Um requiem pelas músicas que perdemos.

Percursos com paragens pelos impactos da pandemia na produção musical independente em Portugal

Abstract

In Portugal the creative work on popular music has not been the object of an updated scientific investment. And this situation is pressing when it comes to the constraints that have pierced and accentuated it in the pandemic. Based on semi-structured interviews, this article aims to map out the inequalities and impacts of COVID-19 in the creative work of 40 Portuguese musicians - the fruit of an ongoing transnational research involving Portugal, the United Kingdom and Australia. In general, the research has revealed an inescapable paradox in relation to musical creative work: if, on the one hand, this labour market presents cultural openness, dynamism and cosmopolitanism, on the other hand, it reveals patterns of inequality in terms of gender, precariousness of ties, contractual informality, atypicality of tasks, flexibility of roles (SIMON & THWAITES, 2018; THREADGOLD, 2018). These patterns of inequality were severely accentuated by the pandemic. It is therefore important to understand the impacts of COVID 19 on the musical production processes of young Portuguese musicians located in the diverse and multiform spectrum of popular music. Throughout the world, governments have imposed restrictions on social life in order to control the spread of COVID-19, according to rhetoric of 'flattening the curve'. Different types of restrictions have been adopted, ranging from varying degrees of distance and social isolation, prohibition or restriction of social gatherings, travel, leisure and sports activities, and even going to school or work. The impact of these types of control and emergency measures on individual freedom and democracy, still to be assessed, should continue. Many measures will have to be maintained in the long term, some even becoming part of the 'new normal' for these musicians, leading to rethinking key concepts such as risk, fear, panic, crisis and confidence.