Reflections on My Research: Finding Belonging In The Musicking Community.

This week sees the release of my third paper, published in the International Journal of Music, Health, and Wellbeing.

The paper entitled 'Professional popular musicians’ experiences of community, inclusion and mental health in the musicking environment' is available free online if you want to read it!

As both a musician and psychotherapist, I’ve spent years witnessing the complex and evolving relationship between creativity, performance, and mental health both in others and myself. My most recent paper, grew from a deep frustration with how under-researched the lives of popular musicians remain. On a larger, macro scale, there’s a lot of chit chat but not much else. While classical musicians have long been studied, those of us working in popular music often exist in the margins, our emotional worlds and wounds often oversimplified or misunderstood.

In this study, I explored the lived experiences of seven professional popular musicians. I wanted to move beyond dry stats and uncover how these people themselves made sense of community, identity, and mental health within their musicking environments, the spaces where we create, perform, and connect.

Through following a long arduous process of analysis, three central themes emerged. The first was inclusion and feeling welcome. The musicians described how being seen and accepted, whether as women in male-dominated bands, black artists in white-majority spaces, or performers with visible differences (and physical disabilities), provided a sense of validation that transcended the stage.

These moments of belonging were powerful antidotes to the alienation that so often shadows creative work. From a personal perspective, the community vibe of being in a band is far bigger than what goes on within the performance. It’s essentially a bit of a wonky family at times. It’s easy to overlook how many of us found acceptance, opportunity and hope in (or as a result of) the music industry (and musicians) during difficult periods in our lives.

The second theme involved special connections through musicking. The musos spoke about the deep, almost sacred bonds formed within bands, the shared “bubble” where synchronicity, laughter, and collective bonding created a protective gang to escape the world. As musicians, we often talk about flow or magic on stage, but underneath that is something profoundly human: the safety of being in tune with others. Being a part of something bigger than ourselves is vital in an increasingly fragmented world. This includes the audience, fans and everyone else involved, it’s not just the band or group.

The final theme was the good feelings of giving back. Many musicians found meaning in mentoring others, connecting with fans, or using their music to voice social and political truths. Giving back offered a form of healing, wellbeing and belonging, a reminder that our creativity can serve not just self-expression, but a collective tonic (get it…).

What I discovered through this research and my ongoing journey both in and around the industry is that musicking can be both a refuge and a form of resistance. Something I innately knew personally anyway. Amid the instability of the industry, and the disconnected academic offerings, music offers us belonging, purpose, and the possibility of shared healing (too cringe?). Ultimately, as a musician and clinician, I know that music is never just sound, it’s connection, hope, empathy, and at times (for me) survival.

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Adam Ficek hosts  'Tonic Music' a monthly show on Totally Wired Radio. Each show features Adam spinning the finest in funk, soul, beat, rock, latin, jazz, and everything in between — alongside insightful conversations with guests exploring where music meets mental health.

You can listen again to any of the previous shows via Tonic Music's Mixcloud page and also on our YouTube channel.