Os donos da canção: um estudo sobre a relação das gravadoras com a ditadura militar brasileira, sob a ótica da censura (1966-1978)

Abstract

This work aims to understand how the relationship between recording companies and the military dictatorship occurred, with censorship being a crucial element for that. It was necessary to seek to understand how the Brazilian phonographic industry was organizing itself in the years 1966 to 1978 and to study the tactics used by record companies in the sale of single, double and LP records. I chose not to follow the dichotomy that the recording industry was consolidated in favor of national music or international music. The interest was to sell press music, no matter if it was national or foreign music, but to make profitable the product that was launched in the market. I assume that it is not possible to unify market consumption during the military dictatorship given the data obtained from IBOPE's market research lists. It is also worth remembering that it was a phonographic market that was experiencing times of censorship and other political repressions. For this reason, I tried to talk about how the record companies were articulating with the military dictatorship to have their records authorized by the Censura. Artists are also present in these discussions when they somehow negotiate with the censors and resort to self-censorship to continue producing. The State was seen in the contradictory posture of controlling what was being produced in the cultural scenario, adopting the role of guardian of the infrastructure necessary for the installation of cultural industries, including music industry companies, and the credit generated from the tax exemption that somehow allowed the financing of Brazilian music through the so-called Disco é Cultura law. It was also discussed the Censorship's concern with not causing economic damage to certain record companies and their artists, but that the same complacency was not seen in the treatment of artists who had a linked image of opponents of the current policy. This was also reflected not only in the censorship of record covers, where I also addressed the image stamped on LPs yet another catalyst for audience and profit for record labels.