Women, migrations and rock without borders

This article addresses a musician’s life history – Brazilian born woman musician, Flávia Couri – and, particularly, her emigration experience, in how it relates music, to punk’s globalization, to local and trans-local musical scenes. We recognize the importance of these dynamics by analysing an interview with the musician, focusing on her discourse about her own journey and circumstances of emigration. The discussion about emigration touches on the following points: the causes and the rationales of emigration; the life in the new location, challenges, successes and identity reconstruction of the emigrant; and a possible return to the ‘tribe’ at the country of origin. The line of discourse analysis used is attentive to the actual context of the discourse, meaning its conditions of production and reception. Through this analysis, we were able to follow, explain and understand this woman’s migrant trajectory and how that path was always accompanied by a soundtrack of which she was the creator and audience, attempting to show the possibilities that music offers for identity construction and reconstruction, as well as providing reasons and contexts for migration.


Introduction Transglobal Sounds, Identities and Migrations
It has been nearly four decades since the punk movement first came into being and, since then, it has changed deeply at different levels. One key aspect of this transformation has to do with how punk has been globalized and appropriated differently by urban youth around the world. This dynamic fits within a new framework of music bonds and identities, in a space and time which are translocal, marked by networks and mobility. In this article, we address a musician's life story, and particularly an emigration experience, in how it relates music, to punk's globalization, to local and trans-local musical scenes. We discuss the importance of all these dynamics in the emigration of a Brazilian born musician, Flávia Couri 2 , using an interview to analyse her discourse about her journey and circumstances of emigration This discussion about emigration is structured as follows: the causes and the rationales of emigration; the life in the new location, challenges, successes and identitary reconstruction of the emigrant; and a possible return to the "tribe" at the country of origin. Through discourse analysis, we were able to follow, explain and understand this woman's migrant trajectory and how that path was always accompanied by a soundtrack of which Flávia was always the creator and audience. We took advantage and adapted the distinction between what the Dictionary of Discourse Analysis characterizes as "two complementary faces of a common object, seen as text when taken by textual linguistics -which privileges the organization of co-text and cohesion as linguistic coherence […] -and by discourse analysis -more attentive to the context of verbal interaction"; the discourse being, therefore, "conceived as the inclusion of a text in its context (= conditions of production and reception) 3 ". In this case, the focus of this article is on this second line of analysis 4 . 1 Contrary to the traditional idea of cultural identities -which speaks of solid and fixed selves, umbilically related to a territory and collective history -nowadays we must take into account the volatility of these identities. This increasingly volatile nature stems from a flux of social uprooting, constant technological innovation, the physical mobility of goods and ideas -all of which are deeply rooted in late modernity. This volatility is often brought into focus in the plasticity of human beings and the provisional nature of social roles and bonds 5 . Crane's perspective on this is 6 , of course, of the utmost importance. Global music culture, spread through media conglomerates, is mostly centred in English speaking countries, with the repertoires of major labels focusing ever more on a small number of international stars. There is then a renovated model of "media imperialism" based on global capitalism. Simultaneously we thus have globalisation and localisation in a complex web of network flows, showing progressive cultural homogeneity whilst ensuring that identity and specific values are ever more crucial in understanding popular music 7 . All of this takes place in a progressively more interconnected world, in which people, music and ideas circulate on a scale and at a speed never seen before 8 , thus moving away from the dichotomy of "monolithic mainstream vs resistant subcultures" 9 .

2
Let us look now at the case of punk music. From London and New York, punk spread to other cities, countries and regions. It was built gradually as popular geopolitical culture, integrated numerous variations, and spatialised music styles. This double movement of globalisation and localisation emphasises the nature of punk as an assemblage of pieces of cosmopolitan transglobal popular culture in a chaotic and

