2. Emergence of Blitz (1984- )
New music scenes in Lisbon and Porto.
New wave of journalists in
track with those scenes.
Impact of foreign music
press (NME, MM, Face).
3.
4. Incipient music industry in Portugal.
Closeness between journalists and musicians.
Relative freedom to fulfill a taste agenda against
the status quo in music coverage. ‘Militant
journalism’. Journalist as a ‘gatekeeper of taste’.
Compromise between the mainstream and the
‘leftfield’ of popular music.
6. Alignment with emerging scenes in popular
music (both local and international). Negative
criticism of a “dominant record industry”.
Ideological discourse… from political to
aesthetic.
"The album shows that it is possible to overcome the inertia of the
traditional labels (...) as it addresses an audience tired of the
situationism of the charts and of the provincial disregard for
Portuguese bands, and underlines the difference of its aesthetic and
social ambitions, putting itself on the margins of the vicious
conventions of the Portuguese music market." (in Blitz, 24/6/86)
7. "Searching for difference almost as an ideology in itself, not avoiding
experimentation nor the penchant for risk, G.N.R., Heróis do Mar and
Ban translate into different words the concepts of their artistic future".
(in Blitz, 25/11/86)
“Founded in 1979 by producer IvoWatts-Russell, 4AD has everything
expected from a project and from a personal vision of what music is and
what it must be and nothing of a commercial enterprise. It
communicates with the world periodically but in almost all of its
gestures - from record releases to press promotion - the notion that it is
radically at odds with the current way of thinking in common record
companies is confirmed. Its production is not addressed to everyone.
Staying close to the anonymous crowd that feeds the charts is not
desired. One must deserve that music to have access to it". (in Blitz,
1987)
8. "A radio that is not concerned with the masses but that is
addressed, instead, to a peculiar audience, the students and
the citizens of the capital, not giving the alibi of trying to
cater for everybody to justify some narrow-mindedness in
the programming". (in Blitz, 7/1/86)
"That implies being the receptor, with his own intellectual
frame, the one to imagine the reading that best makes
those songs his’. A kind of creative reception that obviously
is not within reach of those young idiots to whom the music
is nothing but a stimuli to bang the head.That’s why
"Liberty Belle..." is an album for elder audiences". (in Blitz,
20/5/86)
9. Aesthetic rather than political ideology.
Ideology of difference in Blitz.
Oppositional values: creative vs
commercial; diference vs conservantism;
present vs past.
Allignment with other media: radio programs (Som da Frente)
and stations (R.U.T.); independent labels (FundaçãoAtlântica,
Transmédia, Dansa do Som, Ama Romanta) and retailers
(Contraverso, Motor); newspapers (Expresso).
10. Music industry Music journalism (Blitz,
Expresso)
Mainstream
Major labels
Imitation
Sameness
Dominant patterns
Conservative
Fake
“Mass that feed the
charts”
1960s / 1970s
New underground acts
Independent labels
Creativity
Difference
Innovation
Change
Authentic
Selective audience
1980s
11. Conclusions
From political to taste ideologies met in
discourse.
Gatekeeping role anticipating trends,
proactive role, independence from the industry.
Intrusion of emotion over reason in journalistic
discourse (Stratton, 1982)
Generational and cultural (rather than political)
struggle over the value of pop music.
