Facts About Brazilian Punk

Facts About Brazilian Punk

• Originated in the late 70's
• Influenced by bands from mainly the UK and some from the US like The Clash and Sex Pistols
• The band Restos de Nada (remains of nothing) were the first punk band to emerge in Brazil
• Between 80-85 Sao Paulo became the notable hub for punk bands in Brazil
• Mercenarias is an all female punk band
• Punk gang violence around this time influenced the bands to change their direction to post punk and also new wave
• The 'Straight Edge' movement became popular in the 90's injecting new life into the scene in Sao Paulo
• Most of these new bands in the 90's were singing English
• Punk their was initially created with young people fighting against the Brazilian military regime
• The singer of Olho Seco started a record shop in the 80's called Punk Rock Discos
• This became the meeting point for the scene for years gathering isolated gangs, bands and individuals from around the city to one place creating a proper movement
• Shortly record from the UK were bought over to the shop in unorthodox ways
• These kids couldn't afford the records so the shop made mixtures out of the best songs and sold them cheap
• UK bands like Discharge and Disorder became main influences for the movement over there and also a few others from Sweden and Finland
• Hardcore punk shows became a regular things in 1981
• The first punk band to release a record in Latin America was Ratos de Porao (Basement Rats)
• In late 1982 the first punk festival was organised called O Comeco do Fin do Mundo (The Beginning of the End of the World)
• It was recorded and released on vinyl
• Rio de Janeiro also had an emerging punk scene in the early 80's with bands such as Coquetel Molotov and Suburbana
• In 1984 police violence against punk gangs made it virtually impossible for punk bands to play
• As a reaction to this a lot of bands changed their sound to either post punk or thrash metal
• Some of these earlier punk bands that had changed their sounds had signed onto major record labels
• They would then go on to release much more commercial records
• Punk started to slide under the radar after an economic crisis
• Punk gangs, skinheads and metal heads were at a rivalry
• Murders was common at this time and punk shows were rare and dangerous
• In the 1990's there were many punk and metal sub-genres and many commercials ones at that
• Genres like grindcore and noisecore were becoming popular internationally through fanzines and tape trading
• The creation of a stronger punk scene developed in the 90's with gang violence diminishing and venues becoming busier
• This new millennium ended up having bands release their records worldwide in North America and Europe

Micro-Genre of Music Selection

Micro-Genre of Music Selection

Today I began a new project and in my first studio brief I had to design cassette tape packaging based on a micro-genre of music that I have researched. It would have to be screen printed with a minimum of two colours included. I decided to choose a genre that wasn't too familiar to me but something I had a slight understanding of. I chose Brazilian Punk as my genre, knowing nothing about this at all but definitely a fan of punk in general. I would begin my research hear and find at least five obscure facts about the genre and another twenty five things linked to the genre. I would also have to create a playlist at least an hour long to fit on an actual cassette tape and complete the aesthetic. I have began by also researching some cassette tape covers with simple colour designs which could inspire me later on when designing for print.

These designs are incredibly simple and easily designed for print. I have figured some of the important design aspects out which will have to be included on each cassette tape like the track list, a title and certain colour palette. I have also discovered you can have several different layouts for the design like four panel to eight panel sleeves. 

Final Publication Feedback

Final Publication Feedback

I have now been apart of my final crit on this publication and received the final piece of feedback from the whole class on my publication. Most of my feedback was pretty positive which I was happy about. Some of the comments I picked up on were how good the image quality was. Using a good camera and editing really paid off in the project as it was a key con in my publication. Another thing people complimented it on was the layout of the images. They said it worked well with the images and I used a perfect amount of white space. This skill has been transferred over from the previous project where I was also complimented on my layout skills. Also my witty title was noted once or twice. There was one negative which seemed to be noticed by some of people which was that few of them didn't see the narrative within the publication even after reading the rationale. It seemed more people couldn't understand it then could. This was perhaps because I spent too long perfecting the aesthetic and less on the idea. Next time I will have to find a way to even out the contextual aspect with the design portion of the project.

