Hindu reviews - margazhi 2009 total blackout

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 07 Jan 2010, 11:40

In the last 5 weeks , the hindu came up with exclusive carnatic reviews on 3 days a week apart from Friday reviews. Atleast 200 -250 reviews must have come with or without photos. Fortunately many have been reviewed more than twice or thrice , many atleast once. Few had blackouts, which I cant attribute to anything else other than prejudice.

1. Suryaprakash - complete blackout despite 15 concerts.

Any more artists that you know of , please mention it. Lets keep track of it.

shwesand · Post by **shwesand** » 07 Jan 2010, 11:46

There has also been a domination of reviews of the programmes at The Academy and not adequate coverage for programmes at other venues.

mridhangam · Post by **mridhangam** » 07 Jan 2010, 12:35

Yes i also felt the same thing that The HINDU covered 90% of All the Academy concerts and only10% of other concerts ... some one might come up with the exact statistics of other concerts covered ... But i felt Dinamani did an excellent job in covering many concerts with some nice reviews ...

J.Balaji

mishram · Post by **mishram** » 07 Jan 2010, 12:45

Any links to all the hindu reviews? I could only find one set of Season reviews... thanks in advance.

vmr · Post by **vmr** » 07 Jan 2010, 12:50

Yes,

Surprisingly no or very little review of concerts at Krishna Gana Sabha. Other sabhas were also not given much coverage this season in Hindu.

Smt.Gayathri Venkatraghavan performed about 10 concerts. But only 1 review of her MA concert. I had attended about 4 of her concerts and all of them were of Top class, but no reviews of them.

Unnikrishnan's concert at Krishna Gana Sabha was also not reviewed. Guru.Karaikudi Mani had accompanied him for the first time at this concert.

I think Shri. TVS also was reviewed for only 1 concert.

VMR

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 07 Jan 2010, 13:05

mridhangam and shwesand
you are right , like all years academy reviews are the most. THis year it is over domination. I guess either the reviewers sat only there or else other sabhas that they wrote are purged and not published by the magazine editor.

Few musicians like maharajapuram ramachandran and gayathri girish and few more whom I forgot(nothing against each of them like both of them) who did not perform in academy still got a review. To me getting atleast one review atleast good or bad means no prejudice.Getting black out is bad , can we get musicians other than suryaprakash who have got aryabhatta zero, that way we all will know how the system works ?.

Also if you notice there is one trend where if a musician is not getting a good review , he is followed up with another review where they say some thing more favourable.

mishram,
The review urls are not indexable from the hindu site directly, but you should do is mark monday ,wednesday and type the url's your selves.Like dec 18th , monday the url is .

http://www.hindu.com/ms/2009/12/18/stories/

mishram · Post by **mishram** » 07 Jan 2010, 13:10

Perfect! Thanks!

Divya Gopalan · Post by **Divya Gopalan** » 07 Jan 2010, 15:10

Rajeshnat, I can think of Lakshmi Rangarajan, Bhushany Kalyanaramanand others mentioned in the reviews post. Pls ignore this if they have been covered (I dint follow it every day since I've been travelling frequently).

Mridangam sir, Agreed they covered most MA concerts (prob 2nd & 3rd pages), but I did see concerts reviewed from other sabhas like NGS, BGS, Vani Mahal etc... on the subsequent pages. Hindu has always given more attention to MA concerts and thats expected

new1 · Post by **new1** » 07 Jan 2010, 22:56

Guys, dont know why you are wasting so much time worrying about what Hindu covers and does not cover. Carnatic music and the artists you mentioned are so big, they have moved far ahead to be bothered about this.

It is a Marxist propaganda daily. Period. Whether Hindu covers something or not is about as relevant as whether Xinhua or People's Daily of Beijing covers it.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 08 Jan 2010, 00:31

That is a good point.

I do think that reviews make a difference to the "bums on seats" count in any performance art, but still, there are so many artists, so many sabhas, and many people that attend regardless of one newspaper's comments.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 08 Jan 2010, 01:48

I think reviews have an effect on the building of the fan base. Say, someone reads a glowing positive review of an artist and later on, days or months later, they hear of a concert by that artist, there is a chance they may say 'Ah... this is the one hindu raved about, let me check it out'. Whether they go back or not, that depends on how that concert turned out for that rasika.

