Tom Zé and the praise of imperfection: a musical analysis of the disc Fabrication Defect

• Grant number: 11/14768-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2011
• End date: November 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Music
• Principal Investigator: José Roberto Zan
• Grantee: Guilherme Araujo Freire
• Host Institution: Instituto de Artes (IA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to study the disc Fabrication Defect of Tom Zé, released in the year 1998, a moment in which the composer's career was gaining evidence and perspective into the worldwide music market. Assuming that the dynamics of the global music industry can be characterized by the attempt to reconcile the appropriation of local cultural symbols with standardization processes, necessary for the compatibility of the products with the consumer market, we intend to verify to what extent the aesthetic project of Tom Zé leads this logic to tension. The research also aims to understand, through musical analysis, in which way the experimentalism and the "imperfect" sonority present in the disc, contradict standardization patterns and burst consolidated formats of mass popular songs.(AU)