From Crisis to Reinvention: Independent Music in Argentina Post-2001

Abstract

Until recently, the independent musical production was mainly associated with smallgroups or even stand-alone musicians who believed in autonomy from both market andgovernmental institutions to carry out their professional projects. This was also the casein Argentina until the 2000s, but after the 2001’s economic, social, and political crisis,which reduced the record market and private investment in culture to the lowesthistorical levels, a systematic growth of what is known as independent music prevailed.The emergence of this new scenario was the combined result of a critical andassociative impulse awakened by the crisis, the certainty that there was no otheralternative to promote one´s own music and the incorporation of digital technologiesthat, although innovative and commercialized in foreign currency, were still affordablefor locals. Over the years and in a context of economic growth, this development (wheresome groups even reached massive recognition) called the attention of both publicpolicy makers and medium and large record companies, which began to bet on whatwas seen as a renovation and reshuffle of Argentine popular music.Drawing upon a decade of conversations, interviews and observations conducted withmusician-managers and state cultural agents from the cities of Buenos Aires and LaPlata -the two main spaces for independent music in Argentina-, this paper analyzes theemergence of new forms of mediations between independent music production, themarket and the State that enables to redefine the very category of independence.Whereas independent music production may still be associated with the defense of anindie ethos, where creative and managerial autonomy are highly valued, at the sametime, it also positively accepts and even promotes fruitful relationships with state andentrepreneurial agents. In some cases, independent musicians-managers work forgovernmental agencies, private production companies or even streaming platforms,enhancing their management practices both from the public and private sectors as wellas the independent world. The result is a fabric made up of alliance ties, reciprocity or "friendship" and strategic uses of relationships, contacts and resources that enable theindependent sector to “live from music”.Thus, our conceptual framework of analysis does not limit the notion of independenceto a behavior or a taste that “was already there”. By moving away from explanationsbased on external determinisms, it privileges a redefinition of independence that relieson the process of action that offers a partly uncertain outcome (Hennion, 2002). In thismanner, our work presents contrasting perspectives of musician, managers, market, andstate agents that allow us to understand how these subjects move away from rigidnotions of autonomous subjects against the state and the market to the emergence ofnew conceptions of independence where these subjects are included. In this way, thispaper seeks to contribute to the discussion about the category of independence and themodes of subjectivation based on located and relational research in the musicproduction contemporary world. By shedding light on the Argentine case study, wherethe traditional record industry has never reached the power of the northern countries,this essay seeks to relativize common theoretical concepts about independence and itsrelationship with massiveness, corporate power, and the role of digital technologies.