ABSTRACT This article interrogates the influence of capitalist ideologies on new music in the United States. Following Karl Miller (Citation2008. “Working Musicians: Exploring the Rhetorical Ties between Musical Labour and Leisure.” Leisure Studies 27 (4): 427–441.) I focus on labour as a way to interrogate branding and autonomy, specifically in the work of three Chicago-based new music ensembles, Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Third Coast Percussion.
