Paula Guerra

University of Porto
KISMIF Project Coordinator
Keep it simple,
make it fast!
Prolegomenons and
punk scenes, a road
to Portuguese
contemporaneity
(1977-2015)
1. Meanings and
Positions: I am the
voice
Grito 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 sinchronic
contours, 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=VSQPcXHo
WsA
To do a systematic investigation of
urban cultures associated with punk
music, understanding its importance
in the processes of identitary
construction 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), 1979
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afb3aXJM
FMk&feature=related
We intend to arrive at these goals crossing methods of extensive and intensive
nature, in an reflexive ethnographic matrix, which we defend as an adequate
strategy to deal with the objects complexity, diachronic and sinchronic
singularity.
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 documentary
and 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 as
social-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=DWCJik9
MmkI
Blood Safari - [ Friend Or Foe ]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg
ztK4gbBj4&feature=related
One of the preliminary ways to identify
and analyze the Portuguese
specificities was to build a database of
the bands founded in Portugal since
1977.
The database contains almost 600
bands and includes such fields as band
name, geographical localization, and
year of foundation, year of ending,
number of members, elements of
identification, number and type of
phonographic registries, associated
labels
It is an on-going data collection process, as it is aid
with information available on the internet, but also
information given in the interviews to key actors,
participants on the Portuguese punk. Other data
sources were triggered to collect data from the
Portuguese press, fanzines and the contributes of the
insider 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
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1-2
years
3-4
years
5-6
years
7-8
years
9-10
years
11-12
years
13 or
more
Number of years in activity
(% total of bands)
Punk bands diachrony
0
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
0
100
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
0
100
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
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
lbum /
LP / Full
Length
lbum /
LP / Full
Length ao
vivo
Demo DVD EP Single Split
Albums
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
0
50
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
0
200
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 members
No. of inactive members: members who ceased participation in punk bands
No. of active members = (new members + members active in the previous year) members who left in that given decade.
Memberships, links and affiliations to the
Portuguese punk bands
0
5
10
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
%

m
e
m
b
e
r
s
o
f
t
o
t
a
l

m
e
m
b
e
r
s
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 NUT3
Number
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
Almada
Pennsula de
Setbal
21 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 scenes
preliminary 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 Fogo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JloR3
hPRhV0
x-acto ao vivo em lisboa 1a parte
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJfnuh
4NGJ
Thanks!
Contact: kismif.geral@gmail.com