Paula GuerraUniversity of PortoKISMIF Project Coordinator

Keep it simple, make it fast! Prolegomenons and punk scenes, a roadto Portuguese contemporaneity(1977-2015)

1. Meanings and Positions: I am the

voiceGrito Final [Final scream] -Bairro Da Fome [Neighborhood Of Hunger]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LsTlmWSbsA

The central knot of this project is in the context analysis as well as in the social agents who emerged, the development and sedimentation of social and musical manifestations of punk in Portuguese modernity (1977-2012), in a diachronic perspective with sinchroniccontours, cross-referencing time and spaces.

We believe this to be the most fertile path towards exploring objects of such a complex nature, socially invisible, which need a variety of paradigms for its efficient explanation and scientific understanding.

The lack of specific scientific studies in Portugal, and its incipient use by political, institutional and scientific entities justifies the true importance of this project.

Internationally, the study of these musical manifestations and its inter-relations with the social structure is partially owed, after the 1970s, from the cultural studies and its consistent interpretative framework (subcultures), being themselves enriched by posterior analysis (music mediation, re-materialization of culture, cultural production, tribes and music scenes). It is thus important to understand these paradigms on a Portuguese scale.

We are interested in

Production | Promotion | Consumption

inside a matrix which understands punk as a form of popular culture, as it implies an access to spaces with specific instruments of expression and communication, the increase in cognitive, emotional and symbolic patterns, the creation of specific cultural products, the possibility of aesthetic experiences, and the mobilization of social actors originating from popular backgrounds as well as urban middle classes.

It is also important to stress the framing of our analysis in the much larger phenomenon of territorialization of cultural activities also applied to popular music scenes, our analytical zoom.

In the approach of this phenomenon, it is important to bear in mind the symbiotic relationship between territory and cultural consumption: while the first makes the latter essential for territorial development, it also makes the territory the primary element in cultural dynamism.

2. Objectives

Crise Total - Foi Portugal [Was Portugal]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSQPcXHoWsA

To do a systematic investigation of urban cultures associated with punkmusic, understanding its importance in the processes of identitaryconstruction of social agents, young people in particular;

To promote a connection between the several areas of cultural fields analysis, as well as analysis of how the music is enjoyed by the public, in different scales;

To build a punk relational space, distinguishing a set of stances in a specific social environment, inside the rock universe, related to the structure of the artistic field and the Portuguese social environment;

To experiment several methodologies and investigative techniques, with the goal of understanding the importance of the several daily lives which are constituted by musical consumption and practice, as well as its importance and impact in the restructuring of social practices.

3. Methodology

Aqui Del Rock Dedicada (A quem Nos Rouba), 1979http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afb3aXJMFMk&feature=related

We intend to arrive at these goals crossing methods of extensive and intensivenature, in an reflexive ethnographic matrix, which we defend as an adequatestrategy to deal with the objects complexity, diachronic and sinchronicsingularity.

We intend to develop investigation for action. Starting from documental analysis, exploratory interviews, life stories, case studies, focal groups, and finishing up by gathering investigators and field agents in the discussion of results. The dissemination of the results will be made through the direction of a documentaryand the creation of a web platform of Portuguese punk. This is one of the innovative products of the project, which will integrate the documentary, the databases gathered and the relevant products and subproducts in the context of dissemination.

The investigative strategy used in this project represents a possibility of applying a certain type of study which would be pioneer in this country.

We defend an ethnographic approach, connected to a reflexive sociology, through a long stay in the field (G2010, F31998, B2008), implying a living of this reality by the investigators.

The project has the deliberate intention of setting apart from the stereotyped vision of music-type appropriation as violent or absurd, seen from the outside by arguing that those who experience said appropriation see it associal-behavioural compass, giving them a sense of belonging for a long period of time.

The investigation developed by IR will allow us to identify the significant agents in the genesis, consolidation and nowadays experience of punk-rock in Portugal (G2010; RI2004; T2005)- a clear advantage when dealing with a social object which deliberately keeps its invisibility.

Punk rock has become a global scenario with a variety of manifestations located in different parts of the world (F2006; BE1984; DN2000), with the central themes of punk ethics remaining

unchanged, notably, its counter-hegemonic posture and the way that DIY influences its cultural practices.

Punk fans all over the world have adapted punk so as to get involved in it, directly with sociocultural questions, expressed in certain local contexts.

At the same time, punk is less and less a youth phenomenon than a way of life

There are little investigation with the intention of mapping these changes, tendencies and patterns of daily participation in music and

punk culture, especially outside the anglo-saxonic cultural sphere. As such, this investigation project will bring a significant contribution to our understanding of the contemporary Portuguese punk scene

4. Building up for punk: a dynamic database of the

Portuguese punk manifestations

The Parkinsons "New Wave"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWCJik9MmkI

Blood Safari - [ Friend Or Foe ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egztK4gbBj4&feature=related

One of the preliminary ways to identifyand analyze the Portuguesespecificities was to build a database ofthe bands founded in Portugal since1977.