Since there are other ways of hearing about artists, we can not say that lack of a review is ruinous but having a positive review does help.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 08 Jan 2010, 01:57

This forum has this effect for me, not so much necessarily one review, but in realising that I might have heard a particular name well spoken of, or even highly respected, over time.

new1 · Post by **new1** » 08 Jan 2010, 08:49

TV, Blogs, online discussions, so many ways to get to know new things these days...relevance of radio and old style newspapers is less and less. I have myself of discovered 'new' artists like Kalyanaraman, Desikar thanks to Sanjay's blog. Hindu ignoring the political aspects, largely preaches to the converted so has very little role to play in increasing awareness of CM or even artists. Coverage in some popular regional language dailies would be something to look forward to.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 08 Jan 2010, 08:50

Word of mouth is a fact too. However, our own reaction based on all inputs--coupled with our own personal tastes is what eventually makes us favor a performer or not.
Paying too much attention to a Hindu review is like considering the MA to be the only sabha in the world.

mridhangam · Post by **mridhangam** » 08 Jan 2010, 09:52

Friends

Over the years the reviews that appear in The HINDU have been rated as one of the high class reviews and also Friday Reviews are still the most widely read by Carnatic Musicians and also the Rasikas worldover. We as musicians always look forward to a review in The HINDU very eagerly. The rant of rajeshnat about Shri.R.Suryaprakash having been totally blacked out during the music season in The HINDU (whether intentionally or unintentionally) is a valid point goes to show how much a review in The HINDU is being mattered and weighed. The legacy of good writing and also coveted coverage is always looked high upon by any musician and hence the poor coverage given by The HINDU this time on other sabhas' activities is a valid point. As some other friend pointed out that the other pages did contain the reviews from other sabhas which i accept as i also closely follow the reviews, but still what i felt was they were all given step-motherly treatment. Anyway they have their own logic and what we are doing is only postmortem. If our rantings bear some effect on the editorial team well and good if not it is ok we will still be reading The HINDU and hoping for our own fortune stars to favour us in a positive way.

J.Balaji

Ramasubramanian M.K · Post by **Ramasubramanian M.K** » 08 Jan 2010, 10:42

Forumites: If it is of any help,this "tip" may be useful.
I have from a reliable source(one of the reviewers) that N.Ram himself addressed the reviewers,encouraging them to be fair and fearless always making sure any negative comments are adequately substantiated in the event of "challenges" and also informed the reviewers that a lot of mail from readers are received from readers and Hindu attempts to sort them out and take apppriate action as is necessary--sounds "bureaucratese" .

Perhaps somebody in the forum can "distil" the comments and send it to HINDU.
The reviewers themselves do not have any flexibility in terms of which sabha or which artiste should be covered.

But I agree with someof the forumites comments that the MA gets lot more attention because N.Murali(B/O of N.Ram) is the President of MA!!!

karthikbala · Post by **karthikbala** » 08 Jan 2010, 10:56

I'm not sure how many "average" listeners actually read the reviews. I myself confess to only looking at the photos and the headings (which I hear, are often incongruous to the actual tone of the review). The sheer mass of text and huge number of reviews is too daunting. This, aside from the fact that reviews are largely meaningless, given that any two listeners often have widely different impressions of the same concert!

I doubt that any amount of prominent coverage in the music supplement can actually make a sustained impact (if any at all) to audience turnouts. Looking back, one can think of singers hailed by the Hindu as God's Gift to CM over the last 5-6 years still singing to empty halls or quitting the scene altogether. Conversely, vitriolic reviews of many popular musicians don't seem to have made any dent in their popularity.

Having said that, The Hindu music season coverage unfortunately seems to be burdened with the agenda of being the Academy's newsletter. For a paper of such stature, this is truly regrettable. This results in their being compelled to cover every single concert of the Music Academy, including amateur/novice concerts scheduled at lunch time!

Does the New York Times review performances of amateurs held in library halls? Does the A&E section of the Wall Street Journal cover in detail, talent council auditions of the Metropolitan Opera? Some introspection is in order for a paper of the Hindu's stature.

