Limited Pleasures and DIY Cultures: a path of resistance and survival in Portugal's independent music scene over the last decade

Abstract

Europe is living through a maelstrom of societal challenges. Portugal is no different. As such, this paper analyses the arts as a source of hope and as an agent for coping with change in the specific case of Portuguese independent music in the last ten years. Indeed, the Portuguese independent music field has been sustaining itself through DIY practices, where they have the potential to overturn existing hierarchies, mobilise people and engage constructively with social, racial, gender and other differences. DIY processes seem to provide a space for marginal voices and communities, spanning a range of practices that address themes like democracy and social and spatial justice, as well as cultures of sustainability. Based on a long-range investigation that began in 2005 as is still ongoing, we will be examining the trajectories, careers and strategies of more than 300 musicians in different genres of Portugal's independent scene (indie, rock, punk, hardcore, electronic...). This paper addresses the theme of professionalization in music, exploring the relationship between independence, DIY careers and economic sustainability. The DIY ethos is part of the core values of punk subculture, and emerges here as a new standard for promoting employability and managing the risk and uncertainty associated with building a career in music. Focusing on the music scene around the country, we seek to understand what it means to be a musician in Portugal today, and which strategies the artists mobilize to manage their careers. Based on semi-structured interviews with 500 different actors from the independent music scene, we discuss different forms of DIY manifestation in their professional careers, and conclude that DIY is a predominantly pragmatic tool, being present as a survival and endurance strategy in the art worlds of DIY music.