years, until the show’s final broadcast on 29 Industrial Health Research Board and the Institute
September 1967.4 The original core of the of Industrial Psychology.
shows’ scheduling were two half-hour shows
each day at 10.30 a.m. and 3 p.m., with, This introduction continues: ‘In every case
from the 2 August 1942,5 another half-hour the fact has been emphasised that the first few
show broadcast each night at 10.30 p.m. for weeks are experimental, and that it lies with
factory workers on night shift. By its them to put us right if we are developing on the
twentieth anniversary 13,701 editions had wrong lines’. Thus, these consulted parties
been broadcast,6 from which the author were positioned as key actors in the shows’
estimates that approximately 18,500 unique initial development and actively enrolled in its
editions were produced and broadcast in musical format. Amongst the conclusions of
total. The vast majority of these were this report is the finding that:
continuous broadcasts of ‘light’ music (gen-
erally melody-driven, instrumental compo- Music is only helpful, as far as production is
sitions aimed at a popular audience) played concerned, where the process is repetitive and
live in a deliberately ‘forceful’ and ‘energetic’ monotonous.
manner by bands or small orchestras7—a style
of music best exemplified by the programmes’ An argument, reproduced from the theoreti-
signature tune Calling All Workers composed cal perspective and a priori assumptions (rather
by Eric Coates. MWYW often used the than empirical findings) of music in industry
same ‘popular’ band leaders and orchestras research, 9 which before the show aired
as other BBC music programmes, indeed, restricted its intended audience to factory
732 Keith Jones

workers engaged in what were perceived as Slow sentimental numbers and selections are
physical and non-concentration intensive ruled out.
tasks. For the next twenty-seven years Subtlety of any kind is out of place. Quiet pieces
MWYW’s producers would view the factory should be avoided. A more or less steady volume of
floor as the only site where their programme moderately loud to loud power should be used
could have a major impact on ‘productivity’, throughout, and items selected accordingly.
and tried to adjust its parameters entirely to suit Vocal items should be well-known. They should
this environment and the ‘repetitive’ ‘mono- be used sparingly and care should be taken to see
tonous’ work taking place there. Additionally, that they carry the same beat as the rest of the
before any shows were broadcast, the produ- programme.11
cers of MWYW issued a memo decreeing that
the music played should be: Here, the music required is explicitly set
against ‘general listening’ and ‘artistic value’,
a. rhythmical music emphasizing the particular needs of the
b. non vocal (familiar vocals now accepted) industrial audience. Clearly unimpressed
c. no interruptions by announcements with the response, it is less than two weeks
d. maintain volume to overcome factory later that the programmes’ directors issued
workshop noises10 this explicit ‘Resume on Musical Scope’:

From these criteria specifying the parameters PLEASE

of ‘industrial music’ prior to broadcast, the NO SLOW FOXTROTS
BBC began translating research principles TANGOS
into programming rules, a translation which
WALTZES
involved not just establishing principles that
DREAMY NUMBERS of any sort
could be practically enacted but convincing
VOCALS of the sob-stuff order
musicians and other BBC staff to adhere to
rules antithetical to the rest of the BBC’s COMPLICATED CROSS-RHYTHM in hot jazz
music policy. It is clear, for example, that numbers
early on, many musicians were reluctant, SELECTIONS with frequently changing style
or unable, to deviate from the BBC’s and speed
general artistic policy and conform to the BUT PLENTY OF SNAP and PUNCH
show’s ‘scientific’ style. In response to this RHYTHM of a straightforward kind
deficiency MWYW’s directors forcefully CLEAN CLEAR-CUT MELODY
reiterated the shows’ principles in a memo BRIGHTNESS of all sorts
to musicians:
From the point of view of the general listener we are
asking for a bad piece of programme building. These programmes are purely utilitarian: they do
There must be as little variation of tempo as not need much contrast either in style or
possible, the ideal being to maintain the same beat dynamics (never any quiet playing, as the noise
through the whole programme. of machines just obliterates the music) nor need
Artistic value must not be considered. The aim is you think about the needs of the ordinary
to produce something which is rhythmically listeners during these half-hours, but just try
monotonous and repetitive; a ‘sustaining’ back- to make the period one of unrelieved
ground of brisk, cheerful but unobtrusive music. BRIGHTNESS and CHEERINESS.12
 Music in factories 733

