São Paulo as a musical city? Debate perspectives from three research experiences

perspectivas de debate a partir de três experiências de pesquisa

Abstract

This article presents an effort of collective reflection that is based on the individual researches of each of the co-authors, as well as broader dimensions of the researches and debates carried out within the scope of our research group. In recent years, São Paulo has experienced a scenario where the Major and the Municipal Secretariat for Culture and Creative Economy present proposals that highlight the central area of ​​the city as a strategic hub for creative economy and tourism, with assumptions that conflict so often with the actions and struggles of those groups/collectives that produce and consume cultural practices and cultural/musical life in the city of São Paulo in those territorialities. This highlights that the city center and notions of creativity, cultural entrepreneurship and musical city are in dispute, both in their narratives and also in the effective practice of the various actors involved (entrepreneurs, collectives, urban activists, public authorities, etc.). Through field research with ethnographic inspiration and dérives around the city that we have carried out, we seek to understand this context, but focusing on the creative economies that are somewhat insurgent and dissident in this context, such as artistic/ musical production practices of groups analyzed by us in the central areas of the São Paulo. We privilege territorialities of Avenida Paulista, Baixo Augusta/ Anhangabaú and Bixiga as powerful regions in the ambiguous and conflicting discussion about creative economies in their possibilities and limits. We emphasize also the music and its practices as a central and agglutinating force of activisms, socialities and affection in the ways of making the city.