Today is World Rock Day, and it’s clear that Adnews couldn’t let this very important date pass. With that, we interviewed Sérgio Martins, an editor recently hired by Billboard Brasil and who has more than 30 years of experience in the music business. He will work alongside big names like Fátima Pissarra, Carlos Scappini, Marcus Buaiz, Murilo Henare and Raquel and Michel Kury whose mission will be to give space to all musical styles without any distinction.
To begin with, he talks enthusiastically about the 1980s, the golden age for Brazilian rock. According to Sérgio, in 1985 BIS magazine hit the newsstands, which he also worked on later. BIS captured the urgency of serving the young public and had the benefit of the arrival of the Cruzado Plan, one of the many attempts to balance the country’s economy.
Sérgio, aged 19 at the time, now had the money to buy BIS and the records of the famous bands of that period: Plebe Rude, RPM, Legião Urbana, Capital Inicial, Paralamas do Sucesso and Titãs.
Despite today being Rock Day, it is undeniable that in all countries and especially in Brazil, the genre is no longer at the top of the charts today, unlike the 1980s.
Sérgio attributes the low popularity of Rock in the Brazilian music scene to a strategic error made by the bands, who started to close themselves off to open TV auditorium programs due to the emergence of MTV.
“If you pay attention, in the 80s there was no MTV, there were popular programs like Chacrinha, Bolinha, Barros de Alencar and Raul Gil. And these bands would go on these shows to promote their music. With the emergence of MTV, rock musicians stopped frequenting open TV because they understood that the audience that followed auditorium programs was not theirs. With that, the only channel for promotion was MTV, which also never had a large audience.”, he said.
In addition, another error pointed out by the journalist that does not exist in current popular styles is the fact that rock repels rather than aggregates, causing them to lose their ability to connect with the public.
“The Sertanejo, for example, does not do that. Dudu Borges covers other rhythms. That ‘oh oh oh’ by Michel Teló is inspired by Viva la Vida by Coldplay. The current young person has no prejudices, if one day he is at a Liam Gallagher show, the next he is at Wesley Safadão’s ballad.”, he emphasizes.
Therefore, Sérgio feels honored to be part of such a competent and attentive team, which will write an essay without any prejudice and with great reports for Billboard.
“It is a work that is being done with great affection and with this vision without distinction. All genres will be respected and have space, as long as we have a great story to tell about them”, he concludes.
* Supervised by Jessica Bitencourt
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