Thus, this formulation of a ‘purely utilitar- and never deviating from, the artistic aims of
ian’ ‘industrial music’ should not be thought its composer---a principle at the heart of the
of as a straightforward, singular conversion BBC’s then decidedly anti-popularist agenda
of academic principles to programming (Briggs 1985; Frith 1988; Scannell and
practice. Rather it was an iterative process Cardiff 1991).
of passing on (from MWYW’s producers to When MWYW’s musicians and band lea-
multiple levels of BBC employees particularly ders failed to meet the show’s stringent
band leaders, conductors and musicians) a ‘scientific’ requirements, studio engineers
highly unconventional musical methodology, were called upon to actively reconfigure the
the principles of which needed to be sound produced, a highly uncommon, if not
regularly reaffirmed. In this process unique, request in an era of studio production
MWYW’s producers consistently called on based around the ideal of ‘transparently’
BBC musicians to play in a style opposed to reproducing live music (Prendergast 2000;
the BBC’s overall cultural policy. BBC Sterne 2003). Often this sonic reconfiguration,
musicians were asked to play with a aimed at producing broadcasts which would
disregard for the ‘needs for the ordinary effectively resound through factory spaces,
listener’ that opposed the BBC’s general was achieved by physically altering the
intent to broadcast for the nation (Briggs arrangement of musicians in the studio. For
1970; Nicholas 1996) and the particular example, the following extracts from a memo
idealized constructions of ‘the home’ and ‘the issued to all programme engineers by Head of
family’ which were invoked in a BBC Programme Engineering, F. W. Alexander,
cultural policy based ‘on a domesticated, illustrate some of the physical intervention
feminized image of a public deserving expected to rectify particular problems and
protection from the intrusion of anything ‘maintain these programmes at the high
inappropriate into the home’ (Lacey 2002: standard necessary for industry’:
27). BBC musicians were also asked to play
with a disregard for ‘artistic value’ avoiding Too much percussion. Strongly accented drum
‘subtlety’, dynamic and rhythmic contrast rhythm has a disturbing and irritating effect when
and anything that might actively draw the amplified in factories. A glaring example of a
listeners attention and distract them from programme that was marred throughout by the
‘passive’ listening as a backdrop to work. drummer was that broadcast by Joe Loss, playing
These requests were an affront to a BBC then from the Coventry Hippodrome on 21st May. The
still organized around the ‘central Reithian fact that Loss usually features his drummer in this
principle that the wireless listener should be manner should not affect our obtaining the balance
treated as active rather than passive’,13 a we require. Mutual satisfaction could probably
principle which prior to MWYW had have been obtained by placing the drummer at a
effectively banned ‘light music . . . so greater distance from the ‘mike’.
obviously liable to “passive consumption”’ Insufficient melody. Frequently it is necessary to
(Frith 1988: 28). Further, the requested form remind conductors, at rehearsal or run-through, of
of music and style of play fundamentally the necessity for internal balance. Accompanying
opposed the BBC’s explicit intent to provide instruments are often too loud. We can also assist by
‘culturally valuable’ music to educate advising certain instrumentalists to stand up when
the listening public played according to, necessary.14
734 Keith Jones