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 08 Jan 2010, 11:00

Dear Mridhangam,
I can understand why you cannot afford to criticise either the Hindu or its correspondents.
Without going into DETAILS i CAN REFER to at least one review by someone I have never heard of who had reviewed K.Gayatri's concert at Music Academy which was thin on the music & very detailed on the length of the songs she rendered. He is fit to be TIME kEEPER AT MAY BE THE OLYMPIC TRIALS THO' i DOUBT IF HE CAN HANDLE THAT JOB. Trying to ruin careers of promising youngsters is not theway to write reviews. I would like to know what music related qualifications OF the Hindu critics- I am talking about the Johnny come latelies who appear to be prolifilerating the Hindu Reviews lately and NOT VETERANS LIKE SVK who definitely know their music. Incidentally before any one asks about my qualifications I have been a serious listener as well as concerts organiser for close to 60 years& formally learnt carnatic music (flute, mridangham & vocal) for 10 years. VKV

new1 · Post by **new1** » 08 Jan 2010, 11:45

I generally don't read reviews other than to find out some songs or ragas that I could not identify or some trivias like that. Music is something we have to enjoy which means it is highly personal. Those that like a particular artist completely ignore any 'defects' that they come to know through their own knowledge or through reviews.

There was a time when Hindu stood for certain things. Like I said earlier, right now, it stands for something else. This affects many things, quality of review of CM, if true, being just one of the many symptoms of a core issue. There is no point in spending time convincing them of this or that. It may win some concessions in terms of some token coverage but nothing more. Better to ignore completely.

musicfan_4201 · Post by **musicfan_4201** » 08 Jan 2010, 12:02

Assuming there is some extent of bias in coverage of concerts at MA vs other sabhas, there is now a close link between the MA management and the Hindu management. Perhaps that is the reason

Again looking at the musicians reviewed in this forum, how many musicians have been reviewed. Hardly any, may be I am wrong as I have not made count of the musicians covered. But my gut feel is not more than 10 musicians have been adeqauately covered (Suryaprakash, TNS, Sanjay, TMK and the like).
Why pick on a daily for not adequately cover then !!

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 08 Jan 2010, 12:28

The Hindu's coverage is far from perfect and some of the concerns above are quite legitimate - but let us not forget that there is no newspaper (at least in the English language) that comes anywhere near the Hindu in terms of the space and resources dedicated to classical music.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 08 Jan 2010, 12:44

A daily covers special events and festivals because they are topical and make the news. As KB said, I look at the pics but barely scan the contents. The past several years, Hindu has been publishing great pictures and it is nice to see our CM performers given film star status with blown up photos. In olden days? No photographs, just a column or two of a review. Amid the formality and dullness of it all, Ananda VigaDan's reviews with cartoons of artistes used to be exciting to look at. KarnaTakam's
(Kalki) entertaining reviews along with them. AV's subsidiary NAradar too, edited by nAradar Srinivasa RAo was refreshing in the midst of 'no pictures, no fun' reviews of the newspapers. The editor was a one man interviewer and reviewer. I am afraid he didn't take his reviewing that seriously but it was fun to read his views and his reports of what was happening in the arts.

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 08 Jan 2010, 12:49

Today's (Jan 8 2009) review by SVK is a masterpiece!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 08 Jan 2010, 12:59

The hindu reaches a million families , assuming 1 out of 10 reads the reviews, to me the hindu review is very important or rather most important for rasikas to know about musicians or more likely to gently get reminded about musicians. So who ever not covered is significantly losing out on having new rasikas, that is a fact.

What I expect is fairness in reporting so that the spread is maintained, today in the friday review again few more musicians are covered for the third or fourth time.? aryabhatta zero count is bad.

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 08 Jan 2010, 13:17

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2010/01/08/stor ... 050100.htm

An interview with Akkelaji

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 08 Jan 2010, 13:23

musicfan_4201 wrote: Again looking at the musicians reviewed in this forum, how many musicians have been reviewed. Hardly any, may be I am wrong as I have not made count of the musicians covered. But my gut feel is not more than 10 musicians have been adeqauately covered (Suryaprakash, TNS, Sanjay, TMK and the like).
Why pick on a daily for not adequately cover then !!

