Independent Music

An essay in music criticism: 'John Maus is one of the most intriguing artists in the millennial wave of lo-fi pop, assembling his unique and intimate language from synth pop, disco, baroque classical and church music. Yet Maus’s work is much more than another exercise in retroist hybridity, and his overtures on truth and love are, upon further listening, no mere ironic posturing. Does Maus have something to teach us
about arriving at the truth through personal musical expression,or is he on a doomed Romantic adventure? Has he really discovered Heaven - and can he take us there?

When reviewing the research of scenes and subcultures it becomes apparent, that economic aspects remain largely unresearched or exploratory (E.G. Hesmondhalgh, 1998; Lange & Bürkner, 2010). So far the economy of those formations has been mostly understood as being part of the cultural industries (or now referred to as creative industries ), or not even economic at all (Gebesmair, 2008; Handke, 2009). Based on research in the Berlin music scene around ‘underground’ techno and house music, I have come to different conclusions: I found micro-globalized and small-entrepreneurial infrastructures of clubs, marketing and booking agencies, shops, media and distributors run by club owners, promoters, DJs, booker and agency/club staff. They have an own value creation chain rooted in a common subcultural aesthetic and integral music culture – a scene economy (Kühn, 2011). By exerting various selective subcultural orientations (non-commerciality, familiarity, sell-out) these both cult ural and economic actors perform a post-modern form of aesthetic resistance (Kühn, 2013). Although the distinctions remain blurred, they thereby produce a subcultural/internal hierarchy (Bourdieu, 1996; Thornton, 1995) and draw boundaries around their mode of cultural production (Strachan, 2007; Moore, 2007). By combining Bourdieu’s theory of the cultural field with scene and subcultural theory (Hall & Jefferson, 2006; Hitzler, Honer, & Pfadenhauer, 2008; Muggleton & Weinzierl, 2003), the presented approach links both subcultural identities and cultural-economic structures together and heads towards overcoming the current dichotomy of subcultural and post-subcultural theory.

The aim of this paper is to recognize independent music as a complex and multidimensional phenomenon and give keys for its definition. With this objective it assumes a qualitative method- ology based on primary and secondary sources. After exposing the context of its recent expansion in the case of the city of Buenos Aires, it explores and analyse the four dimensions of this phenome- non: musical genre, production scale, management and the tie of its actors. We conclude with the necessity of considering the multiplic- ity of independent music and of situating in its historical context as first step for constructing a critical perspective about the tensions and conflicts that lie beneath it as also its dynamic in the frame of current capitalism in Latin America.

During the last decades, the music industry has known dramatic changes that radically transformed the production, distribution, and promotion of music. The rapid success of streaming platforms has not only permitted to establish a legal framework around p2p downloading and revive the economy, but it also brought new ways of experiencing music via digital playlists. Whether they are curated by humans or algorithms, built around genres or mood, playlists represent much more than tools for accessing music; they have become prominent factors in the success of artists and songs. In an oligopolistic industry that has long been controlled by a few major labels, I wonder what impact digital playlists have on independent music exposure. After reviewing some existing literature on the effects of streaming platforms on the music industry, I observe the distribution of labels in the biggest editorial and algorithmic playlists on Spotify. I find that Spotify's effect on independent music exposure is paradoxical since it contributes both to the long tail and the superstar effect. I also highlight that algorithmic playlists tend to put more independent and unpopular content upfront, while big editorial playlists mainly include content from the majors. Finally, I conclude that being featured in the biggest editorial playlists seems harder for independents than being broadcast on the French radio.