Thus, at one level scientifically functional provided by the BBC’s ‘Listener Research
music was achieved by the efforts of engineers Section’ he contended that: ‘only just over
and the ways they mapped musicians’ spatial half the listeners to these programmes listen
configurations across the studio. That while working in factories’, continuing:
MWYW elevated the studio engineer15 to a ‘There would seem to be no object in
figure with ‘artistic control’, who actively spoiling reception for one half of the
intervened in the ‘live’ performance to make it audience in order to benefit the other
meet the technical criteria required, is again half’.18 For such senior BBC officials working
indicative of the extent to which its producers outside of MWYW, the enjoyment of the
valued meeting the psychological rules of a entire listening public was the fundamental
‘functional’ music, over and above, producing concern. In their perception, to improve
broadcasts that ascribed to the BBC’s cultural listening conditions for one ‘half’ of the
policy and gave ‘artistic’ ‘natural’ or ‘beauti- public whilst degrading those of the other
ful’ renditions of the music. ‘half’ listening at home was to make a
The attempts of MWYW’s producers to change with negligible cumulative impact. By
reconfigure the technical parameters of their contrast, MWYW’s producers found this
broadcast for optimum reception in factories claim an anathema. For them, the entire
even went beyond reconfiguration in the point of the show was simply to make
studio, with requests for fundamental altera- industry work better, disregarding all else.
tions to the broadcast signal. For example, in MWYW’s singular focus on its industrial
August 1940, MWYW director Neil Hutch- audience is further evidenced in the extensive
inson requested that their broadcasts be audience research conducted specifically for
‘compressed’, so that the dynamic range of the programme which concentrated exclu-
sound output was restricted, to a much greater sively on reception in factories. As the Second
extent than other programmes.16 This would World War progressed, two distinctive forms
have enabled broadcasts to be heard better of factory survey came to dominate MWYW’s
above factory noise by essentially providing a audience research agenda. Firstly, there was
signal for MWYW that was significantly surveying of factories at a distance with
‘louder’ across all its elements when compared questionnaire surveys, a process initiated
with other broadcasts.17 This was a move with a special ‘experimental week’ from 6 to
beyond merely making a show to suit work- 12 July 1941 during which the factory
place activity—it was a call for altering the audience was asked to objectify and directly
technical parameters of the medium to compare each of the fourteen MWYW
optimize the sounds in relation to the existing broadcasts, assessing them on criteria
sonic geography of factories; to tailor the of ‘Audibility’, ‘Rhythm’, ‘Enjoyment’ and
broadcast signal of a radio programme ‘Effect on Output’. Completed questionnaires,
specifically to compete with the ‘noise’ that representing the responses of 52,000 workers,
would be encountered in the spaces of its were received from 140 factories. 19
reception. The questionnaire also probed ‘conditions of
This proposed modification, however, was listening’, inquiring into issues including
never implemented. The BBC’s Senior Sound the extent to which the work was ‘repetitive’,
Engineer replied with an outright rejection of the factory noise with which broadcasts had to
Hutchinson’s request. Invoking statistics compete and how broadcast times fitted with
 Music in factories 735

the distribution of work and rest periods. With music for ‘the factory’ so its audience research
this survey the MWYW ‘mass production’ of was uniquely focused on how the broadcasts
music for British factories contrasts sharply sounded in relation to the sonic landscapes of
with the ‘controlled’ conditions of academic different factory spaces.
research. A key element of academic research The second form of factory survey used by
was a priori study of ‘the’ factory space and MWYW was the factory visit. This allowed
the factory’s working day to ascertain where, BBC staff a direct engagement with the factory
when and how music could most effectively be space and workers, unobtainable through
used. MWYW had no such luxury, and questionnaires. Archived reports22 of these
consequently required such extensive surveys visits show detailed surveying of each factory
to ascertain if the reality of ‘average’ factory covering employee numbers, factory pro-
life fitted the model on which the programme cesses, type of sound installation, hours of
was based. work, periods of music, and the particulars of
After the ‘experimental week’, MWYW MWYW broadcasts heard during the visit.
began regular monitoring of audience opinion These data were used both in general
with questionnaires about each Wednesday assessment of the programmes’ ‘suitability’
afternoon broadcast being sent to a smaller and to give each factory visited ‘personal’
number of factories. The returned question- feedback on how to optimize their use of
naires were not primarily ordered by the music provided by the BBC. During factory
characteristics of the respondents (age, sex. . .) visits MWYW staff could watch the workers
but were classified by the sonic environment in as they worked and listened to the pro-
which workers listened. After specifying gramme, observing audience response at close
which broadcast was being evaluated and quarters. This watching the listener and
listing the ‘number of factories reporting’ and listening to an environment constituted an
the ‘number of forms returned’, the first extensive ‘auditing’ of the interrelations
‘rating’ of the broadcast came in a standar- between the factory’s listeners and sonic
dized table which gave five points scores;20 environment and the MWYW broadcast, a
two for the shows’ ‘audibility’ in ‘noisy’ and deep engagement with the programmes
‘quiet’ shops, respectively, then three for resounding within the environments it was
general criteria of ‘suitability’, ‘style’ and carefully designed for.
‘effect’ (see Fig. 1). MWYW then, conducted audience
Following this tabulated scoring, selected research in a highly targeted manner;
comments of factory staff were then listed exclusively surveying factories using methods
under the headings: ‘Factories or shops21 with designed to directly feedback into adjustment
extreme machine noise’, ‘Factories or shops of fundamental programme parameters to an
with medium noise’ and ‘Factories or shops extent which would be uncommon today and
with little or no noise’—a tripartite division virtually unheard of in the BBC of the 1940s.
designed to reveal differences in reception When MWYW started it was less than four
across the spectrum of auditory environments years since the BBC had bowed to public
in factories, rather than across any sociologi- pressure and reluctantly conducted its first
cal spectrum through which factory workers audience research and there was still a great
themselves could be differentiated. Just as deal of scepticism within the BBC about
MWYW was uniquely focused on creating using listener research as a way of dictating
736 Keith Jones

