A Musical Exchange
Introduction: Our classical musicians have connected to listeners all over the world, says Puja Goyal
Source: Vijay Times, THEME- Pg 3.
Copyright © 2006 Puja Goyal.
WHEN Bob Dylan sang, The times they are changing... he may have also been referring to the unprecedented changes in the musical arena. While cultures, clothing, and history reflect the progress of a community or country, it is music and art make the changes noticeable. The biggest by-product of globalisation has been the exchange of music and musical genres across countries. In the last few years, our musicians have become a part of a wider audience.
During the 1960's, the Pop culture took to the sounds of the sitar, tabla and hypnotic tanpura; and many famous international groups (like Beatles) used Indian instruments in their recordings. Today, our performers travel to show off their talent at international festivals and venues all over the world. Organisations have been created to promote and tour artists and to educate and inform the public about India's cultural heritage. The Asian Music Circuit is Britainís premier touring company for music from all over Asia. It promotes and manages about 70-80 events a year around the country.
If we look at it from a global point-of view, composers trained in the west are those most open to other cultures. Today, every composer, at least in avant-garde music, knows something about Balinese, Indian or Japanese classical music; they study classical music and are well aware of the structures and aesthetics that constitute a raaga or taala. Besides, the Internet, books and musical festivals have made it easier for western musicians to find out about non-western music. Things are much more difficult the other way round as we do not have any outlet where we can educate our children about western classical music. There is also an inbuilt fear that in the process of educating our children, we might loose our Indian identity.
As a result of this, while, the western world is making an attempt to experiment and collaborate with other sounds, and widening their horizons and tastes; we are still exploring music in our own framework; thus limiting our tastes and knowledge of music. Unless we make an effort in knowing the other sounds, we will continue to be conservative and structured in our tastes and our knowledge of western music will be limited to "popular" artists.
Another important aspect that comes into the forefront is that even though musicians like Ravi Shankar shine on the international platform, they still fail to find a convincing audience in India; thus falling short of convincing the Indians about a more informed analysis of western music. We are obsessed with Indi-Pop and film music and revel in the sounds of masala orchestra's. The simplicity of Ravi Shankar's sitar mingled with artists and composers like Yehudi Menuhin and Zubin Mehta impressed the west, but failed to entice the Indian listeners.
It is like being caught in a time warp of two extremes, where one side of the story indicates a very classical and discreet platform of music consisting of the likes of Pandit Ravi Shankar; and the other side of the story delves into exploring Popular music and IndiPop, which is a fusion of Indian and Western musical styles. IndiPop consists of mostly Bhangra Beats, Remixes of old folk songs, film scores with catchy beats, etc. Nazia Hassan being the first ever IndiPop Queen with hits like, Aap Jaisa Koi, and Boom Boom, has been followed by Alisha Chinai, Remo Fernandez, etc. Artists like Rishi Rich, Veronica, Jay Sean, Shaan, Bali Sagoo etc, whose collaboration with International artists like Ricky Martin, Blue, Nelly Furtado etc, have catapulted Indian beats into the western musical platter.
The times, well, they are certainly changing, and our greatest and most materially productive export is without doubt, IndiPop. Their is noting wrong with this because this is a part of our cultural exchange too and represents the sound of this generation. Bhangra to film music, to Desi beats with western remakes... IndiPop has connected to the listeners all over the world.
Source: Vijay Times, THEME- Pg 3.
Copyright © 2006 Puja Goyal.
WHEN Bob Dylan sang, The times they are changing... he may have also been referring to the unprecedented changes in the musical arena. While cultures, clothing, and history reflect the progress of a community or country, it is music and art make the changes noticeable. The biggest by-product of globalisation has been the exchange of music and musical genres across countries. In the last few years, our musicians have become a part of a wider audience.
During the 1960's, the Pop culture took to the sounds of the sitar, tabla and hypnotic tanpura; and many famous international groups (like Beatles) used Indian instruments in their recordings. Today, our performers travel to show off their talent at international festivals and venues all over the world. Organisations have been created to promote and tour artists and to educate and inform the public about India's cultural heritage. The Asian Music Circuit is Britainís premier touring company for music from all over Asia. It promotes and manages about 70-80 events a year around the country.
If we look at it from a global point-of view, composers trained in the west are those most open to other cultures. Today, every composer, at least in avant-garde music, knows something about Balinese, Indian or Japanese classical music; they study classical music and are well aware of the structures and aesthetics that constitute a raaga or taala. Besides, the Internet, books and musical festivals have made it easier for western musicians to find out about non-western music. Things are much more difficult the other way round as we do not have any outlet where we can educate our children about western classical music. There is also an inbuilt fear that in the process of educating our children, we might loose our Indian identity.
As a result of this, while, the western world is making an attempt to experiment and collaborate with other sounds, and widening their horizons and tastes; we are still exploring music in our own framework; thus limiting our tastes and knowledge of music. Unless we make an effort in knowing the other sounds, we will continue to be conservative and structured in our tastes and our knowledge of western music will be limited to "popular" artists.
Another important aspect that comes into the forefront is that even though musicians like Ravi Shankar shine on the international platform, they still fail to find a convincing audience in India; thus falling short of convincing the Indians about a more informed analysis of western music. We are obsessed with Indi-Pop and film music and revel in the sounds of masala orchestra's. The simplicity of Ravi Shankar's sitar mingled with artists and composers like Yehudi Menuhin and Zubin Mehta impressed the west, but failed to entice the Indian listeners.
It is like being caught in a time warp of two extremes, where one side of the story indicates a very classical and discreet platform of music consisting of the likes of Pandit Ravi Shankar; and the other side of the story delves into exploring Popular music and IndiPop, which is a fusion of Indian and Western musical styles. IndiPop consists of mostly Bhangra Beats, Remixes of old folk songs, film scores with catchy beats, etc. Nazia Hassan being the first ever IndiPop Queen with hits like, Aap Jaisa Koi, and Boom Boom, has been followed by Alisha Chinai, Remo Fernandez, etc. Artists like Rishi Rich, Veronica, Jay Sean, Shaan, Bali Sagoo etc, whose collaboration with International artists like Ricky Martin, Blue, Nelly Furtado etc, have catapulted Indian beats into the western musical platter.
The times, well, they are certainly changing, and our greatest and most materially productive export is without doubt, IndiPop. Their is noting wrong with this because this is a part of our cultural exchange too and represents the sound of this generation. Bhangra to film music, to Desi beats with western remakes... IndiPop has connected to the listeners all over the world.
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