WHO SIGNS THE COVER? AUTHORSHIP AND INDUSTRIAL MEDIATION IN BRAZILIAN PROGRESSIVE ROCK OF THE 1970s

Resumen

This study addresses the authorship of Brazilian progressive rock album covers of the 1970s, which are usually attributed to the intention of either the band or the illustrator. It is a qualitative multiple case study, documentary and iconographic in nature, whose aim is to examine the chain of decisions that leads from commission to printed image, distinguishing who commissions, who executes, who approves or rejects, and what the sources allow us to state about each link. The methodology combines a staged description of the images, a survey of credits, testimonies and specialized press, and an explicit hierarchy of evidence, applied to four covers: Moto Perpétuo (1974), Terreno Baldio (1976), Bacamarte's Depois do Fim (1983), and Ave Sangria (1974). The results indicate that industrial mediation is documented only in the case of Ave Sangria, in which the record label rejected the original artwork and had it redone without consulting the group, whereas in the remaining cases the chain remains partial or invisible. Four authorship situations are identified (indeterminate, credited, deliberate and institutional), together with the role played by the stock of graphic procedures in the circulation of international repertoires. The study concludes that attributing a cover to a single author should give way to identifying agents for each link, with declared degrees of documentation.