Audibility Audibility General Style Effect

in in Suitability of on
Noisy Shops Quiet Shops of Programme Playing Workers
Items

Points Points Points Points Points

(Max. 300) (Max. 300) (Max. 300) (Max. 300) (Max. 300)

192 260 200 234 176

Factories’ grading of the broadcast, all things considered: 208

(In Points – Max. 300)

Audibility Audibility General Style Effect

in in Suitability of on
Noisy Shops Quiet Shops of Programme Playing Workers
Items

Points Points Points Points Points

(Max. 300) (Max. 300) (Max. 300) (Max. 300) (Max. 300)

132 240 211 211 176

Factories’ grading of the broadcast in points (Max. 300): 194

Figure 1 Two examples of tables giving point ratings for factory reception of Music While You
Work (formatting as in originals). Upper table reproduced from report on broadcast by H.M.
Royal Marines band 3 p.m., Wednesday 8 July 1942. Lower table reproduced from report on
broadcast by Frank Stewart and his Orchestra 3 p.m., Wednesday 29 April 1942 (both reports
BBC WAC R27/260).

what types of programmes should be aired, institutional culture of the time. Not only
or what they should contain (Briggs 1985; was the research actively enrolled in pro-
Lacey 2002; Nicholas 1996; Paulu 1956; gramme design—it was, uniquely, research
Pegg 1983). To many in the BBC ‘publicity into particular places of reception with
was . . . an essential aim’ of research, no lesser ambition than to construct a
evidenced by the fact that the Listener general model of the sonic space of British
Research Section remained a subsidiary of factories which would be used to dictate
the Public Relations Department for several the sound of the broadcasts, aiming to
years (Pegg 1983: 145), with the ‘goodwill’ optimize their resounding through factory
audience research generated among the environments.
listening public being valued over its impli- If MWYW’s reliance on listener research
cations for programming. As Pegg notes, ‘the was a radical departure from BBC conventions
implementation of findings [from the Listener then, as this section has argued, both its
Research Section] was often desultory and psychology-based rules of music program-
their value was not properly appreciated’ ming, and its interest only in factory workers’
(1983: 144-145). MWYW’s employment of reactions, were a blatant affront to the BBC’s
audience research therefore was clearly a cultural policy. With no ambition of educating
radical one in relation to the BBC’s or challenging the listener, or expanding or
 Music in factories 737

