George Musgrave

Dr George Musgrave is an interdisciplinary sociologist whose work examines how contemporary working lives generate pressure, strain, and vulnerability over time. His research focuses on psychosocial risk in high-identity, high-commitment careers, exploring how insecurity, belief, performance expectations, and meaning all shape working experiences in modern labour markets.

His work is grounded in over 15 years of international empirical research within the music industry - a sector in which identity and uncertainty are especially pronounced - making it a powerful lens through which to understand how pressure accumulates in valued work. This research has formed the basis of major funded projects including Can Music Make You Sick? (UK), When Music Speaks (Denmark) and It's Time to Talk (India).

George is the co-author of Can Music Make You Sick?, an Amazon No.1 bestseller in the sociology of work, and author of The England No One Cares About. His research has been published in leading journals including The Lancet, The Lancet Psychiatry, Poetics, and Cultural Trends, and has informed policy and sector-level discussions in the UK and internationally.

Alongside his academic work, George brings lived experience as a professional musician having signed major recording and publishing deals with Sony. This background continues to inform his research into belief and meaning in working life.

George’s talks focus on how pressure, identity and insecurity shape modern working life. Drawing on his long‑standing research in the music industry and his experience advising both public and private organisations, he shows why high‑commitment careers carry unique psychosocial risks, how expectations accumulate over time and why distress often reflects work structures rather than personal failings. His evidence‑based insights help audiences understand the emotional weight of valued work and offer practical ways to think about healthier, more sustainable professional environments.

His speaking topics include, for example: 

Psychosocial Risk in Contemporary Work
How pressure builds over time in high-commitment and identity-driven careers

What the Music Industry Reveals About Modern Work
Why creative labour offers an unusually clear view of insecurity and performance pressure

When Work Becomes Personal
Exploring how meaning, identity, belief and self-worth become entangled with working life

Beyond Burnout
Why distress is often a signal of work design rather than individual failure

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