The Right Place for Flávia in Music
I cry listening to music; music really touches me a lot since I was seven or eight years old. For me, as I always felt a little different from normal and my schoolmates, for example, music was totally where I managed to create my whole personality and understand where my discontent and my feeling differently came from. It was through music that I discovered myself as an artist and counterculture.
When I went to a Ramones concert, I was thirteen, in Rio de Janeiro, the show was packed and there were people hanging from the ceiling, which was a canvas from the circus.
[…] That's when I discovered that I wasn't alone, that it was only at my school that there were no punk people.
[…] From that day on I said that this is what I wanted to do and twenty-three years later I am here doing it (laughs). This was also the first time that I smoked marijuana, for example, so it was a situation of adolescent experiences and it was a libertarian event, where I met several people.
When I was seventeen, I started my first professional band. I was the only girl and we began playing at some bars in the university circuit in Rio de Janeiro and band made a name for itself and lasted five years. After that band I was invited to be a side woman, playing bass with a Brazilian composer called China. Through that paradoxical mix. It combines aesthetics, music, images, texts and landscapes and articulates both specificity and hybridism 10 . As Guerra & Bennett pointed out 11 , punk rock has become a global mediascape -that is, a gathering of characteristics which mixes practices and configures a certain kind of cultural capital and a habitus which is dominant in the field of popular music 12 . The global influence of the aesthetics and sounds of rock in the production of music projects on a local scale is a supreme demonstration of the cultural production logic which is characteristic of globalisation 13 . In different countries, rock has appeared as a reproduction of the styles introduced to them, or as the creation of hybrid styles in which musicians combine local memories and global elements. The construction of these local rock styles is then placed in a strategy that is characteristic of social identity construction processes, in two spaces of cultural practice: the field of popular music and the field of national and local identity 14 .
Connecting with rock music (and, in particular, punk music) at a young age, often leads to it playing a crucial part in the development of the personality and the establishment of an artistic and counterculture identity. Flávia Couri is a 39-year-old woman and rock musician, originally from Brazil. She has a real passion for music and is extremely aware of the importance music had in the construction of her identity. It was music that opened the door for all her cultural baggage, with which came the counterculture. As she said: 4 Flávia started listening to music at nine or ten years old, at time when Guns N' Roses music was playing everywhere, a band that she now describes as "one of the most antipunk bands of rock n' roll", but as young girl she thought their attitude was pretty punk. Then came grunge, which she recons has a very do-it-yourself attitude, as well as punk, and it had a very strong influence on her. As a twelve-year-old she got hooked on Ramones and saw them live, which she signals as an important moment of experiencing new things, of differentiation from her peers and finding her people. 5 This process of discovering new bands, going out and finding people she could relate with more, was definitely a process of identitary construction grounded up in music 15 . Also, these habits allowed her to set the foundation on which she would later build her place in life, as a musician in that scene. To make it as a musician, Flávia points out, "it is important to go out, get to know the venues and the people, establishing contacts". 6 Nowadays, Flávia has an established musical career, having, since a young age, started playing acoustic and bass guitar, formed bands with friends and, through the years, achieving moderate success and later playing for established bands and with famous musicians. gig, people started to recognize me in the Brazilian music market, I was around twenty-three years old. After that I created another band of my own, another female trio, where I played guitar. That band had a lot of success in our town and we even played outside of Rio de Janeiro and we went to São Paulo as well. Through that band, Gabriel form the band Autoramas 16 saw me playing and invited me to play with their band, which was at a superior level than my own band. I played for Autoramas for seven years and got to know Europe and South America through the tours. During that side women period I also played with other musicians: Big Gilson 17 , a Brazilian bluesman, and Baby do Brasil 18 , from the band Novos Baianos 19 , a very famous singer from the 1960s and 1970s. It is a lifestyle that goes far beyond the musical style. For example, […] who plans our career, who does everything, who is the road manager, who writes the songs, etc., all of that it is done by me and my husband. So, the attitude of punk, of making it happen, of 'do-it-yourself', I totally have this attitude present in my life, even though the music I make now is more oriented towards a period before punk.
Currently, she has a band called The Courettes 20 , that she formed with her husband. The name of the band is inspired by bands from the 1960s. From the mix of rock music genres and movements that she experienced, she feels like 1960s rock was always her jam, and she names The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Sonics, MC5, The Stooges, The Ronettes and Ramones as her main influences. 8 From that early love of Ramones came an interest for other punk bands like The Clash, Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks. But punk is more than the sound of those bands, or any other bands, punk is a movement with a do-it-yourself ethics that Flávia describes as defining of her style as a musician, and overall lifestyle, more than the sounds of punk.
The biggest punk attitude you can have is to live inside and outside the system, because you can't be completely outside either […] and I have that freedom with my band.