developing their musical tastes, the music of as the targets for its programming MWYW
MWYW lacked the progressive aims of other confronted core aspects of the cultural model
BBC music programmes to cultivate high on which BBC programming was based. This
culture tastes in their mass audience. More- confrontation, over music’s place and social
over, designed as background accompaniment role, resulted in significant restraint of the
to work, it did not want an active, attentive programme’s radical intentions; yet MWYW
audience intently focused on its content—a nevertheless succeeded in a pioneering
model of ‘the listener’ to which all23 other BBC extension of radio to a new background
programmes of the era aspired (Briggs 1965, role, broadcasting for a new type of
1970, 1985; Frith 1988; Lacey 2002; Nicholas environment.
1995, 1996; Pegg 1983; Scannell 1989;
Scannell and Cardiff 1991). It offered an
extreme reconfiguration of ‘music’ as func- Conclusions: the sonic culture of music in
tional background in complete opposition to factories
the interrelated emphasis on artistic value and
listener attentiveness which was central to the This paper has outlined a previously neglected
BBC’s music policy. history of music’s psychological use, discuss-
MWYW’s exclusive interest in an indus- ing the pioneering work of Gatewood (1921)
trial audience inevitably confronted the and the pivotal work of Wyatt and Langdon
BBC’s wider responsibility to ‘the nation’ as (1937), a report which led rapidly to both the
a whole (Briggs 1965, 1985; Nicholas 1996; BBC’s MWYW in the UK and to the
Scannell 1989; Scannell and Cardiff 1991). development of an Anglo-American (though
Further, in exclusively targeting workers American-dominated) discourse of music in
listening in factories, with an apparent industry research. It has explored both
disregard for domestic listeners, MWYW research into, and broadcasting of, music for
went against basic precepts of BBC cultural industry, examining the ways in which they
policy, which was at that time infused with attempted to organize a new sonic regime of
particular idealized constructions of ‘the factory work. In doing this analysis has,
home’ and ‘the family’ (Frith 1988; Lacey necessarily, been mainly restricted to pre-war
2002; Nicholas 1996). As Frith (1988) and wartime developments. Consequently,
contends, the content and form24 of BBC later research which drew on, and sought to
radio was strongly premised on an imagined reinterpret, wartime research (e.g. Fox 1971;
‘radio hearth’ around which the family could Fox and Embrey 1972; Newman, Hunt and
unite and share in programming stimulating Rhodes 1966) has not been discussed. More-
and suitable for all. MWYW’s agenda over, discussion of MWYW has not explored
contributed nothing to domestic cohesion the twenty-two years after the Second World
and could, potentially, be viewed as actively War during which the programme continued
antithetical to it.25 Its design worked against to be broadcast daily, without any major
the BBC’s idealized model of its imagined changes to its format and underlying prin-
audience, listening actively in the home, as ciples. MWYW’s ‘inertia’ between 1945 and
MWYW implemented a soundtrack for 1967, against a backdrop of massive changes
passive listening in factories. In eschewing in the UK’s musical, popular and industrial
the home, the family and the active listener culture, awaits analysis in further work.
738 Keith Jones

The historical episode of research and emerge. These shifts were essential to the
application recounted here was undoubtedly practices of MWYW, which broke from
intensified by the onset and outbreak of war. convention with tightly controlled continuous
As Rose (1999) notes, in the Second World War, music broadcasts where studio engineers were
for the first time, the terrain of psychology was actively enrolled in reconfiguring the music (in
extended into a battle for the minds of civilians developments which would now be recognized
as well as soldiers. In this conflict: as pioneering steps toward modern studio
culture had they been done in the name of art
Warfare produced new ways of thinking about the rather than science).
functioning of organizations in terms of ‘human The way in which music in factories
engineering’; the rational utilization of the human was implemented must also be considered
factor in the management of institutions and society inseparable from an academic, managerial and
appeared an urgent and real possibility. (1999: 15) broadcasting belief in the existence of ‘popular
consensus’; of a normative popular culture
MWYW, created by a coalition of academic, shared by the working class. That psychologists
governmental and broadcasting institutions could unproblematically consider music as
united by ‘the war effort’, was the product of either ‘familiar’ or ‘unfamiliar’ to ‘the
precisely such an urgent belief in the appli- workers’, felt justified in largely ignoring
cation of psychological technique to influence gender and age differences amongst workers,
the civilian worker. and believed that the right musical formulae
The development of recording and broad- would be universally stimulating was absol-
casting technologies, and their reshaping of utely fundamental to the science of music
the social and lived relations of people and in industry, and its large-scale application
music, is also central to this history. The in broadcasting. This model of the working
potential of the gramophone and the wireless subject that did not allow for variability
to provide musical ‘resources’ for accompany- in musical taste ensured that the projects’
ing other activities was not immediately generalized rules and universal principles
realized (Prendergast 2000; Sterne 2003), but persisted for a long period of time.
emerged gradually in opposition to a norma- Thus MWYW’s creation and early develop-
tive high culture model of ‘concentrated’ and ment was contingent upon a distinctive set of
‘focused’ artistic appreciation (Sterne 2003). historical conditions; as the combined efforts
Myer’s (1922) paper on music, for example, of institutions united by ‘the war effort’
whilst employing gramophones to test the facilitated the realization of hitherto unex-
psychological influence of music, does not plored potentialities of recorded music and a
deviate from a classical model of ‘concert’ highly controlled ‘scientific’ regime of music
listening or consider the possibility of ‘other’ programming for the factory which was itself
modalities of listening. A whole series of shifts contingent upon industrial psychologists’
(yet to be fully explored) in how technologies belief that such a music could be universally
of audio reproduction and their social utility affective. This distinctive case offers an
were conceptualized had to take place, in example of music’s everyday use on millions
order for the thoroughly ‘modern’ under- of British factory workers which contrasts
standings of recorded music as scientifically sharply with recent geographical and socio-
controllable resource discussed in this paper to logical explorations of music in ‘everyday life’
 Music in factories 739