Not true at all, almost close to 100 musicians have been reviewed in our forum, I just counted close to 300 reviews have come this season.

Ramsu · Post by **Ramsu** » 08 Jan 2010, 15:35

musicfan_4201 has brought up a very valid point. Thanks! Agree with Rajesh that maybe 300 reviews have come out. But they are repeatedly the same artists like Suryaprakash, Sanjay, vijayalakshmi Subramaniam, Gayathri Venkataraghavan etc.barring some new names like Vizhiyanagaram Vardhini. Why no reviews of known ppl like Lalgudi duo, Priya sisters and the likes?
Can we call this bias too? I recently read heard another youngster Athira Krishnan's marvellous violin solo on the net. I dont see a single review of this artist. But there are so many reviews of Aishwarya VEnkataraman (relative of a fellow forumite?)Quoting another fellow forumite that he goes mainly by the artists discussed here, I'm afraid that each artist needs to have a representative/spokesperson in this forum!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 08 Jan 2010, 15:41

priya sisters review is there
http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... ec-09.html

Lalgudi duo is not reviewed by any one this time in our forum.

mridhangam · Post by **mridhangam** » 08 Jan 2010, 16:12

A person not getting reviewed in this forum is also another point to be noted. Not all the members who are avid writers attend concerts and even if they attend they may not have the inclination to write a review .. and the worst of all the typical mentality of waiting for another rasika to write .. all these things could be a reason for not writing a bit about artistes. Though there are some reviewers in this forum who constantly write about a few artistes there has always been a competition for writing about top-notch artistes like sanjay, tmk and others .. but for lesser known artistes it is better to have a spokesman or better still build a rasika for yourself and make them write .. that is the best way ...

J.Balaji

Ramsu · Post by **Ramsu** » 08 Jan 2010, 16:27

Lets take a look at the number of times these artists are reviewed vs.artists like Suryaprakash, Ahishek Raghuram etc..have appeared. And then what about Sikkil Mala Chandrasekar, Bhushany, so many names that are missing. Are we fair here?

Just because our favorite artist is not featured, lets not get emotional. Just like in this forum, there is favortism everywhere.

I request the forumites not to mistake me as being argumentative. I've been a sincere rasika for so many years, I've been reading all the posts. There is a lot of propoganda, advertisement in this forum and often feel artists must have strong representatives here for their names to be featured often. My only request is to be open to everyone and pls dont select or rate your concerts based only on the discussions here.

Purist · Post by **Purist** » 08 Jan 2010, 16:30

vijay wrote:The Hindu's coverage is far from perfect and some of the concerns above are quite legitimate - but let us not forget that there is no newspaper (at least in the English language) that comes anywhere near the Hindu in terms of the space and resources dedicated to classical music.

A valid point Vijay. Let's not drive away the sole (soul!!), afterall one cannot measure
upto every body's liking or expectations.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 08 Jan 2010, 16:44

Ramsu, do not worry about being argumentative: plenty of us here are

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 08 Jan 2010, 18:07

Many who write actively on this forum live abroad. Some get to attend a few concerts there. Some come to Chennai for the Season. They go to some concerts. Out of those, some feel that they are not qualified enough to write reviews. Even if they do, they are busy/lazy with other things. Of those who are in Chennai, the same applies. Those outside Chennai, say, Hyderabad, get to listen to very few concerts, but still write. No wonder, they write about top artistes because they don't miss those rare concerts.
Then there are artistes who are RasikAs members. Of course, we see reviews of their concerts. Aishu and Suryaprakash, for instance. Mridhangam and Nagaraj write very good reviews about the concerts they play in. Most of us encourage each other on this forum and play the cheerleader. That's why you will see that review or not, we try and attend as many concerts as possible of fellow-forumites. While there are many vAggeyakaraAs out there, someone like Suryaprakash might be singing my song because we are fellow-forumites. I don't know. Then of course, those artistes who get reviewed most have fans on the forum who also happen to post often. Nothing wrong with that. Others can write about their favorites as well. As VK points out once in a while, we can post about our concert experience in the thread which encourages those who are hesitant about writing a review. So far so good.
The problem arises when fans of a particular performer start criticizing reviewers and artistes who are not their favorites to establish the supremacy (in their view) of their favorites.
Speaking for myself, I love going to as many concerts as I can, of young and old, and try to listen to as many of the forumites as I possibly can. I don't write reviews but If I happen to read one of a concert I attended, I add my impressions. Anyway, a concert review is a fun thing to read.The more the merrier.

