Tom Ze's Fabrication Dictator Analysis

In J. Griffith Rollefson’s article, Tom Ze’s Fabrication Defect and the “Esthetics of Plagiarism”: A Postmodern/Postcolonial “Cannibalist Manifesto”, the author puts forth a myriad of thought provoking deductions based on Tom Ze’s album entitled Fabrication Defect. Fabrication Defect is a testament to all that is corrupt within the First World, specifically that of Ze’s homeland, Brazil; though the messages within the album are relatively transferable. Additionally, the author touches on the relation between Ze’s manifesto, of sorts, and the uncannily similar Cannibalist Manifesto, written by Oswald de Andrade in 1928.

Tom Ze became known to the public through Brazil’s Tropicalia movement in the 1960s. In the midst of military dictatorship,

Tom Ze, one of the forerunners of this movement, saw Brazil’s government as wanting a uniform, mechanized society where everyone thought what they were told to. Ze’s theory includes the notion of ‘androids’ - with a booming population and continual growth of corporate control, humans are being transformed into “mechanized wage labourers”. Despite this grim description, however, Ze explains that these androids boast a defect, in that they are able to think freely and create. Presumably, this ‘defect’ is unwanted by the corporate world. The Tropicalist movement was based on the notion that one’s ability to create and express oneself can never be taken away. Additionally, the movement was used as a platform to exhibit the blending of cultures. Example being, Tropicalist used traditional Brazilian music and instruments as the basis for their music, yet infused components reminiscent of popular Western and European music genres. The concept of androids is an interesting one, which I think is still exceptionally relevant today. As government and regulations become increasingly rigid and capitalistic throughout North America it is only understandable that the idea of freedom is a scary one for those that hold substantial control over society. At any given point society has the capability to recognize corruption and act accordingly, be it through protest or revolt. Society outnumbers

Harnessing examples from Tom Ze and the Tropicalist movement and de Andrade’s Cannibalist Manifesto results in an overall influential piece. It puts forth a desire to seek cultural and personal autonomy as one realizes how tied up humanity is in the notion of ‘intellectual property’. Ze was quite right in stating, “we are at the end, thus, of the composers’ era, inaugurating the plagi-combinator era.” We have reached an impasse in society wherein creation is virtually impossible without the indirect or direct aid of another visionary. We reached the climax of original creation long ago, and it is time that the definition of plagiarism was re-evaluated. The Tropicalist movement is a prime example of feeding off other societies and ideas to formulate a cultural product all your own. Without the inspiration and utilization of Western components, arguably, the Tropicalist movement would not have been