Searching for timbre on a budget: Brazilian indie rock home recordings (2013–2020)

Abstract

In Brazil, the high cost of musical instruments is a prominent concern among indie rock musicians, given the genre's well-known emphasis on timbre. Through an insider research approach, involving timbre analysis and in-depth interviews with six band members, this article aims to identify signs emerging from the sound textures of Brazilian indie rock home recordings that express the situation of the economic limitations within which these musicians operate. The study concludes that even though each band deals with budgetary constraints in different ways and explores different strategies when looking for singular timbres, a shift towards professional mixing leads musicians away from a DIY approach to another of precarious work and authorial disidentification, which operates in favour of mainstream tendencies, and consequently, towards a Global North standardisation.