This dissertation analyses the way independent labels, also known as indies, move within music industry, trying to outline their future identity in this business. To do so, this analysis will go through a study of the context in which music business is nowadays (cultural, social, technological issues) and the way indies moved in the past and are moving in the present of the industry. These issues will be examined in the first section, while in the second one will be provided the business structure of the labels, to be put in comparison with different models within the music industry (major labels and self-produced artists). Then, the second chapter will outline a common history of independent record labels, in order to provide a unified vision of their work, despite of subjective contexts. The last section will point out, via speculations and theories on the near future of the music business, the prospected expectations of independent labels, aiming to detect the identity and the role of these companies in today’s and tomorrow’s business.
Finally, this research will explain how close is the relationship between the purely-economic model of independent labels and the artistic production, trying to determine a link between the success of these labels and the artistic freedom given to the artists.

The emergence of social media in the early 21st century promised to facilitate new "DIY" cultural approaches, emphasizing participation and democratization. However, in recent years these platforms have been criticized as domineering and exploitative. For DIY musicians in scenes with lengthy histories of cultural resistance, is social media a powerful emancipatory and democratizing tool, or a new corporate antagonist to be resisted?

DIY Music explores the significant challenges faced by artists navigating this fraught cultural landscape. How do anti-commercial musicians operate in the competitive, attention-seeking world of social media? How do they deal with a new abundance of data and metrics? How do they present their activity as "cultural resistance"? This book shows that a platform-enabled DIY approach is now the norm for a wide array of cultural practitioners; this "DIY-as-default" landscape threatens to depoliticize the call to "do-it-yourself."

Charges of “selling out” and debates about the boundaries of cultural autonomy have played a pivotal role in the development of popular music as a legitimate and “serious” art form. With promotional strategies and commercial business practices now practically inseparable from the core activities previously associated with music making, the relevance of such concepts and the values that underpin them are questioned by industry experts, musicians, and fans. In this article, we explore how popular music making and perspectives on selling out have been shaped by digitalization, promotionalism, and globalization.

The subtropical volcanic wonderland of the Northern Rivers of New South Wales has given birth to, and adopted, so many fascinating and inspiring people. Meet some of these folk who open their hearts and minds, as they let you into their intriguing lives. Artists, musicians on a mission, environmental-activists and lovers of life….

Independent music is a complex concept. It has meant different things at different historical moments of popular music and within academic, music press and industry discourses. Even though what independent music refers to might not be substantive, it has tended to signify an oppositional ethos comprising practices related to maintaining distinction from commercialised popular music. This study is about exploring how contemporary independent musicians practice independence within the Central Sydney independent music scene. A socio-cultural formation of like-minded, largely middle-class musicians and enthusiasts involved with independent music currently exists within the geographical region of Central Sydney. Exploration of this local phenomenon necessitates inquiring about the contemporary state of this scene, including how and why it takes the form that it does, and how might independence take particular forms. To respond to such issues, semi-structured interviews with 15 individuals of the ages of 18 and above who are involved with the scene, supplemented with participant observation at live gigs and relevant textual research were conducted in between 2017 and 2019. Additionally, online social media profiles of influential artists and institutions integral to this scene were analysed. The study finds that accumulated economic resources, musical literacies, social networks, and experience associated with long-term and recurrent involvement with music-related work are crucial factors in the ways participants fashion cultural practices based around aesthetic independence. Members of this scene position themselves through particular configurations of resources, strategies and economic exchanges, which allow them to both construct their living and practice aesthetic independence through passion projects of creative experimentations within a sustainable milieu in ways that would be difficult while following imperatives of mainstream music markets.

Link to PhD thesis: https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/23381

Small scale cultural production has been largely ignored in academic debates regarding the production of popular culture. Despite this, there have been a select number of theorists who have suggested that the study of cultural production on this scale may provide valuable insight for larger debates, including those concerning cultural diversity. Underlying this position is the idea that small scale cultural producers share a distinct ideology which motivates or legitimises their decision to remain on the fringes. For the music industry, this was crystallised by the 1970s punk movement, and its use of independent record labels in its attempt to democratise the music industry. While this and subsequent movements have dissipated, they pioneered an ethos of independent music production that has re-shaped the industry. Through qualitative interviews with members of the independent record label sector of Victoria, this study illustrates the continuing presence of this ethos among independent cultural producers. Furthermore, I argue that the continual development of this ethos has helped independent record labels acquire a position of increased influence in the larger industry.