(e.g. Bull 2000, 2004; De Nora 2000). As music production and transmission which,
Hesmondhalgh (2003) critically observes, De through development in future work, may
Nora used the term ‘everyday life’ ‘to invoke a offer a parallel narrative concerning the place
generalized sense of the ordinary and the of listeners of potential value to social and
mundane without examining the historical cultural geographies of music consumption.
and highly uneven development of everyday
life’ (2000: 122). This paper’s subject, as
counterpoint to twenty-first century sound- Acknowledgements
trackings of social space, gives one illustration
of the historical and geographical specificity of This paper is based on research conducted
the ways in which music is implicated in for my doctoral thesis ‘Sonic Culture:
‘everyday life’. The everyday, yet highly Geographies of Sound, Technology and
controlled and distinctive, resoundings of Society’ which was funded by ESRC scholar-
music through workplaces require further ship award R42200134271, and supervised by
investigation to broaden and problematize Andrew Leyshon and David Matless to whom
understandings of recorded music’s social I am indebted for their guidance and countless
roles (Korczynski and Jones 2005). insightful comments over the last three years.
Further, this paper has related a peculiarly Many thanks to the staff of the BBC Written
geographical example of broadcasting—a Archive Centre, Caversham for their invalu-
uniquely large-scale attempt to produce a able assistance in my researching of MWYW,
programme for a particular type of environ- and thanks to the Kempson family for their
ment (not just in terms of the activity taking kind hospitality during this period of work.
place in these factory environments, but Various versions of this paper have been
additionally in constructing a broadcast to previously presented at the 2003 International
suit the spaces of factories and their existing Conference on Twentieth Century Music in
sonic landscapes). It has demonstrated a Nottingham, the 2003 RGS-IBG conference in
conflict of ‘geographical imaginations’ London, the 2004 AAG conference in Phila-
between the BBC’s overall cultural attitude to delphia, the 2004 Institute of Popular Music
spaces of receptions (which privileged a Postgraduate conference in Liverpool and
particular domestic, family-orientated con- Loughborough University’s culture and
struction of ‘the home’ as the site targeted by media ‘CAMARG’ research group. Thanks
its broadcast) and the specific intents of to all those who commented at these
MWYW’s producers to design their broad- presentations, and to the three anonymous
casts for workspaces. Whilst this conflict is an referees who offered valuable criticism of an
exceptional case, it is indicative of the earlier draft of this work.
interrelations between the BBC’s historical
Notes
cultural policies and conceptions of ‘the
listener’, illustrating how a singular geo- 1 In a broad overview of music and work within Britain
graphical situating of ‘the listener’ was central over the last 250 years—an article which constitutes,
to the form and content of programming. It is at least to my knowledge, the only critical research on
the history of music at work to have been published at
a conflict which presents one example of how
the time of writing (February 2005).
a geographical envisioning of ‘the consumer’ is 2 In fact, during the Second World War itself, the vast
centrally implicated in cultural geographies of majority of published psychological research on
740 Keith Jones

music in industry was American rather than British.

