Avant-garde, experimentalism and market in the artistic trajectory of Tom Zé

Abstract

This research project proposes to study the musical production of Tom Zé in his artistic career, from 1968 on. After assimilating knowledge in artistic procedures of postwar vanguards from Europe during his education in the Federa University of Bahia, Tom Zé assumes certain avant-garde vocation in his career. Incorporating the logic of rupture in his production, begins to realize experiments in the search for new sounds and new sonorities, practicing a refuting poetic of the patterns of mass song. However, since his acting occurs is in the music industry - inserted into the comercial logic of the market-, your aesthetic project ends up also being formatted to the field of popular song. Given this conflicting relationship between the practice of a rebellious poetic and market participation, we pretend to verify in which manner the artistic production of Tom Zé tenses the patterns of language and conduct established by the culture industry.