Nothing Stopped Flávia. Teleportation to the World
I met my husband, who was a drummer of a band from Denmark that was on tour with Autoramas in Brazil.
[…] So, I fell in love and we had a long-distance relationship for two years, and the only thing that kept in Brazil was my band. He Her passion for music dictated many of her choices, even beyond her profession: from the people that she made friends with -they had to be interested in music -and who she dated -only people involved in the music scene -, to her educational path. Flávia started a Philosophy university program in Brazil that she did not complete because her musical career was a priority 21 : "Last year of university I went on tour with a band and never came back, so I didn't finish the program." However, she did not give up on a university education, getting a bachelor's degree years later in Music. Later on, she also got a master's degree in Music. DeNora has developed paradigmatic research in this respect, showing the importance of music in the structuring of daily life and emotions, observing how social actors describe themselves -both their personalities and their ways of being -through their musical "voices", serving as a reference to their social life 22 . For Flávia, this is particularly relevant. Thus, music is a consciousness of her life options in terms of work, studies, friendships, romantic relationships and leisure. Flávia emigrated at 34 years old to Copenhagen, Denmark, where she maintained residence since then, living with her husband and son. Her drive to leave the country here she was born is discussed next, as well as her migration experiences, in relation to music.
Musicians from all over have been leaving their countries in order to broaden personal, musical and symbolic horizons, for a long time. Sometimes the home countries do not meet all the requirements of the young musicians, hungry for novelty and activity, seemingly for being considered too small and/or limited in some way. For many, moving abroad also allows the realisation of the desire to discover new worlds and new cultures, to desire to explore other contexts and to know what is happening elsewhere. Flávia already had a well-established music career in Brazil, before emigrating to Denmark, and she actually thinks that the music scene in her host country is limited comparing to Brazil. She describes having gone to an extensive number of concerts and nightclubs early on, easy access to records, and "very organized and very mature" independent scene, with a real possibility of living "alongside the mainstream professionally." In fact, Brazil has a wide array of demand and offers for all music genres. 11 Flávia was born in Rio de Janeiro where she lived until she was 34 years old. However, that doesn't mean that she never left her hometown, she is actually a very travelled person thanks to her musical career, having explored Europe and South America through tours. Before moving to Denmark, she had "never lived in another country, but constantly travelled", in fact, it was difficult to find her in Rio de Janeiro. So, even if her very large and multicultural home country was not enough ground for discoveries and excitement, she would have some, if not all, of those needs met through her extensive travelling: "So, with Autoramas, I had the opportunity to start travelling. I did ten tours in Europe with them. Traveling is one of my passions, so it goes well with music.
[…] I love to travel, it's one of my passions, because I love meeting different people".
At first glance, there does not seem to be a direct relation between her migration and music. In fact, for Flávia, the drive to leave the country came from a romantic relationship with a foreign man; she is now married to him and they have a son, all living in his home country, Denmark.  Frequently, among the reasons for emigration, we find economic conditions, such as looking for a better job and salary. Having no work or losing their jobs are often reasons to leave the country, seeking new opportunities in other geographical contexts 23 . Also, emigration option can seem like a breath of fresh air, raising a set of new possibilities when people experiment moments of strong frustration in their countries. Flávia had experienced a conflict with another member of her last band in Brazil, Autoramas, that ultimately led her to leave the band. This moment of frustration and her cutting ties with the project made her decision to emigrate a lot easier, becoming a catalyst for the move.
14 After this, Flávia was scared she wouldn't play again, but before moving to Denmark, she and her husband already had created their new band The Courettes and made their first record. Some musicians who migrate already have bands or are in the process of forming them, thus the choice to move abroad is also seen as a new personal opportunity and, at the same time, a commitment to a career in music in other contexts, which might have more advantages. Flávia's decision to move was a commitment to her husband, but it also ended up being a commitment to the band they had formed together. 15 For many people who emigrate, finding a job right away in their host countries, even a less attractive job or other type of money-making solution, can be a better option than staying in their country and doing nothing. For Flávia, the fear was doing nothing at her destination country, as she stated: "I didn't want to stop playing; I didn't want to stay at home, just being a wife and doing nothing, without knowing anyone". She wasn't planning for her new band to lead to a full-time occupation, so she found out another solution that would occupy her days and provide some income: "I didn't even plan for this band to give me a career, that's why I decided to get a master's degree, because 18/08/2020 Women, migrations and rock without borders https://journals.openedition.org/mimmoc/4458 7/13