Final Publication Crit

Final Publication Crit

After discussing my three publications in a final crit, me and my group have come to the decision to further develop my 26 characters idea. To improve it I have been informed to focus mainly with my sock idea. I have to photograph my socks picking up objects and also my objects inside the socks to see what angles can be formed. This will give it a much better narrative and will have a better consistency compared to how it is now. It has also been recommended that I keep it A5 and have a few double page spreads to really emphasise the quality of the photographs. I have also been told to print it on some thick paper to perhaps match the sock texture as it would constantly have socks in it.

Uncomfortable Images Mock Up

Uncomfortable Images Mock Up

I made my first mock up today for the third publication and it turned out alright. I decided to use a similar theme throughout the design so it was consistent. I used the scanner to place all of my text and image into the publication. This has given it a kind of old newspaper headliner aesthetic. I tried to show a story throughout the zine by extracting text from articles and comments sections of these articles also. It begins with the earwax extraction and a light hearted quote from a mens health article. Then I went on some earwax extraction videos and retrieved some of the comments from these and most of them seemed quite positive. I managed to collect comments such as "I hate this but can't stop watching" and "I love this". Then it takes a more serious side by showing images of homelessness, slavery and compulsory army service. These were some of the things I personally found disturbing. Each image begins with a negative about each one that you might not actually know. This is then followed up by a quote from an article or comment speaking about how foolish or pointless these ideas are. This makes my angry because it creates a large contrast between how people seem to be only interested in the obvious gruesome videos and images and not the ones that truly matter. My final page summarises my whole point to hopefully make the viewer reflect on what they have just viewed.

Uncomfortable Images Idea

Uncomfortable Images Idea

After the discussion I took apart in I have finally decided on an idea for my third publication. I was very interested in how people seem to take more notice in things that don't really matter in comparison to things that do. For instance at first glance the earwax extraction was the most disturbing and disgusting of all the images but morally the others should be. My idea is to basically demonstrate how people are more interested in things that do not matter compared to things that do. The reason I think this is so is because of social media which is full of fake news and all sorts of rubbish like that. Also the news only showing people what they want and censoring violent imagery, when most people wouldn't even be effected by it due to them viewing it everyday in films, shows and games. Just because something may not seem to horrific upon first glance does not mean it is not. I'd like to expose this idea in this publication.

Uncomfortable Images Discussion

Uncomfortable Images Discussion

Toady as a group we viewed all of out uncomfortable images and put them into categories and a scale from most effective to least effective. One was initial impact. From this I have learnt that the initial impact of the image is usually quite important. A photo of earwax removal was the most horrific photo here and the least was a text message from a child to their parents during a school shooting. The text message is obviously more horrific but at first glance it doesn't look bad at all. It is the context that makes this as horrible as it really is. Another discussion that came up was between the earwax removal and some over bitten fingernails. We decided that the earwax was worse then the nails, even though they were both as disturbing as each other, we see fingernails like that everyday but not earwax. 

Another context we discussed these images in was their ethical value. When the photos were discussed upon, we re arranged the order into something quite the opposite compared to the first arrangement. For instance a photo of two gay men being hung becasue of their sexuality was put at the front due to its horrific context. At first no one was really effected by it maybe because we see these sort of images everywhere everyday in movies, the news and games. But when a bit of backstory is given it moves people greatly.

I think my idea for the third publication is to show disgusting images like earwax removal, and compare them to genuinely horrific imagery of war time documentation or other unfair world atrocities. With no context people might not think much of these images and I may include comments by people viewing these sourced images to maybe help the viewer guess what was going on.

Uncomfortable Image GIF

Uncomfortable Image GIF

Today we worked in pairs and combined out uncomfortable images to find a word that linked them. The images we decided to link were a pigeon eating sick of the floor and someone having intense earwax removal. The word we linked was vile as these are both rather vile displays. Our GIF is quite light hearted with a scenario of a man jogging and it zooming into his crotch. Then is is followed by an image of the pigeon being sick at the sight of this vile image. It also shows a bowl of soup which could also be referred to the sick making the viewer think twice about eating their soup hopefully.