This paper presents the analysis of the trajectory of the band Apanhador Só in light of media archaeology intertwined with the Cyberculture context, in which are inserted issues such as the reconfiguration of the music industry and the modification of sociability, focusing on Materialities of Communication and aesthetic experience. In this context and in the scope of the independent music landscape of Porto Alegre, Apanhador Só is a rock band that represents a symbolic case of successfull trajectory, from 2003 to the present, in 2016, for it has been able to proceed with its work together with the construction of its public. Thus, the issue of the research is posed: considering an independent band as a cultural manifestation, how are the elements of the trajectory of the band Apanhador Só, articulated under the scope of media archaeology, related to the context of Cyberculture? The aim of this research is to understand the articulation between the artistic, relational and divulgation elements of the trajectory of Apanhador Só in the contemporary context. The theoretical reference encompasses media archaeology, Cyberculture and Materialities of Communication, with impact on aesthetic experience. The methodological process is based on media archaeology, together with bibliography and document research techniques, engaged observation, in-depth interview and content analysis. As a result, it was found that the actions of Apanhador Só throughout its trajectory, corresponding to an identity construction based on its artistic truth, articulates some sort of aesthetic experience through various linked elements which allowed for the dissemination of their work and for higher visibility in the Cyberculture context, where the musical product, due to its easy consumption, has undergone a devaluation process. Therefore, the band managed to create its own audience and their adherence to the different action proposed.

La música está en auge, pero su industria en crisis. El modelo tradicional (venta de soportes físicos) retrocede, mientras crece continuamente el número de grupos y artistas independientes, aunque muy pocos logran convertir su arte en verdadero negocio y hacerlo sustentable.
Los artistas independientes, a pesar de contar con innumerables herramientas tecnológicas que se lo facilitarían, no cuentan con el expertise (o interés) para producir y difundir su obra exitosamente.
En las últimas décadas la industria de la música, a raíz de los avances tecnológicos y la aparición de Internet, ha sufrido enormes transformaciones: del dominio consolidado de los conglomerados discográficos (majors) al “Do It Yourself” (DIY) o autogestión; del control de la distribución física al desconcierto de la distribución digital; de la propiedad (cd, vinilo, descarga, etc.) al acceso (streaming); de la radio como fabricante de hits, a la playlist para cada momento de día y estado de ánimo.
En esta nueva era para la industria, las discográficas han dejado de ser quienes aportan los mayores ingresos. El sector de la música en vivo ha experimentado un notable crecimiento convirtiéndose en la fuente principal de ingresos para los artistas, frente a la disminución de las ventas de soportes físicos y al reparto desigual de royalties en el streaming.
En el plano nacional, el Observatorio de Industrias Culturales (2011) señala que el sector que reportó el mayor declive en el período 2007-2009 fue el discográfico, mientras que en el mismo período, el sector de música en vivo creció casi tres veces en el total del país.

Si bien la industria siempre ha sido transformada por los avances tecnológicos, no siempre estos han ido en perjuicio de la misma. Las innovaciones sostenibles han beneficiado cuantiosamente las arcas de las discográficas. Vinilos, casetes y CDs dan cuenta de ello.
El problema apareció cuando una innovación disruptiva como el MP3 amenazó con desplazar el producto sobre el cual la industria basaba su modelo de negocio.
En este contexto, la industria necesita redefinirse, su modelo está en crisis y presenta problemas en su cadena de valor, la cual puede ser salteada fácilmente gracias a las nuevas tecnologías que permiten el acceso a procesos de creación y distribución de la música.
En los últimos años se han producido cambios en esa cadena de valor con la incorporación de plataformas conocidas como Third Party (iTunes, Amazon, Google Play Music, Deezer, Spotify y Apple Music ̧entre otras) las cuales han ayudado a la industria a encontrar poco a poco el rumbo.
Estos sectores tecnológicos no vinculados a la industria tradicional se han impuesto, consolidándose como sus motores.
Con la consagración del streaming como hábito de consumo de música, la industria volvió a esperanzarse con un reporte de crecimiento en sus ingresos por segundo año consecutivo.
La irrupción de Internet ha producido también otro tipo de cambios en la industria, los cuales tienen relación con las audiencias y la forma en la cual la música se crea, se produce y se escucha.
La era digital ha fragmentado audiencias debido a que el “control de lo que se escucha” ya no está dado por la omnipresencia de la radio. Los usuarios/consumidores de música pueden acceder a enormes catálogos de música grabada o descubrir nuevos talentos con un clic.