Rock Global Pressure
here, while studying you earn money, not much, but it is something.
[…] at least I would be doing something in these initial two years". If people are successful and/or well paid in the host countries, this becomes one more reason to stay away. The Courettes is a successful band, that made their name on the scene, and, at least, the couple can live well based on the income from band alone. This was a surprise for Flávia, as she didn't even expect her music career to continue, when she chose to migrate. 17 Thus, at least as catalyst for the move, and as reason to stay away, her relationship to music has greatly influenced her emigration journey. But, looking further at the relation between migration and music, her connection to punk allowed her to create an entire background and know-how that might have helped her leave their country. With punk came a sense of urgency, a desire to find satisfaction and a give-it-a-go attitude that encouraged respondents to make decisions, to seek and -above all, create -new opportunities for themselves 24 . More specifically, the spirit of initiative, the proactive attitude, the search for freedom and the space for expression and individual achievement, promoted by punk, might have eventually contributed decisively to opting to leave the country, as well as a reason to stay away. More than influencing her way of doing music, the counterculture and the do-it-yourself ethics of punk has permeated her whole way life, and can be appointed as a theme, or even an attitude towards life itself: "I live in a house where we have a little garden and grow some food. I came to live in a smaller city because I wanted to spend less. I think the less I have to spend, the less I have to sell myself to the system, so I can live off music".

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The punk culture calls for a global community. Being global -that is, referring constantly to the structure and to the central pole of the international movementimplies that locally people "dream" about the same "global". Regev's work is particularly important here because it proposes an approach to pop rock as a providing the possibility of cultural proximity in a global context as the expressive elements of the different cultures use their singularity in a very similar way 25 . As Flávia states, there's a universal language built around music: "Every now and then, I hear "oh, you went there, it must be so different", but no, it's exactly the same.
[…] I think that rock and punk are the great universal language, they are the great language of globalization", "My husband is Danish, and we met in Brazil and when we started to exchange ideas about music, we basically had the same record collection. [...] If you have a rock band, you go to the United States, to Mexico, to Japan, to Indonesia, and everyone knows The Beatles and knows how to play, everyone will sing and smile". 19 Nowadays, people have many tools at hand that facilitate living in a global world, namely the Internet, and particularly as a musician, you simply can't escape them anymore: I don't know if [the internet] is the most effective medium [of promotion], but it is the medium we have today, and if you are not on the internet today, you are nobody". https://journals.openedition.org/mimmoc/4458 8/13

