Taustamusiikkipalvelut ja toimijuus

Abstract

Embedded in the study of ‘music in culture’, agency can be perceived in ways in which a society musically defines itself, its taxonomy of music, and its ideas of what music can do. The article discusses that although music is a ‘resource for modulating and structuring the parameters of aesthetic agency’ such as feeling, motivation and desire (de Nora 2000), its public use is enabled, restricted and shaped by social and cultural contexts and agencies. By analysing interviews with the personnel of diverse background music companies, the article will concentrate on how agency is manifest in designing sonic environments of commercial premises and how companies can be approached as music cultures. Methodologically, this demands culture-specific understanding of background music history, skills and professional networks of the participants. Despite being part of the international music industry, background music is not to be detached from its culture, time and space where it is being heard, listened to and consumed.