Μουσικές ιστορίες πόλης: Η ιστορία των αυτοσχέδιων στούντιο της Θεσσαλονίκης (original) (raw)

Μουσικές ιστορίες πόλης: Η ιστορία των αυτοσχέδιων στούντιο της Θεσσαλονίκης

This thesis is a multidimensional historical record of the D.I.Y. music studios of Thessaloniki, and the practices that developed in and around them. Those makeshift music studios or otherwise provadika (rehearsal spaces) are extra-institutional, self-managed musical spaces, where musical processes and alternative forms of sociability produce lasting blends that pervade the musical life of Thessaloniki over several decades. However, the action of these spaces remains largely undocumented. Starting from the historiography of popular music genres and drawing from recent epistemological work on D.I.Y. and alternative popular cultures, this study seeks to shed light not only on the studio spaces themselves, but also the multiple network nodes they triggered within the city. The narrative focuses on the first twenty years of their presence in Thessaloniki (mid-70s-early 90s), as well as on the D.I.Y./D.I.T. (do-it-yourself/do-it-together) music network that emerged in and around the studios during the 80s: self-curated concerts and festivals, independent record releases, pirate radio and self-published fanzines. The structure of the thesis is developed around three main research questions: 1) What is the sociopolitical and cultural framework through which makeshift studios emerged? 2) How did the studios develop during the years 1975-1994 and what music groups were involved in this practice? 3) What role did these spaces play in the musical life of the city? These questions are approached through original interviews and archival findings, and are examined from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining methods and concepts from historical musicology, popular music studies, sociology of music and urban geography, to situate the research in the emergent field of urban music studies. Makeshift music studios are ultimately conceptualised as intricately sustainable musical spaces with heterotopic and temporarily autonomous characteristics, which sometimes transcend their materiality and form networked, inter-generational paths all the way to the present.