8 Music in Factories (Preliminary Report),
My interpretation of this notable difference is that
no author given, 20 June 1940—BBC WAC
following the development of a national system for
R27/257/1.
relaying scientifically selected music to factories 9 Whether music could increase the productivity of
(MWYW) and under the intensive conditions of those engaged in ‘complex’ tasks was not, to my
wartime, British researchers took music’s practical knowledge, empirically tested by psychologists prior
value to industry as ‘proven’ and left further research to McGehee and Gardener’s (1949) investigation of
to the BBC. In America, where by contrast no music’s influence on the ‘relatively complex industrial
national or regional programme for distributing job’ of preparing ‘material for rug looms’. This study
music to factories was put into operation (though concluded that the benefit of music was negligible
independent local radio stations WWZR in Chicago when used as a soundtrack to ‘complex’ industrial
and WHFM in Rochester, Indiana did broadcast activity (1949: 407).
programmes for industry based upon MWYW— 10 This is a typed document with handwritten additions
source: Benson 1945: 40), researchers still had the (handwritten additions are indicated here by under-
challenge of getting industry to apply music on a lining): BBC Memo 14 June 1940 (earliest dated
major scale. document in BBC’s MWYW archive): BBC WAC:
3 Out of around forty academic articles on music at R27/257/1.
work (Benson 1945), this review is based largely on 11 BBC Memo, from Neil Hutchinson (co-director of
direct reading of the following research papers (listed MWYW with Denis Wright from June 1940 to May
in chronological order): Gatewood 1921; Wyatt and 1941), 10 July 1940, BBC WAC R27/257/1.
Langdon 1937; Humes 1942; Antrim 1943; Burris- 12 Denis Wright, ‘Short resume on musical scope’—
Meyer 1943; Kerr 1943, 1944; Benson 1945; Smith capitalized and underlined formatting as in original,
1947; Kaplan and Nettle 1948; McGehee and 22 July 1940, BBC WAC R27/257/1.
Gardener 1949; Uhrbrock 1961. 13 The BBC’s Reithian principles being those principles
4 MWYW continued to be broadcast simultaneously on enacted by Sir John Reith, Director-General of the BBC
both BBC radio networks throughout the Second until 30 June 1938, who was the most influential figure
World War. It was moved to ‘The Light Programme’ in the BBC’s early development—and whose cultural
when this was instigated as a peacetime replacement policy resonated through the institution long after his
for ‘The Forces Programme’ on 29 July 1945. MWYW departure. Reith enforced a ‘public service’ agenda for
was finally discontinued in 1967 when ‘The Light the BBC focused on ‘education’ and violently opposed
Programme’ was shut down and replaced by ‘Radio to using the BBC for catering to ‘mass entertainment’ or
One’ and ‘Radio Two’. ‘popular culture’. It should be noted that Reith still had
5 The night show was discontinued at the end of close links to, and power over, the BBC when MWYW
the Second World War. Between 1945 and 1967 started, being appointed government ‘Minister of
a series of very minor scheduling alterations were Information . . . [for] an unsuccessful spell . . . in 1940’
made, too numerous to be detailed here, but often with the ‘power to prescribe broadcasting hours in
involving the time slot of the afternoon show which wartime and, after notice, to veto any broadcast matter
was moved back and forth between its original 3 p.m. “either particular or general”’ (Briggs 1985: 179).
window and time slots of 3.15 p.m. and 3.45 p.m. 14 Letter from F. W. Alexander, Head of Programme
6 Source: ‘Twenty Years of “Music While You Work”’, Engineering—dated 2 June 1943— MWYW, Pro-
press release, 31 May 1960---held in the BBC Written duction and Balancing of Programmes, BBC WAC
Archives Centre, Caversham (hereafter, BBC WAC): R27/257/3.
file R44/982/4. 15 Whose conventional role at this time was to reduce the
7 Aside from this dominant form of music heard on signs of mediation, to record programmes in ways that
MWYW, there were also ‘occasional’ shows of replicated as much as possible an unmediated ‘live’
marches played by military bands or compiled from musical experience, i.e. effectively to erase any signs of
pre-recorded music. Archival evidence indicates that their involvement, and their influence on the act of
all shows irrespective of musical style were, as far as recording (Sterne 2003).
possible, subjected to the same criteria of assessment 16 Compression of radio broadcasts acts to restrict the
and adjustment according to MWYW’s overall dynamic range, i.e. the difference in volume between
scientific principles. the loudest and quietest sound output. At the time
 Music in factories 741