La industria de la música está en constante expansión, y luego de muchas décadas de tradicionalismo hoy deja espacio para ideas innovadoras que permiten construir un escenario acorde a un mundo globalizado, mediatizado e hiperconectado.
Cada segundo hay una canción nueva sonando y un artista intentando mostrar su arte.
Si bien la tecnología allanó el camino quitando de en medio a las disqueras, no ha sido suficiente para que los artistas puedan convertir su arte en un negocio sustentable.

Music is booming, but its industry is in crisis. The traditional model (sale of physical media) backs down, while the number of independent groups and artists continues to grow, although very few manage to turn their art into real business and make it sustainable.
Independent artists, despite having innumerable technological tools that would facilitate it, do not have the expertise (or interest) to successfully produce and disseminate their work.
In recent decades, the music industry, following technological advances and the emergence of the Internet, has undergone enormous transformations: from the consolidated dominance of record conglomerates (majors) to "Do It Yourself" (DIY) or self-management; from the control of physical distribution to the bewilderment of digital distribution; of ownership (cd, vinyl, download, etc.) to access (streaming); from the radio as a manufacturer of hits, to the playlist for every moment of the day and mood.
In this new era for the industry, the record companies have ceased to be those who provide the highest income. The live music sector has experienced a remarkable growth becoming the main source of income for artists, compared to the decrease in sales of physical media and the unequal distribution of royalties in streaming.
At the national level, the Observatory of Cultural Industries (2011) notes that the sector that reported the greatest decline in the 2007-2009 period was the record, while in the same period, the live music sector grew almost three times in the total of the country.

Although the industry has always been transformed by technological advances, these have not always been to the detriment of it. Sustainable innovations have greatly benefited the coffers of record companies. Vinyl, cassettes and CDs give an account of this.
The problem appeared when a disruptive innovation like the MP3 threatened to displace the product upon which the industry based its business model.
In this context, the industry needs to redefine itself, its model is in crisis and presents problems in its value chain, which can easily be skipped thanks to new technologies that allow access to processes of creation and distribution of music.
In recent years there have been changes in that value chain with the incorporation of platforms known as Third Party (iTunes, Amazon, Google Play Music, Deezer, Spotify and Apple Music ̧ among others) which have helped the industry to find little to little the course.
These technological sectors not linked to the traditional industry have imposed themselves, consolidating as their engines.
With the consecration of streaming as a habit of music consumption, the industry once again hoped for a growth report on its revenues for the second year in a row.
The irruption of the Internet has also produced other types of changes in the industry, which are related to audiences and the way in which music is created, produced and listened to.
The digital age has fragmented audiences because the "control of what is heard" is no longer given by the omnipresence of the radio. Music users / consumers can access huge catalogues of recorded music or discover new talent with one click.

