Abstract: This dissertation treats popular music-making in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil as a form of work, that is, as a practice by which musicians earn their livelihood. This perspective facilitates emphasizing the lives and musical production of people who are skilled professionals, but who do not necessarily garner the attention of mass audiences even as they perform vital roles in Salvador's culture industries. By focusing on the work of local musicians rather than stars—a more common approach to popular music scholarship—I also depart from familiar research methodologies that concentrate on one particular musical practice or genre. Instead, I emphasize how flexibility, in particular, competence in a number of musical styles, is crucial for economic survival and professional satisfaction. The study also addresses the cultural politics that shape the 'field of cultural production' (Bourdieu 1993) in which Salvador's professional musicians work. I illustrate how musical and social values, especially with regard to race and socio-economic class, inform the ways that musical performers navigate their careers. Conversely, I query how the means by which musicians work within, around, and against the 'rules' of Bahian society and its professional music cultures constantly shape and reshape the field of cultural production itself. Various circuits of local music venues, genre-based 'scenes' (Straw 1991), and professional networks in Salvador are central topics for my analysis. Of interest are the processes involved in preparing and performing music, and the many ways that musicians create conditions of possibility for their performances. In this way, I represent professional performers as part of a flexible work force in order to consider the various implications of post-Fordist work schemes as applied to industries of cultural production in Salvador. Moreover, I address how the multiple facets of musical work and the flexibility of musical workers manifest in sound. Performers commonly work with different bands, and most perform a breadth of musical styles. Similarly, songs circulate between ensembles and scenes. The result of this action and interaction is an ongoing process of reworking familiar sounds that becomes audible as Salvador's musicians work in order to live from their music.