Challenges and Changes
My life has totally changed. I'm still learning the language, I can already speak well, but I don't speak 100%, so that's a challenge. Here everyone speaks English, but I think it is important to learn the local language and I want to do it. You will always be seen as an outsider and it feels kind of bad, I think.
I think the main challenge was this uncertainty of not knowing what was going to happen. I didn't want to stop playing, I didn't want to stay at home, just being a wife and doing nothing, without knowing anyone.
[…] To abandon what I knew, for the unknown.
[…] Living outside our country of origin is not for everyone.
Sometimes I see that the Arab community thinks that I am one of them and, certainly the Danes must think the same, but I don't wear a burka or anything, so I'm not a problem. Nowadays, the problems are very much directed towards Muslims and refugees from Syria. From the moment I am neither, then it's okay. Unfortunately, I see that the Syrian migration crisis is making things difficult and the doors are closing for any type of migrant.
I don't feel foreign because there is prejudice, that's not it, but because there are codes that I will never understand, no matter how well I speak the language, how much I study, how much I listen to the music. In our country's culture we understand the codes between the lines. Here it is a struggle to understand the codes of education, to know how to reach out, how to embrace, etc. I think those little things are not going to change 20 years from now, I will still be discovering codes because I didn't grow up here. This is the sentiment of always feeling foreign.
Thus, globalization is also a factor in favour of emigration, as it makes it easier to travel, to communicate and to relate to other people from across the world: "My life is international, and I feel very much like a citizen of the world, I feel at home anywhere, whether in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Portugal, etc. I never stopped to think that this was globalization, I am realizing it [now]". 21 It's hard to imagine that such a big change in someone's life would not have an enormous impact on the emigrants as individuals. Flávia considers that her displacement to Denmark had a great impact on her life in general, as well as on a personal level. 22 Frequently upon emigrating, people tend to encounter initial difficulties integrating in the new country and experience some disappointment over their expectations when first arriving to the new country. For one thing, it might be a different culture, with different habits and a different social and symbolic matrix of domination. Even if setbacks are mild or do not occur at all, they are generally expected and feared, and this brings anxiety to the move and the early days of living at the destination country. 23 One of the setbacks people that emigrate might encounter is discrimination. Despite not speaking perfect Danish and not looking like she is from Denmark, Flávia states that she hasn't fell any type of discrimination, and she attributes this to Brazilians being welcomed worldwide: "Brazil is a beloved country; I feel that a lot, and this is very lucky". But that doesn't mean that migrants in general do not suffer discrimination in Denmark, certainly some of them feel it. The little prejudice that Flávia may sometimes experience seems to her to be coming from people thinking that she is Syrian or an Arab. 24 Even if they don't experience considerable amounts of prejudice and have an easier time integrating because they have ties with the locals, like in the case of Flávia's husband, another difficulty people frequently encounter upon emigrating, and even after years of living there, is always feeling like an outsider.
Not being and looking similar to everyone else from the host country may sometimes work well in favour of the newcomers. Looking different and having come from a Here in Denmark I am seen as an exotic thing, and the band is seen as half from Brazil and half from Denmark. It turns out to be an interesting story to produce an article in a magazine. We have a history, which is different, so of course it helped and arouses interest. I think The Courettes emerged very quickly here in Denmark, because we established ourselves as an active band very quickly and I also don't know how much it did help, having something kind of exotic going on.
We are a band that plays outside of Denmark and there aren't many bands doing that, carrying the name of the country around the world.
[…] We also have an outsider in the band, from Brazil, and I'm also a woman. There aren't many women musicians here.
A music critic here, who everyone respects […] says that there is no other woman [here] with my attitude. Then, there is this shock, in which people are amazed and say that "the girl kicked ass". I think that the role of women is to "kick ass", get there by getting there, because it is on the basis of kicking and screaming that we create our space. different culture and distant place, brought some advantages for Flávia and her band, when it came to spark people's interest, regarding promotion of their work.
As far as being respected as a woman in the rock music space, that is still mostly populated by man, Flávia recounts two situations that she lived in Brazil when she was mistaken for a fan or the girlfriend of a musician, when trying to enter the stage to play or in the backstage; still, she feels like she was generally respected for her musicianship in the Brazilian punk scene. So far, nothing like that has happened to her in Denmark. 27 The great subcultural capital of her identity renegotiation in Denmark was embedded in a very strong investment in her family life, as well as in her new band. We can observe, by looking at the strategies of promotion of The Courettes, the use of the married status, the fact that she is a Brazilian -and exotic in the eyes of the Daneswoman musician -because there aren't many in Denmark -, with a strong attitude, as identifying and differentiating characteristics. She states, regarding the contribution of their band to the Danish music scene:

Transglobal Omnipresence and No Desire of Going Back
Brazil had its democratic process interrupted and this is very serious. So, I read the news about Brazil and I sometimes cry, everything that is happening is very bad. This president that we have is throwing away all the labor reforms, all the rights that have been earned over the years [...] they are ending everything, public education, free university… It couldn't be any worse.
Thus, music can be seen as a crucial resource in the local (re)construction of migrant identities 26 . Individually, her experience in Denmark brought her a family and a new lifestyle, and different defining characteristics as an artistic being and as a human being, contributing to her personal growth.

