Musical Innovation, Collaboration, and Ideological Expression in the Chilean Netlabel Movement
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Sharing Sounds: Musical Innovation, Collaboration, and Ideological Expression in the Chilean Netlabel Movement by James Ryan Bodiford A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Music: Musicology) in the University of Michigan 2017 Dissertation Committee: Associate Professor Christi-Anne Castro, Chair Professor Kelly Askew Professor Charles H. Garrett Assistant Professor Meilu Ho Professor Bruce Mannheim James Ryan Bodiford [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9850-0438 © James Ryan Bodiford 2017 Dedicated to all those musicians who have devoted their work to imagining a better world… ii Table of Contents Dedication ii List of Figures vi Abstract viii Chapter I – Introduction: Sharing Sounds 1 A Shifting Paradigm 10 The Transnational Netlabel Movement and its Chilean Variant 14 Art World Reformation 20 Social Discourse, Collaboration, and Collectivism 23 Experimentalism, Ideology, and Social Movements 29 Methodology 34 Chapter Summaries 36 Chapter II – “This Disc Is Culture”: Mass Media Hegemony and Its Subversion in Chilean Musical Culture, 1965-2000 39 Mass Media Hegemony and the Culture Industry 44 Social Activism and Subversion 58 DICAP, Unidad Popular and the Emergence of Nueva Canción 1965-1973 64 Musical Dissemination Under Dictatorship (1973-1989): Alerce, Clandestine Cassette Distribution 80 Democratic Re-Transition and Post-Dictatorship Transformations in the Chilean Music Industry 1990-2000 96 iii Chapter III – “My Music Is Not A Business”: New Media Transformations and the Arrival of the Netlabel as an Alternative Model of Music Diffusion 104 “My Music Is Not A Business” 109 The Turn of the Century and the Arrival of the Internet 114 A ‘New Paradise of Chilean Pop’: Local Independent Music in its Ascendency 120 The Arrival of the Chilean Netlabel Movement 132 Netlabel Ideology 150 Chapter IV – “Anyone Can Do This”: Electronic Music Gestation and the Art of Sampling in the Art World of the Netlabel 171 The Art World of the Netlabel 178 A Brief History of Electronic and Electroacoustic Music Gestation in Chile 180 Sonidos Tomados: Sampling in Contemporary Electronic Music 202 Chapter V – An Analysis of the Works and Practices of Three Netlabel Participants 219 Gerardo Figueroa Rodríguez 220 José Manuel Cerda (a.k.a. El Sueño de la Casa Propia/ ESDLCP) 243 Mika Martini 267 Chapter VI – (Re)sounding Together: Collaboration, Collectivism, and Creative Conversation in the Commons 289 Collaboration 291 Collectivism 296 Social Discourse 301 Remixing as Creative Conversation 304 Netlabel Compilation Projects as Collaborative Social Discourse 318 iv Chapter VII – Conclusion: Resist and Remain 336 Bibliography 351 Discography 364 Appendix 367 v List of Figures Fig.1.1 - Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago skyline, electronic devices, Exploradores del Sonido staging 2 Fig. 1.2 El Continente de la Luz promotional poster, Lluvia Acida in performance 4 Fig. 1.3 Frank Benkho (a.k.a. Mika Martini) in performance 5 Fig. 2.1 Alerce logo 87 Fig. 3.1 Santiago protest march 107 Fig. 3.2 Cover art for Lluvia Acida’s El Saqueo 111 Fig. 3.3 Tascam 788 Digital Portastudio 119 Fig. 3.4 Portaldisc.com homepage 126 Fig. 3.5 Pulsar Festival 2012 129 Fig. 3.6 La Cumbre Cumbre del Rock Chileno III stage right 130 Fig. 3.7 Jacobino Discos discography page 136 Fig. 3.8 Pueblo Nuevo homepage 138 Fig. 3.9 Michita Rex homepage 140 Fig. 3.10 Rafael Cheuquelaf and Hector Aguilar and cover art for Lluvia Acida albums La Idea, Kuluana, and Insula in Albis 156 Fig. 3.11 Chilean street art 158 Fig. 3.12 Pueblo Nuevo logo 160 Fig. 3.13 Cover art from some of Pueblo Nuevo’s more political contributions 162 Fig. 3.14 Cover art from Lluvia Acida’s Arte y Shamanismo Paleoindio and the compilation Aukin Mapuche 163 Fig. 3.15 Creative Commons license options with visual icons 167 Fig. 4.1 Selections of Mika Martini’s array of electronic equipment as arranged for various performances 173 Fig. 4.2. Mika Martini in his home studio 175 Fig. 4.3 José Vincente Asuar, seated in front of his COMASUAR computer 185 Fig. 4.4: Cover art for Electrodomestico’s ¡Viva Chile! 189 Fig. 4.5 Pablo Flores at home displaying analog performance equipment associated with his “Estudios Itenterantes (Wandering Studio),” and the “Alpha Studios” of Hector Aguilar 201 Fig. 4.6 Audacity window for the sound collage “Ricos y Pobres” 205 Fig. 4.7 Santiago’s Plaza de Armas 206 Fig. 4.8 MIDI window in the DAW software program Ableton Live 9 216 Fig. 5.1 Gerardo Figueroa 221 Fig. 5.2 Waveform representation of “Re-(Gue-Te)-Nacimiento” 231 Fig. 5.3 Analysis of “Elizabeth in the Chilean Bush of Ghosts” 239 Fig. 5.4 José Manuel Cerda (a.k.a ESDLCP) 243 Fig. 5.5 El Sueño del la Casa Propia (ESDLCP) performing at Santiago’s vi La Batuta nightclub. 