Melody is blessed with eternal flow where music is concerned. Change, since the 1920s when it was spiritual, to 2020 when TikTok has changed the notes, has all been about creativity
Music in India has been the biggest medium for the promotion and success of films. The film catches public imagination much before its release and that’s solely due to the release of songs in it. In earlier days, we used to have more folk music than modern. Folk music in those days was like medicine. Music helped individuals release stress, helped them sleep and was a premium source of peace. It was an important part of the household way before it got commercialised.
Earlier, music was viewed as a creation which people liked and adopted. People bought tickets to listen to good music. In due process of time, music moved towards commercialisation. It is no longer used only for therapy. If we look back at the music trajectory over the past few decades, we will observe that earlier music was created for human needs, for peace but now it is created for business purposes. In context of music learning we will see that there is still some purity left in our cultural and classical Hindustani music. If we compare it to eating habits, we see that the people earlier used to have a lifespan of 100-110 years but now it has reduced to 65-70 years.
Similarly, old original music is everlasting and evergreen but contemporary music is easily swayed. It attracts the attention of people hardly for 15 days, but old songs can still be heard in by-lanes. This distinction is pretty stark. I believe my audience come to listen to me and my songs and are not only buying show tickets to dance and enjoy. They come for tranquility and to actually listen to music. In the last decade, we have seen the monopoly of film music, but now there is a wave of independent music too.
People are able to portray their talents using social media platforms. Artists gain a lot of face value via such platforms. Music has a wider reach. It has opened gateways for opportunities. However, on the contrary, we also see a lot of inappropriate content surfacing on such platforms. Music should not remain confined. It should be expanded in this global world. It can either be in the form of independent music or fusion both of which have a great future ahead.
It is important to stress that through music, we stage our culture internationally. Presenting remixes by stealing or manipulating music will bring shame to us.
Music has evolved with technology. Original singers are lost behind these technologically created pseudo singers which is not good news. Live music and recorded music are vastly different. The rise of recorded music is a blow to live instrument players. But as we say, there are two sides of the coin. Hence, it cannot be negated that technology has also proved to be a blessing for us. It has made the recording processes easier. Although it is useful, we should never forget to preserve and uphold our traditional culture and original Hindustani music. It is great if it goes hand in hand. Good music is already there. On the other hand, there is no actual need of such technologies or platforms to make music flourish at greater level but it has just become a means to earn money.