The database contains almost 600bands and includes such fields as bandname, geographical localization, andyear of foundation, year of ending,number of members, elements ofidentification, number and type ofphonographic registries, associatedlabels

It is an on-going data collection process, as it is aidwith information available on the internet, but alsoinformation given in the interviews to key actors,participants on the Portuguese punk. Other datasources were triggered to collect data from thePortuguese press, fanzines and the contributes of theinsider researchers of the project.

4. Punk is not dead in Portugal

Prayers And Slaves, Claiming For Their Caves Beasts And Swarms, Coming From The Storms Running Over Razors, Stumbling Over Crowds Carrying Around The Weight Of The World Wrecking Bounds They're Wrecking Bounds

Digging Their Own Hole, But Fighting To Keep Them Building A Strong Crust, Trying To Keep Them Whole

Forgetting And Forgiving, Regretting, Misgiving Selling Their Souls For Gold To Live In Blindfolds

Thousand Words Blind (Portugal, 2012)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2x4MJG5c3w

05

10

15

20

25

30

1-2years

3-4years

5-6years

7-8years

9-10years

11-12years

13 ormore

Number of years in activity(% total of bands)

Punk bands diachrony0

50

100

150

200

250

1974-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2013

Punk bands diachrony

Year of foundation Year of ending

Number of active bands

Punk bands diachrony

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%

Proportion of bands per punk subgenre

Punk subgenres self-representations

0100

200

300

400

500

600

700

1974-19791980-19891990-19992000-20092010-2013

Number of releases

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1974-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2013

Average number of releases for each active band

Phonographic diachrony

0100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Cassete Compact Disc Online (mp3, ogg,etc.)

Vinil

Recording supports

1974-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2013

Sonic memory of the Portuguese punk: recording supports

Sonic Memory of the Portuguese punk: recording formats

020

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

lbum /LP / FullLength

lbum /LP / FullLength ao

vivo

Demo DVD EP Single SplitAlbums

Split EP

Recording formats

1974-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2013

Sonic memory of the Portuguese punk: recording formats

Sonic memory of the Portuguese punk: recording formats

050

100

150

200

250

Compilation - Label Own compilation Compilation -magazines, blogs,

etc.

Compilation -Tribute

Punk creation collaborative network

1974-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2013

Punk creation and collaborative network

Labels with more releases

Labels and records

Label % total of releases

Author Edition 24,56

Impulso Atlntico (PT) 3,66

EMI - Valentim de Carvalho (PT) 2,84

Anoise Records (PT) 2,59

Fast'n'Loud (PT) 2,53

Infected Records DIY (PT) 1,89

Raging Planet (PT) 1,70

PolyGram (USA) 1,64

BMG (DE) 1,45

Hell Xis Records (PT) 1,39

0200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1974-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2013

Number of new members Number of inactive members Number of active members

No. of new bands membersNo. of inactive members: members who ceased participation in punk bandsNo. of active members = (new members + members active in the previous year) members who left in that given decade.

Memberships, links and affiliations to thePortuguese punk bands

05

10

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

% m

em

bers

of

tota

l m

em

bers

Number of bands

% members with more than 2 bands

Memberships, links and affiliations to the Portuguese punk bands

97%

3%Members gender

Male

Female

Portuguese punk gender

The 10 regions of Portugal (NUT3) with more bands (% of total bands)

City NUT3Number

of bands

% total of

bands

Lisbon Lisbon Area 130 27,08

Porto Porto Area 39 8,13

Coimbra Baixo Mondego 29 6,04

Sintra Lisbon Area 22 4,58

AlmadaPennsula de

Setbal21 4,38

Loures Lisbon Area 20 4,17

Faro Algarve 14 2,92

Cascais Lisbon Area 12 2,50

Oeiras Lisbon Area 12 2,50

Azores Azores 12 2,50

Portuguese punk scenespreliminary mapping

Getting to know them better, Nekhlidov came to term with the fact that they werent all beasts, as some imagined, and neither were they heroes, as others did. They were simply normal people among whom, as in every place, there were the good, the bad, and those inbetween. There were among them those who had become a revolutionary because they felt, in all honesty, obliged to fight against the evil that ruled; but there were also those who chose it for selfish and vain reasons; the vast majority however, were thrown into the revolution well known to Nekhlidov in times of war because of the danger, the risk, and the pleasure of toying with their own life, feelings of the electric youth (Lev Tolsti, Ressurection, 2010:436).

DEMYSTIFY

Ces Vadios - Boca de Fogohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JloR3hPRhV0

x-acto ao vivo em lisboa 1a partehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJfnuh4NGJ

Thanks!

Contact: kismif.geral@gmail.com