Music, Health, and Socio-Economic Status: A Perspective on Urban Poverty in Canada

Abstract

In socio-economically depressed urban areas, many musical programmes and projects are offered to the poor for free by community organizations, non-governmental and governmental organizations, and arts businesses, with funding from corporations, private foundations, churches, donations, governments, and concert tickets. In poor urban areas in Canada and other nation states with decaying systems of social welfare, or in non-welfare states, music making, music classes, music therapy, and musical performances including theatre, dance, and multimedia are activities within a larger series of services and goods offered by the organizations and institutions, and directed towards the well-being and survival of the poor. There are also musical rehearsals and performances that pay the poor. Such music projects’ day-to-day functionings, which are still in the early stages of being documented (Araújo 2008; Harrison 2008; Tan 2008), variously address the social deprivations that have come to define poverty, such as lack of health, livelihood sustainability, or social inclusion.