The music industry is constantly expanding, and after many decades of traditionalism, today it leaves room for innovative ideas that allow us to build a scenario according to a globalized, mediated and the hyperconnected world.
Every second there is a new song playing and an artist trying to show his art.
While technology paved the way by removing labels from the middle, it has not been enough for artists to convert their art into a sustainable business

"The digital era has brought major changes to the music business, on the production side
as well as to matters of distribution. Both illegal and legal platforms were created which are being used for free-of-charge music distribution. A debate has been going on about the practical and theoretical implications of the development of digital cultural markets and on the relationships between making money and giving things away for free.
The debate either focuses on the situation of the user or on the future of the music in- dustry. In both cases the musician is being thought of as a subset of one of those groups. This does not at all do justice to the position of the musicians. My study focuses on the situation of independent musicians in popular culture and their use of Free Culture licenses compared to traditional copyright use. “Independent musician” here means those who compose their own music and distribute it by means of self- management. Potentially they are deeply influenced by the developments on the digital market; yet only a few studies examine their situation.
In this article I'll give a brief description of the current state of research and debate and I will present my approach to examining the situation of musicians today in the course of my PhD project. This includes some initial hypothesis. Furthermore I'll integrate some first hints to possible results from the research I am presently undertaking for this study."

The aim of this research is to explore the possibility that independent musicianship constitutes a form of cultural opposition to capitalist hegemony.  The analysis that follows attempts to chart a course between two competing theoretical perspectives on modern popular culture: critical theory, according to which popular culture is a medium of capitalist manipulation of credulous masses, and the Birmingham School of cultural studies, which emphasizes the creative potential inherent in cultural consumption.  24 local musicians took part in semi-structured interviews focusing on their evaluations of different kinds of music, the creative and business-related choices they make in bringing their songs to listening audiences, and the values they hold as musicians working outside the creative parameters set by the major-label record industry.  The interview data supply compelling evidence the respondents’ artistic sensibilities and self-understanding as independent musicians are informed by a critical awareness of the commodity production of culture, and as well a clear desire to resist the aesthetic standardization of music.

This article aims to examine how and why the urban metal scene in Bangladesh came into existence. Based on interviews with key figures in the scene, ethnographic observation and textual analysis, the article proposes that urban youths’ frustration with the poor state of conditions in the country is channeled into a passion to build an alternative space. Participants assert the distinction of their music from mainstream rock and pop. Translocal connections with other metal scenes existing elsewhere are emphasized in a local scene that remains tied to the activities of a largely middle-class, parttime, male population of artists who share particular social and economic resources.

El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo ofrecer una base teórica sólida para el abordaje de fenómenos actuales de música popular desde las ciencias sociales en América Latina. Para ello propone indagar y revisar críticamente las categorías teóricas con que éstas se han aproximado a aquellos de manera reciente en esta región, donde aún no ha habido un debate al respecto. Los resultados indican que las nociones de campo, escena, industria y mercado han sido las más utilizadas en la investigación empírica en estudios de música popular desde las perpsectivas de la sociología de la música, los estudios culturales o la economía política, y que ello ha redundado en una dificultad para articular las esferas cultural y material en sus análisis. Se señala la particular ausencia en ellos del concepto de formación y se concluye que éste resulta el más adecuado para comprender el vínculo de la música con la totalidad social sin desatender su naturaleza cultural en las realidades concretas de América Latina.

BATISTA, Juliana Wendpap. Vanguarda Paulista: retratos de uma geração musical nos anos 1980. 2019. Tese (Doutorado em História) – Programa de Pós-Graduação em História, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, 2019.