245 Fig. 5.6 José Manuel Cerda’s desktop studio 251 Fig. 5.7 Ableton Live’s “Arrangement View” 253 Fig. 5.8 Ableton Live’s “Session View” 254 Fig. 5.9 A close up depiction of the organization of tracks, clips, and scenes in an Ableton “Session View” window 255 Fig. 5.10 Cover art for El Sueño de la Casa Propia’s album Historial de Caídas 258 Fig. 5.11 “Voluntad de Oro” samples and their varying combinations in organizational ‘scenes’ 261 Fig. 5.12 Hugo Espinosa Chellew (a.k.a Mika Martini) performing as his alternate alias Frank Benkho 268 Fig. 5.13 Cover art for Mika Martini’s Mestizo 269 Fig. 5.14: Ableton Live “Session View” for Mika Martini’s “Whyno?” 277 Fig. 5.15: Cover art for Los Hanoish y Otras Subculturas Extintas 281 Fig. 6.1: Cover art for Fakuta’s Al Vuelo and its remix album Al Suelo 309 Fig. 6.2: Cover art for Historial de Caidas Remixes 310 Fig. 6.3: Cover art for Élansson’s Articulata 314 Fig. 6.4 Cover art for remix albums for Élansson’s Articulata 317 Fig. 6.5: Cover art for Jacobino Disco’s compilation album 50 and Michita Rex’s Música para el fin del mundo – Volumen 2 318 Fig. 6.6: Cover art for compilation albums that features members of a particular identity cohort 319 Fig. 6.7: Cover art for the Jacobino Discos production Aukin Mapuche: Compilado de nuevo usos de Instrumentos Mapuches 322 Fig. 6.8. Cover art for the Synco Soundtrack 328 Fig. 6.9: Recreation of the Synco prototype control room 329 Fig. 7.1: Cover art for Pueblo Nuevo’s 10th Anniversary Disc Di Algo and the Jacobino Discos release Todo No Es Todo by the trio C/VVV 344 Fig. 7.2: Exploradores del Sonido concert flyer 348 Fig. 7.3. Lluvia Acida and Mika Martini (aka Frank Benkho) performing in Ann Arbor, October 2015 349 Fig. 7.4 The Exploradores del Sonido in Detroit, October 2015 350 vii Abstract In recent years technological advances have triggered radical shifts in the ways people produce, disseminate, perform, and consume music across the globe. This dissertation contributes to the understanding of these overarching transformations by examining the creative and social practices of Chilean electronic musicians affiliated with a relatively new class of non-commercial, Internet-based music distribution services known as netlabels. While maintaining ideological commitments to provide free access to their musical catalogs, these collectives allow affiliated musicians to share innovative works through an alternative venue, removed from the commodifying pressures that have governed the circulation of recorded music for over a century. To cultivate a more collaborative rather than competitive or proprietary creative environment, netlabel artists also generally release their works under the customizable guidelines of Creative Commons licenses, which enable content producers to offer others default permissions for the reuse, remixing, and/or sampling of their work. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted primarily among electronica, electroacoustic, and electro-pop musicians associated with the Santiago-based netlabels Pueblo Nuevo, Jacobino Discos, and Michita Rex, this dissertation analyzes the nature of viii musical innovation, collaboration, and ideological expression in this historically unprecedented context. It applies the art world theory of Howard Becker (1983) to explore how musicians realize their works and reconceive what is artistically possible in relation to evolving creative circumstances. It relates theories of public discourse and community formation to the realities of new media fragmentation as it examines how netlabels provide a platform for artists to collaborate, communicate, and establish expansive social networks bound by shared aesthetics and social convictions. Incorporating theories of artistic experimentalism, this dissertation further investigates the ideological dimensions of the netlabel movement and their relationship to leftist social movements in Latin America. Lastly, this work offers a musicological case study illuminating a broader transnational paradigm shift in the nature of cultural production and dissemination. According to Creative Commons co-founder Lawrence Lessig (2008), this shift reflects a transition from the “read only” model of the past century, marked by passive consumption and the strictly commercial exchange of media culture, to the more democratic and participatory “read/write” model of the digital era. ix Chapter I Introduction: Sharing Sounds A cold October Andean rain hastened my ascent up the steps and through the pillared vestibule of the impressive, neoclassical edifice housing Santiago’s Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Museum of Contemporary Art). This architectural landmark, rising from the scenic Parque Forestal in the capital’s Bellas Artes district, stands surrounded by a modern urban landscape that defies the geologic instability beneath its ever-more skyward reaching structures. The building belongs to another era, acting as a stone embodiment of the more conservative tendencies of Chilean culture that adulate the nation’s Iberian colonial roots, marginalize all things native and ‘unrefined,’ and acquiesce to the ideals of convention, order, and hierarchy.