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E-Music Burlesque
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Electronic Bungalow
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
115
Posted : May 18, 2004 21:16
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John Carter & Fatboy Slim’s gig last March, which took place over the warm sands of Rio de Janeiro’s beaches was a caricature drawn upon the actual state of the e-music scene in Brazil.
150.000 souls appearing to lack some sort of connection with the sounds that were being blasted away from the powerfull loudspeakers, jostling each other to grab a complimentary gift offered by the event’s sponsoring brand.
The premium space on the arena was occupied by 4000 VIP guests vividly dressed in yellow t-shirts; Among those, were the so-called “trend-makers”, whose opinions & behaviour supposedly dictate the general opinion, creating tendencies in a god-like fashion, parents of an would-be scene.
What scene ? If there was such a thing, Brazil’s e-music production would be blooming, the general public would be much more demanding in terms of its artistic expectations, and there would be a much more informative & opinionated press. And that is not the reality at all !
So, besides showing off in endless parties (as vip guests, of course), over-gossipin’ and being paparazzied all over, what does such important people do ? Certainly they could help a lot in the process of creating a “scene”, but instead they are a hindrance to its progress.
Those modern “pathfinders” so to speak, shielded within their pioneering aura, our electronic trailblazers are confortably resting in their parochial fame, and so became accomplices in the process of turning e-music into a marketing phenomenon in our country.
The brazilian arena is musically naive, imature and misinformed. Fashion clothing , ecstasy and fashion behaviour are present long before and have far more strength than music and its meanings.
The profile, as a consumer, of the average e-music party goer is a snapshot of his/her expectations: mobile phones, isotonic & over-caffeinated drinks, lollypops and jeans. His/her taste for original, breaking-ground music, information (on the artistic sense) and judgment, are virtually non-existent.
Obviously such a tribe is a desirable target for the manufacturers of such goods, who more than quickly have identified the potentialities of that group, and managed to develop a market segment made up of “modern”, young people, attracted by a bunch of “collorfull” things. Such a consumer stereotype was developed according to market demands and NOT spontaneously assimilated as an outcome of some sort of a cultural unrest.
As an example of this late assimilation, let’s take a closer look at the hip hop case: In direct contrast to that situation, this musical style already had enough production and affictionated public well before being popularized all over Brazil, and MUCH before being translated into behaviour and consumption codes;
On the other hand, the e-music phenomenon has become one of the marketing sort, and NOT a musical interpretation capable of irradiating some particular view of our objective/ subjective world, which, by the way, is the main reason behind all and every form of artistic expression, isn’t it ?
Now, go to some club / party where e-music is being played, and ask around what are people doing there. One’ll come out with the conclusion that the music itself is no more than the cherry atop the whole cake, And one will remain with a somewhat sort of a frightening and sour feeling that the whole “circus” has been configured in a looped fashion: The rarefied production is not able to attract the eyes of a press filled up with prejudice, which in its turn, does not inform a drowsy public, which remains uncapable of understanding the fact that, besides the party itself, the music too has got its relevance.
And the lack of such an adequate propellent to the musical production leads us all over again to the beginning of our endless loop.
It should be quite reasonable to expect that our elite, those “trend-makers” at some point are to disrupt that loop. These people, aside their well known names and familiar faces, should have acquired by now some credibility with large companies and investors, willing to deploy their material resources on some new “platforms” of entertainment.
In this way, that elite might help the e-music scene in here escape from the schizoid spiral in which it is currently in.
Lately, there have been a couple of efforts in understanding & explaining this mess, materialized in two books, quite specific and focused within ther own approaches: One about the scene in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s richest state, and the other about the Dj Culture in Brazil.
But the national press still haven’t swallowed the e-music phenomenon, Coverage is rare, meaningless and most of the time limited to press-releases. There is not a established and developed critics.
Bottom line: There’s a considerable threat that, e-music here will never go beyond the status of a frivolity, will never break the barrier of a fashionable behavioural trend. As we all know (or should know), Music is Fine Art, in a very plastic sense, this way easily shapeable, apt for improvisations, and may be enjoyed at the moment and simultaneously to its creation.
E-Music, due to its close and inseparable association to Technology, besides all the qualities inherent to music in general, has multiplied the possibilities of mixing / blending, morphing / demorphing, and improvisation, taking the possbilities almost to infinity.
And due to its mutating nature, e-music should be taken much more seriously in all respects here in Brazil, by those who (think) enjoy it, by those who (think) make it, and by those who (think) inform people about it.
Or our parties will remain as they are: herd gatherings with some soundtrack, of course, more & more crowded, filled up with every ingredient proper for teen entertainment: plenty of decibels, girls swaying their asses around, beer-a-barrel, and drugs all over.
Maybe that’s what everybody wants, but lets then be honest and reckon that: There is no “SCENE”at all; And up to now, we’ve been playing some sort of a farce, with a strong shopping mall flavor to it !
[ This article was written by Guilherme Coube, a pianist and ex-publicist who currently lives in NYC, was originally published in portuguese in the Super Interessante magazine, and freely translated and adapted to english by myself. ]
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Drope
Started Topics :
6
Posts :
278
Posted : May 18, 2004 21:53
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Very nice EB, actually I have some considerations about this text my self... I agree with lots of things, but some other got to be pointed out first...
1 - It´s completely absurd and acttually, kind of low, to take fat boy slim gig as a example of anything... It was an isolated event, of no representance over the "scene" (cause for me there is a scene, a tinylittlemicro scene, maybe a skatch, and it may even be a farse, but it´s a scene all right)
2 - Trancy speaking we grow at impressive rates, in a point to acttualy "be" something... Maybe Guilherme Coube isn´t aware of our worldclass festivals...
As for the text it self, I would like to point out a coupple of parts...
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| On the other hand, the e-music phenomenon has become one of the marketing sort, and NOT a musical interpretation capable of irradiating some particular view of our objective/ subjective world, which, by the way, is the main reason behind all and every form of artistic expression, isn’t it ? |
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YES!!! Yes it is. And our objective/sujective world is being battled from inside, for that marketing view´s sake...
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| So, besides showing off in endless parties (as vip guests, of course), over-gossipin’ and being paparazzied all over, what does such important people do ? Certainly they could help a lot in the process of creating a “scene”, but instead they are a hindrance to its progress. |
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haha... no comments.
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| And due to its mutating nature, e-music should be taken much more seriously in all respects here in Brazil, by those who (think) enjoy it, by those who (think) make it, and by those who (think) inform people about it. |
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How can I disagree with that?
peace and out.
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Balde
Started Topics :
3
Posts :
93
Posted : May 18, 2004 22:23
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Fatboy Slim’s gig is not an example and should not be the start point for a discussion about the e-music scene in Brazil.
quoting him:
"Or our parties will remain as they are: herd gatherings with some soundtrack, of course, more & more crowded, filled up with every ingredient proper for teen entertainment: plenty of decibels, girls swaying their asses around, beer-a-barrel, and drugs all over.
Maybe that’s what everybody wants, but lets then be honest and reckon that: There is no “SCENE”at all; And up to now, we’ve been playing some sort of a farce, with a strong shopping mall flavor to it ! "
I don't think who wrote this (and more: read the article!) is aware of what is really going on... sorry. 
*SOMOS TODOS UM* |
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Brentel
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
17
Posts :
254
Posted : May 19, 2004 06:18
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Hey Eb,tks for translating this magnific text,i must say that i really wanted to do so,but i was to lazy to do it 
 **YOUR BRAND HERE** |
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