O trabalho objetiva apresentar a trajetória da Vanguarda Paulista a partir de recortes de sua produção musical, cuja análise busca seu processamento ao longo de aproximadamente quatro décadas. O objeto em questão trata de um movimento musical que ficou conhecido nos anos de 1980 e marcou o cenário da música independente no Brasil. O estudo busca compreender as controvérsias que envolvem a legitimação do uso da denominação do grupo, a qual teria sido um constructo da imprensa. Para além dessas querelas, apontadas pela historiografia do movimento, pretende-se apontar caminhos para a compreensão dos mecanismos que fizeram com que determinadas memórias sobre esse grupo de músicos fossem preservadas. O aspecto geracional é apontado como fator que estabeleceu relações entre esses artistas, os quais compartilharam espaços e cantaram e contaram o cotidiano urbano de suas vivências na capital paulista. Tais espaços caracterizaram uma espécie de território, o qual se formou a partir da Universidade de São Paulo e seu entorno geográfico, com suas pensões, repúblicas, bares, casas de shows entre outros. Diversos em suas sonoridades e difíceis de classificar, tais artistas ficaram conhecidos como marginais, alternativos e independentes. Ditos, nesse trabalho, como “inclassificáveis”, cogita-se que tal sentido é oriundo do desejo incisivo desses artistas em exercer a liberdade criativa com novas proposições estéticas, as quais desafiavam o jogo então em vigência do mainstream ligado as grandes gravadoras. Nesse sentido, o trabalho indaga sobre o papel das vanguardas artísticas e as contribuições da Vanguarda Paulista para a composição do cenário da música brasileira na atualidade. Nesse sentido, são levadas em consideração certas transformações tecnológicas que se operaram, especialmente a partir da segunda metade do século XX, e suas implicações na área da produção artística, bem como no próprio ofício do historiador. Por outro lado, também buscou-se evidenciar o papel da crítica, por meio da imprensa escrita, e sua atuação diante da insurgência desse grupo de artistas no início dos anos de 1980. Procurou-se ainda estabelecer um levantamento da circulação das memórias sobre essa movimentação artística, avaliando-se tanto as produções acadêmicas quanto as fontes produzidas na internet, na busca pela problematização acerca da criação de sentidos para a mesma em tempos recentes.

espanolA partir de una investigacion colectiva discernimos una configuracion emergente en la que gestionar, mezclary habitarson verbos constitutivos de la experiencia musical entre jovenes que participan de espacios de produccion y uso de musica independiente en las ciudades de Buenos Aires y La Plata desde el ano 2008 hasta la actualidad. En este articulo nos interesa conectar aspectos relevantes de esa configuracion con proposiciones teoricas mas abstractas sosteniendo un doble papel: ampliar la capacidad heuristica a nuestros analisis empiricos iniciales y darle fundamentos a una consideracion reflexiva de la nocion de “campo de estudios sociales de la musica”. Este esfuerzo se orienta a desarrollar los siguientes puntos: 1) la relacion entre arte y mercado, 2) la relacion entre critica y pragmatica, 3) la relacion entre musica y movimientos sociales y 4) la relacion entre estas problematizaciones y las caracteristicas del campo de analisis de los fenomenos musicales. EnglishBase...

This article discusses the way that young people in Lima establish themselves as heirs to Arguedas, specifically through the analysis of music by contemporary fusion bands Crónica de Mendigos and Tayta Bird. I argue that they use Arguedas as a signifier in their music to show their cultural capital, legitimize their musical projects, search for belonging as young limeños with roots in other places in Peru, and celebrate cultural diversity. These two bands—in contrast to those founded in the 1990s that have been studied in relation to Arguedas—actually include excerpts of Arguedas’ texts or sound clips of him singing in their songs. Unlike academics, however, these musicians are not trying to establish whether or not Arguedas was ‘right’, and more often dialogue with ideas about Arguedas—his notion of mestizaje as celebratory multiculturalism, his idea of an inclusive nation as one of todas las sangres, his own search for belonging as a mestizo—rather than with the texts themselves. Through establishing themselves as heirs to Arguedas and creating music which mixes autochthonous and global genres, these musicians establish themselves as cosmopolitans who ‘belong’ both in the Andes and in Lima or any other global city.

This article aims to examine how and why the urban metal scene in Bangladesh came into existence. Based on interviews with key figures in the scene, ethnographic observation and textual analysis, the article proposes that urban youths’ frustration with the poor state of conditions in the country is channeled into a passion to build an alternative space. Participants assert the distinction of their music from mainstream rock and pop. Translocal connections with other metal scenes existing elsewhere are emphasized in a local scene that remains tied to the activities of a largely middle-class, parttime, male population of artists who share particular social and economic resources.

