GUERRA, Paula; MOREIRA, Tânia (2015) - Passion Nodules: the social network space of Portuguese...

Passion Nodules: the social

network space of Portuguese

alternative rock (1980-2010)

PAULA GUERRA

TANIA MOREIRA

This presentation is systematized in the journal articleKeep it rocking: The social space of Portuguese alternative

rock (19802010)Journal of Sociology

Paula Guerra(www.punk.pt)

PURPOSE AND METHODOLOGY

In this presentation we will discuss

the social and relational space of alternative Portuguese rock

in the last 40 years, using polyhedron dynamics or Q-analysis.

This algebraic procedure is based in several connected

structures pointed out by our interviewees in respect to

national and international bands, blogs, journalists,

critics, venues, record stores and key-actors of the indie

Portuguese scene as a network sub(field)

Passion Nodules: the social network space of Portuguese alternative

rock (1980-2010) Paula Guerra



This is part of broader research into the 30

years of modernization of Portugal (from

the post-revolutionary period initiated in

1974 on), in which alternative rock is

regarded as a significant social practice within

the scope of the social, artistic and musical

structuring of the country itself.

We consider that alternative rock is a

subject that is illuminated by

Bourdieus theory of fields, without overlooking its clear interconnection

with art worlds or music scenes, and the aesthetic cosmopolitanism of late

modernity.

Among these social actors, there is an understanding that alternative rock coincides with so-called indie rock, viewed as opposed to the mainstream, that is, opposed to the charts and the dominant trends of mass-oriented popular music.



This is a pioneering work on the Portuguese sociology of culture and arts,

whose results may be the starting point of a debate to problematize the logic of

popular music outside Anglo-Saxon settings.

Research study conducted between 2005 and 2010

191 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the various agents featured on the field of analysis,

Complemented by 11 biographical interviews with groundbreaking (both diachronically and synchronically) Portuguese alternative rock

actors.

The realization of interviews follows snowball sampling techniques.

The interviews covered the diversity of agents in the subfield: bloggers, critics and journalists, promoters, editors, managers,

owners of music distribution places, shopkeepers, musicians, DJs

and music lovers (basically, only agents regarded as audiences have

been excluded).



All interviews were recorded on digital audio and together mount up to a total

playing time of approximately 300 hours.

Our methodology was driven by categorical content analysis of discourse

segments in order to ascertain the

meanings and purposes of social actions,

privileging, therefore, qualitative and

intensive approaches. Data processing

techniques additionally included

polyhedral analysis, used to describe the

structure of alternative rock (concerning

subjects ways of relating and associating with each other)



Our sample was composed of sets of individuals classified

as follows:

33 interviewees aged 3135 55 interviewees aged 3640 35 interviewees aged 4145

Predominantly MALE, the sample reflects gender logics

generally present in rock, especially among the older

generations in the Portuguese context.

The group also displayed high educational skills (85 college

graduates and 54 with university attendance).



The highly placed social positions of the participants seem congruent with

their scholarly, professional and social qualifications, which clearly contrast

with the average Portuguese population profile, but closely relate to the

typical profile of artistic groups in Portugal.

Most of our sample came from the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto

(75%). The sample is geographically distributed in accordance to the spatial

distribution of members of the artistic field in general, reflecting the cultural

dualities and asymmetries (if not macrocephaly) of the country.

A PROPOSED ILLUSTRATION OF THE ALTERNATIVE ROCK SUBFIELD IN PORTUGAL



During the investigation, it was possible to identify and create a topology of

the positions that define the alternative rock (sub)field in Portugal. To better

comprehend this, we shall refer to polyhedron dynamics.

Polyhedron dynamics or Q-analysis is specifically adapted to

describe structures and networks, and here was designed to define,

describe, map and represent the complexity of the relationships that

substantiate the underlying structures of actors, venues, bands and

promoters that compose Portuguese alternative rock.

Exploring our object through polyhedron dynamics, we have noted

an important recurrence: thus, the words used by our interviewees to

identify said actors, venues, shops, promoters and media may inspire

a hierarchical layout based on the number of references to those

same words.



Figure 1.

Polyhedron

dynamics:

referenced

national bands.

Illustrating this, the existence of a symbolic universe of reference was supported by allusions to national bands (Figure 1)



Figure 1. Polyhedron dynamics: referenced national bands.

A first group of bands (represented, in Figure 1, by the biggest orange ellipse)

seems structural in the formation of Portuguese alternative rock, entailing bands

which are associated by nearly all interviewees with indie rock. Most of these

bands were formed in the second half of the 1980s, deeply influenced by post-

punk aesthetics, and have assumed roles as field institutions due to their longevity, protagonism, leadership in the definition of the canons of artistic

creation, independent relationship with labels and the media, and continuous

proclamation of DIY ethics with their members shunning

professionalization in their musical

careers.

