“Pela Internet”: música, temporalidades e cultura digital

Abstract

This article analyzes Gilberto Gil's songs, “Pela Internet” (1996) and “Pela Internet 2” (2018), as cultural artifacts that mirror and predict transformations in the relationship between music, technology and society. The investigation, anchored in an analysis of the musical language and lyrics from a historical perspective, seeks to demonstrate the transformation from the initial euphoria with the democratizing potential of the internet to a more skeptical and critical view of its role in digital capitalism. The analysis seeks to reveal how “Pela Internet” captures a horizon of expectations of a future of connections and innovations, while “Pela Internet 2” reflects an experience marked by surveillance, data exploitation and a sense of imprisonment in the “net”. The notion of the “Gil chord” is used as a methodological tool to understand the mutability of the composer's perspective over time. The study also examines the influence of capitalist development, the recording industry and the rise of big tech companies in shaping the digital scenario addressed in the songs. Concepts such as technological fetish, presentism and digital colonialism are mobilized to deepen the analysis of the historical and social transformations mediated by technology and reflected in Gilberto Gil's work. In short, the songs offer a unique perspective on the complex and multifaceted evolution of the digital experience and its socio-cultural implications.