Music Industry History
What can I do with a history degree?
I really would like to be involved in the music industry or maybe acting. Can I go into either of these careers with just a history degree or should I go to grad school, although my motive is to go to grad school. What jobs can I do?
How do you know the people on this site know what they are talking about? I hope this isn’t your only source of advice for such a big decision.
Competition is brutal in music and acting. There are thousands of people who call themselves musicians or actors but still need a day job to pay the bills and never really break out of that pattern. This means that whatever acting or music they are doing is paying them nothing or at least less than minimum wage. This is who you will be competing with for your entire career.
The first thing you need to do is find out how good you actually are at any of these things, from someone who will be honest about telling you if it turns out you are not good at them, and they have to have some knowledge of the industry and what sells there.
A liberal arts degree is a fine thing if it teaches you to think critically. But it doesn’t prepare you for any specific job and nowadays is widely seen as a stepping stone to grad school. That’s an awfully expensive stepping stone, unless you already have your sights set on law school or med school. A college degree of some sort is necessary if you don’t want to face continual unemployment. But most people who major in history or political science or whatever end up in a career not very connected to their major.
No liberal arts degree prepares you for a career in acting or music. These are careers where it is much more important to know the right people in the industry and to have talent and ability than it is to have book learning. Better work on that if that’s where you want to go.
At this point in your life, it may seem that adulthood and career is all about finding the right super-creative thing to do. But almost everyone gets older and has kids, and then its all about being able to provide for the kids. And there’s a good chance for all of us that you and the other parent won’t stay together for the whole 20+ years it takes to raise the kids, which means both of you need to be very employable. College is not just your chance to pursue your creative urges. It’s your chance to acquire skills that make it so paying the expenses for you and the family you want to have won’t feel like an endless struggle.
Recording: The History of Recorded Music (5 Minute Trailer)
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BUSN2A-00110 Photo Mugs Woodsman dancing to a fiddle in a logging camp at night, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration…. |
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BUSN2A-00110 Photo Mugs Woodsman dancing to a fiddle in a logging camp at night, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration…. |
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Industry and Idleness – Photo Mugs Industry and Idleness – The Idle Apprentices Sunday Morning, engraving by William Hogarth, English painter and artist WH 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764. Engraving from moral series Industry and Idleness serving as guidelines for the18th century apprentice. Scenes of London life. Depicting Idle, the lazy apprentice, outside church with gravediggers. Charles Dickens connection – The Lazy Tour of… |
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George Gershwin Remembered (An American Masters Program) [VHS] $7.99 In the Roaring Twenties, all of America hummed the tunes of one man. Born in a humble Brooklyn neighborhood in 1898, George Gershwin quickly rose to dazzling heights in the entertainment world. Before his life was tragically cut short at the age of 38, the young composer had reshaped popular music into a uniquely American sound. He fused the exuberant refrains of Tin Pan Alley with the lush… |