Since the 1990s the cruise industry has become one of the largest employers of musicians in the world. Thousands of professional musicians work on cruise ships daily, entertaining millions of passengers. Cruisicology: The Music Culture of Cruise Ships provides the first in-depth account of the culture and the industrial determinants of cruise ship music. Based on interviews with working musicians and coauthor David Cashman’s experience as a cruise ship musician, this book investigates how music is organized and made onboard a cruise ship. David Cashman and Philip Hayward study the working life of musicians, why and how corporate shipping lines include music onboard their vessels, the history of musicians on passenger shipping, and the likely future directions of musical entertainment within the industry. Cashman and Hayward illustrate the positive and negative experience of artists making music every day in confined spaces with close proximity to their audiences.

A scholarly and deeply informed realization of a topic of fascination for those who have ever experienced or dreamt about cruise ship life. It is essential reading for anyone with a professional interest in the recreational cruising industry, its history, overall operations, and future and especially to any musician contemplating a role in this industry. Theories, concepts, and descriptions of the culture, career, contingencies, and lives of cruise ship musicians are presented with crystalline clarity. The book adds an almost entirely missing piece to that perplexing jigsaw of fields and crossovers that comprises contemporary popular music studies. -- John Whiteoak, Monash University

David Cashman is pianist, researcher, and adjunct associate professor in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at Southern Cross University.



Philip Hayward is adjunct professor at the University of Technology Sydney, editor of the journal Shima and a member of audio-visual ensemble The Moviolas.