Unless you happened to get hired on by some organization like the Catholic church that was willing to pay for art and music, there hasn't been job security for

Unless you happened to get hired on by some organization like the Catholic church that was willing to pay for art and music, there hasn't been job security for creative professions pretty much throughout history. It was musicians who seem to have coined the word "gig" back in the 1920s. The usage of the term is a reference to what they have always been dealing with.