These primary veteran bands are accompanied, in the second ellipse,

by the newcomers, who follow a logic of sonic exploration and

experimentation, avoid involvement

with major labels, and were formed

by members previously integrated in

field institution bands line-ups.



We can, in fact, refer to the existence of a canon-producing structure of a musical subgenre

(grounded in post-punk, musical experimentation

and electronica) in the two major cities of Portugal Lisbon and Porto.

Such a structure is characterized by:

its DIY ethics and logic,

a mostly amateur presence in what concerns professionalization,

a search for an alternative to majors in the creation of independent and personal labels,

and a claim for a cosmopolitan sphere of action on a Portuguese scale.



This spectrum of bands is located within the major arcs of alternative rockof the last three decades in Portugal

The bands clearly illustrate what underlies the alternative world in Portugal, even if that alternative is plural and dynamic, comprising hybrid

sonority, songs, independent labels, live concerts, DIY logics, canonization

by critics and so on.



Figure 2. Polyhedron dynamics: referenced labels, promoters and shops.



Figure 2. Polyhedron dynamics: referenced labels, promoters and shops.

Relating the segment of labels, event promoters and record stores (Figure 2), at first

glance, the data seem to contain some contradictions:

despite the crisis associated with the record market, the promoters, the majors

and the indie labels all retain a recognized and valued position within that

structure, which is based on the importance of such labels and promoters in

the definition of alternative, a vital condition for the indie rock approach.

In fact, a major role can be attributed to promoters who have nowadays expanded

their activities beyond the alternative niches, fuelled by a leitmotiv of searching out

the alternative although their activity has gradually branched out into more

mainstream expressions, namely in the

creation of major events, such as festivals.

Moreover, the evolution of the Portuguese

music industry in itself is recent, leading

some of the indie labels to eventually

adopt a more mainstream and corporation

like posture towards music production.



What seems evident here is the apparently conflictual coexistence between micro

and macro organizations, and a mainstream and alternative ethos: but it should be

stressed that this is much more an apparent conflict than an actual one, an

outcome of general evolution dynamics within the music industry.

These are the main structuration principles of this alternative rock subfield, which

neither hide the general dynamics of struggle within the segment, nor do they stem

the opposition between kings of the segment versus newcomers.



Figure 3. Polyhedron dynamics: referenced key agents of alternative rock.



Figure 3. Polyhedron dynamics: referenced key agents of alternative rock.

The configuration of key agents in the alternative rock subfield

(represented in Figure 3) also invokes important elements. This

structure maintains two groups at its core. Focusing on the group with

the wider orange ellipse, we can see that it is composed by key

actors (both musicians and media agents) in the emergence of the

alternative rock subfield in Portugal, during the mid 1980s.



For example:

Antnio Srgio (considered the Portuguese John Peel and responsible for early dissemination of alternative music) assumes the role of pioneer diffuser.

Adolfo Luxria Canibal, singer from the band Mo Morta, assumes the role of a pendulum (that is keeping

the whole thing going), and is certainly an actor who

holds significant (internal) capital amid the canonization

processes of the Portuguese alternative subfield. He has also attained prevalent notoriety in Portuguese

society in general and in the artistic world in particular

(external capital).



In a Bourdieusian language, these two figures exert

subfield dominance, concentrating in their hands the largest volume of capital(s) in the social-relational

space of indie rock.

CONCLUDING REMARKS: Your Future Our Clutter



The contributions of the investigation which

we summarily present here are grounded in

two key points:

THE FIRST is the application of Bourdieusian theory to a specific artistic

and musical segment beyond the literary

field or pop rock in general, operating a

theoretical (re)adaptation in an effort to

legitimize the analysis of a musical

segment which calls for specific

approaches and investigative tools.

THE SECOND concerns the empirical grounding of the approach which,

considering the volume of interviews and

contacts made, we risk stating is one of the

first of its kind, within a non-Anglo-Saxon

reality, to take the theoretical discussion

regarding alternative rock so far.



Still, there are other questions which seem

highly relevant, such as:

the importance of the glocalization of a musical subgenre, substantiated by the

discourse and representations of those who

participated in different roles in the scene;

that takes us to the core of the sociological

object, since we have conceived alternative

rock as an object of explanation and

understanding in the context of volatility of

social and musical classifications of late

modernity.

THANK YOU

This presentation is systematized in the journal articleKeep it rocking: The social space of Portuguese alternative

rock (19802010)Journal of Sociology

Paula Guerra(www.punk.pt)

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GUERRA, Paula; MOREIRA, Tânia (2015) - Passion Nodules: the social network space of Portuguese...

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