29
The main reason why she remains abroad is because she has a partner and a family in the country in which she settled 27 . She feels like the only reason that would motivate her to go back would be the end for her marriage: "That is the only reason that would make me come back to Brazil, because I don't have a desire to return." Her not intending to return is mainly related to the sociopolitical crisis the country is immersed in. Now, as a mother, I value being in a safe country, especially in the city where I live, which is a small city. I think that when he is six or seven and goes to school, he can go alone, because here there is no criminality. Now I think more about his safety. A country that has the social inequalities that Brazil has, will never have social peace.

Final Remarks
Notes 1 This article is part of the development of the following research projects: "Youth and the arts of citizenship: creative practices, participatory culture and activism", funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC /SOC -SOC/28655/2017) and "CANVAS -Towards Safer and Attractive Cities: Crime and Violence Prevention through Smart Planning and Artistic Resistance" (reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030748). I would like to thank Flávia Couri for all her generosity, empathy and brilliance in sharing of her life story. This extensive social problem relates to family issues: loved ones and the future her son, for example in regards to safety, that was pointed out as a reason to stay.

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Flávia says that maybe in ten years maybe she will think about going back. That period could be a decade of profound change in Brazil, she imagines and certainly hopes so, and only after that she would allow herself to consider living there again. But also, in ten years her stepdaughter will be an adult and her husband might be prepared to consider a possible move. This suggests that she might consider returning if accompanied by her husband and son, as she can't deny feeling a longing for her tribe: "Sometimes I miss the Brazilian culture and my identity, listening to music, speaking Portuguese... oh well." But, as she is satisfied with her life in Denmark, engaged in a now familiar environment, getting along well with Danish people, not experiencing any sense of isolation, and enjoying a family life, she is likely to stay there for a long time.

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These issues presented are connected to the importance of music in a migration context, in so far as they invite us to rethink critical issues, such as the relationships between space and culture, the local and the global, the arts and everyday life and globalization and human action 28 . 33 We analyzed Flávia Couri's life trajectory and emigration experience, showing the possibilities that music offers for identity construction and reconstruction, as well as providing a reason for emigration. Interestingly, the drive to emigrate and the choice of Denmark as host country weren't based on the music scene, but it all happened in the context of her life as musician, in between bands, and in a commitment to another musician. In short, Flávia's emigration experience was extremely positive, having allowed her the fulfillment of her desires as far as being married, having a family and a successful band she can live off. Reflexive modernity partially releases individuals from structural constraints, namely being confined to their country as their only sphere of action. The structural constraints persist, but there are resources and capital lessening their effects -including low cost travelling and the use of the internet to explore, communicate and promote. It is also pertinent to reflect on the concept of diaspora, which is not only the maintenance of the ties to the country of origin, but above all, the possibility of establishing mergers with the culture of the host country, thus developing new cultures and identities. In this respect, Flávia Couri and The Courettes also appreciated their plural identities, recognizing that rock music contains in itself a global cultural component.

34
2 Flávia Couri is a Brazilian musician, best known as the former bassist for the rock band Autoramas. She is located in the musical spectrum of garage rock and punk rock and is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She participated in music groups like China, Sugarstar, ELEPê e Voz Del Fuego & Lingerie Underground, being invited to join Autoramas in 2008. Bassist, guitarist, singer and songwriter, she currently integrates the trio As Doidivinas, in which she sings and plays guitar and she is part of the band The Courettes with her Danish husband Martin Couri. URL: https://www.instagram.com/flavia_couri/.

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