This article aims to examine how and why the urban metal scene in Bangladesh came into existence. Based on interviews with key figures in the scene, ethnographic observation and textual analysis, the article proposes that urban youths’ frustration with the poor state of conditions in the country is channeled into a passion to build an alternative space. Participants assert the distinction of their music from mainstream rock and pop. Translocal connections with other metal scenes existing elsewhere are emphasized in a local scene that remains tied to the activities of a largely middle-class, parttime, male population of artists who share particular social and economic resources.

Resumo: O trabalho apresenta reflexão sobre a cobertura jornalística participativa no evento no site de rede social Facebook " Apanhador Só-Acústico-sucateiro crowdfundístico na Redenção " , utilizado para divulgação do show realizado em 28 de junho de 2015 pela banda Apanhador Só no Parque Farroupilha, em Porto Alegre. No evento, os fãs realizaram postagens que podem ser consideradas como web jornalismo participativo, a partir da democratização dos meios de produção e distribuição de informações, no âmbito da cibercultura. Essas ações foram relacionadas com a construção de memória social do evento, concluindo-se que representam um registro de importância para a posteridade, ao considerar-se que este show, por ser de banda independente, não teria cobertura que propiciasse a conservação das informações por mídia hegemônica.

Abstract: This paper brings a reflection on the news coverage collective construction on the event on Facebook " Apanhador Só-Acústico-sucateiro crowdfundístico na Redenção " , used to promote the concert performed in 28th July, 2015 by the Apanhador Só band in the Farroupilha Park, in Porto Alegre. On the event on Facebook, the fans posted contents which could be considered as participatory web journalism, in the process of ways of information production and broadcast democratisation, in the cyberculture context. These actions were related to the construction of a social memory of this concert, and it was possible to conclude that it is an important information to posterity, considering that as this concert had been performed by an independent band, it would not have been covered by hegemonic media, enabling the information to be kept.

O entrelaçamento entre música e religião existe desde tempos remotos. Ele teve como resultado um impacto decisivo no desenvolvimento de ambas. Tal afirmação continua verdadeira, mesmo quando elas se opõem. Esse é o caso do mini-álbum Apocalyptic Raids da extinta banda suíça Hellhammer. Esse lançamento fonográfico foi indispensável no estabelecimento do dito heavy metal “extremo”. A maior parte das pontuações feitas na análise do simbolismo da capa de Apocalyptic Raids serão ancoradas na Psicologia Analítica criada pelo psiquiatra Carl Gustav Jung, complementada por obras de Eugene Monick e Robin Robertson, estudiosos dessa psicologia. Os tópicos tratados por este trabalho vão desde a tipografia utilizada no logotipo do grupo até como cenários apocalípticos, tanto o Bíblico como o advento de uma guerra nuclear, moldaram significativamente a capa do disco e o conteúdo suas letras.

El objetivo de este trabajo es comprender la articulación de la producción musical independiente con los procesos de reproducción del capitalismo contemporáneo en Argentina. Para ello analiza las representaciones de sus actores desde la perspectiva contextualista de los estudios culturales y a partir de un enfoque metodológico cualitativo. Argumenta que las representaciones de libertad, autenticidad y originalidad conforman una tríada que, junto a la tradición del disco y bajo una apariencia contraria, permite articular el fenómeno de la música independiente con el orden hegemónico actual.

In the aftermath of the digital revolution, business models are changing and disin-termediation is impacting the music economy. In these circumstances, we observe the widespread claim that music artists are able to successfully reach the market on their own, leveraging access to networked global communications and the use of digital network media as a means of production. This paper argues such arguments feed on the ideals of independence in the context of an experimental and transi-tional stage that the music industry is currently undergoing, and that may be part of a recurrent cycle leading to the establishment of a new generation of intermediaries.