This chapter is a reflection on the independentproduction of recorded music, focusing on thepost-punk albums from the catalogue of the Brazilianindependent record company Baratos Afins. Associatedwith a record store founded in 1978 and located inthe Grandes Galerias building (a shopping arcade) inthe centre of the city of São Paulo, this recordingcompany has been in existence since 1982,demonstrating exceptional longevity.

Baratos Afins emerged at a time when Brazil wasexperiencing a period of transformation, whichexposed many contradictions in society. As the longdictatorship period (1964–85) was reaching its end,the country faced a deep recession as a result ofthe model of conservative modernization implementedby the military government. The Brazilian cultureindustry steadily expanded during this period andbecame consolidated. However, after having seensurprising growth in the mid-1970s, the phonographicsector was already showing signs of decline anduncertainty by the late 1970s and early 1980s. InBrazil, where local music has always been the mostdynamic sector, record companies heavily promotedthe internationalization of their catalogues withthe dissemination of various musical genres fromabroad.

In a context of growth in the market of culturalcommodities, two simultaneous and complementarymovements could be observed: the consolidation ofrock produced in Brazil, driven by the major recordcompanies and, in the large urban centres, thedevelopment of important independent recordinginitiatives, an integral part of the process ofmundialização(‘mundialization’ or cultural globalization) (Ortiz1994, 2006).

The Baratos Afins label is considered a key point ofreference within this scenario, with its greatestperiod of activity occurring in the 1980s and 1990s.Its catalogue consists of various styles of rock, aswell as jazz, Brazilian instrumental music and atype of MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) that emergedfrom the so-called Vanguarda Paulista (São PauloAvant-garde), a São Paulo-based movement of 1979–85linked to independent production and committed torenewing the foundations of MPB (Fenerick 2007). Aspart of another initiative, both as a record storeand recording label, Baratos Afins re-releasedessential albums in the MPB genre that were out ofprint.