(1940) the BBC employed a standard compression to a

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le moi productif au 20e siècle
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Cet article aborde l’évolution de l’usage de la
ment and Planning D: Society and Space 18: 597–613.
musique dans le but de produire des ouvriers
Revill, G. (2004) Performing French folk music: dance,
industriels plus efficaces et dévoués. Apparu pour
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Geographies 11: 199–209. début du 20e siècle, l’intérêt psychologique pour la
Rose, N. (1989) The Productive Subject. London: question de l’application industrielle de la musique
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Rose, N. (1999) Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the et digne de recherches gouvernementales. Le besoin
Private Self, second edition. London: Free Association d’accroı̂tre fortement la productivité et la volonté
Books. de cultiver une «citoyenneté» chez des ouvriers
Saldanha, A. (2002) Music, space, identity; geographies of industriels produits de la Deuxième Guerre
youth culture in Bangalore, Cultural Studies 16: mondiale ont été pour ces recherches des éléments
337–350. catalyseurs. Comment profiter de la musique dans
Scannell, P. (1989) Public service broadcasting and les usines était une des questions principales que se
modern public life, Media, Culture and Society 11: pose la recherche psychologique. À cette époque,
135–166. on se demandait si la musique pouvait servir de
trame sonore affective pour augmenter la valeur du
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travail des employés, accroı̂tre leur effectivité,
British Broadcasting. Oxford: Blackwell.
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avoir accès à et manipuler leurs sentiments et
(eds) The Auditory Culture Reader. Oxford: Berg,
loyautés. Cet article aborde en détail ce corpus de
pp. 25–39. recherche psychologique et sa plus importante mise
Smith, H. (1947) Music in Relation to Employee en application dans le cadre d’un programme
Attitudes, Piece-work Production, and Industrial radiophonique de la BBC appelé «La musique
Accidents. Applied Psychology Monographs No. 14. pendant que vous travaillez» qui était diffusé à
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. tous les jours de 1940 à 1967 auprès de millions
Smith, S. (1994) Soundscape, Area 26: 232 –240. d’ouvriers britanniques. Cet article met l’accent sur
744 Keith Jones

les conceptualisations de la puissance affective de triales durante la segunda guerra mundial, un

la musique et de son usage comme moyen d’exercer estudio de cómo se podrı́a usar la música de modo
un «contrôle émotionnel» sur les lieux de travail et afectivo en las fábricas—para hacer que los
sur les personnes qui travaillent. L’article se empleados trabajaran más rápido y de manera
rapporte notamment à la pratique de la program- más eficiente, para combatir la fatiga y el
mation de la radiodiffusion «La musique pendant aburrimiento, para levantarles la moral a los
que vous travaillez» qui ciblait tout particulière- empleados y obtener acceso a sus sentimientos y
ment les espaces des usines, et à la façon dont ceci su lealtad—llegó a ser un área de investigación
a posé un défi à la BBC et à ses politiques musicales importante de la psicologı́a. Este papel examina esa
concernant le public national et domestique, ayant investigación psicológica y la aplicación más
des répercussions sur la nature radicale de la trame marcada ella en el programa de radio del BBC
sonore affective accompagnant le travail qui a été llamado ‘Music While You Work’ (Música mientras
produite. Trabaja), un programa transmitido cada dı́a para
millones de trabajadores en las fábricas de Gran
Mots-clefs: géographie sonore, diffusion musicale, Bretaña desde 1940 hasta 1967. En particular el
psychologie industrielle, lieu de travail en temps de papel se centra en las conceptualizaciones del poder
guerre. afectivo de la música y el uso de música para ejercer
‘control afectivo’ sobre el espacio laboral y el ser
Música en las fábricas: una técnica del siglo 20 para laboral. Este papel se centra en la práctica de ‘Music
controlar el ser productivo While You Work’ como programa emitido especı́-
ficamente para las fábricas y como esta práctica se
Este papel habla del uso histórico de música para veı́a enfrentada a la polı́tica del BBC de música para
producir trabajadores industriales más eficaces y el público nacional y doméstico—la cual tenı́a un
dedicados. Surgió como tema académico a princi- impacto sobre la naturaleza radical de la banda
pios del siglo 20, y en los años 40, el aspecto sonora afectiva que se producı́a para los
psicológico del uso de música en la en el sector trabajadores.
laboral ya era un tema de interés popular y de
investigación gubernamental. Catalizada por la Palabras claves: geografı́a sónica, la emisión de
necesidad de aumentar producción y el deseo de música, psicologı́a industrial, el espacio laboral en
cultivar ‘ciudadanı́a’ entre los trabajadores indus- tiempos de guerra.