musicfan_4201 · Post by **musicfan_4201** » 08 Jan 2010, 18:56

Some of the active reviewers in the forum that:
rbharath - attends concerts of real classical artists such as Kalpagam swaminathan, the late Sri Veena Venkatraman, Sugunas', Rama Ravis and the like. A very refined tatse indeed

Rajeshnat - Predominatly covers Suryaprakash (whichever part of town he sings). That indeed is a passion for his music again.

Apart from that there are many members who predominantly covee the Sanjays, TMK, TNS, Aruna Sairam etc.
Out of the 300 reviews of the season ho many are of those apart from the so called frontline artists of today. I am sure Rajesh would have gone one extra step to analyse that, I dont intend to do that and my statement was based on a cursory glance.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 08 Jan 2010, 19:50

Music fan,
You are right about Bharath. His reviews are about the classic-most artistes and once in a while about youngsters too. So, each reviewer brings his own taste to the forum and we know that there are hundreds of members who have nearly the same taste as his and they love reading his reviews. Even others do. To have different tastes and bringing reviews to the forum of the concerts they choose to go to means that those of us whose tastes overlap that of the reviewer notice a particular artiste and want to listen to him.
Rajesh for instance is very shrewd in naming up and coming performers who are worth listening to, and it helps us. He had mentioned young Brinda Manickavachagam (look for her review) last year and when I looked at the schedule this season, I remembered her name and went to listen to her. I was happy I did.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 08 Jan 2010, 21:19

musicfan_4201, Yes, Rajesh does write a lot about Suryaprakash. But branding that he only covers Suryaprakash predominantly is not consistent with known facts. You have to look at his reviews over the years.

Ramsu: There is definitely some hyping of artists that goes on in these various posts of this forum. At the same time, members are free to attend concerts of artists of every tier and write about them. And members do, much more than any periodicals. We hear about some artists here first. You and musicfan_4201 can always quote the artists who were not covered here, the glass half empty part of the story but mentioning that and equating it to Hindu like newspapers is not the right comparison. The forum as a whole does not have any bias, individual members definitely have a bias. But given the wide and varied interests of members, we can only hope those individual biases do not show up strongly as a forum wide bias. At least we all hope so.

Also, if you noticed carefully, over-hyping of popular artists without sufficient basis only evokes negative reactions. But if someone writes in high praise of some budding new artists, people are sensitive enough not to raise any objections to that.

Now, the action item for you two and others is: Write about how you go out of your way to look for artists not in the limelight, give them your ears, a sort of Take One For the Team, have fun and write reviews or attendance report of those concerts. That will reduce any perceived bias.

musicfan_4201 · Post by **musicfan_4201** » 08 Jan 2010, 21:32

VK, Please read my post once again properly. It is more on appreciating his passion and nothing else. You seem to have sadly mistaken and talking out of context!
English is a funny language. Predominantly (what I used) and 'WRITES MORE' (what you used) means almost the same thing

So what even he covers predominantly ONE artist. Suryaprakash is one of the outstanding vocalist with a great manodharmam and I am glad he has a passion for his lovely music.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 08 Jan 2010, 21:39

musicfan_4201, that is indeed true and you have provided the clarification needed. Sorry if my tone sounded a bit harsh. I have toned it down now. But given the context of the discussion, namely wide coverage of artists in the forum, your point, though appreciative, is not a true representation of well known facts.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 08 Jan 2010, 21:40

Ramsu wrote:Just because our favorite artist is not featured, lets not get emotional. Just like in this forum, there is favortism everywhere.

First off - why is there an expectation that anyone's favorite artist has to be reviewed on a forum like this? I can understand these sort of issues if the reviewers were engaged to review concerts - and the job description required them to provide a broad sampling of artists. Let us not forget that these reviews are voluntary. If ANYONE feels (and posts about it) that their favorite artist is not featured, they should feel the urge to write (and post) a review - there is no one stopping them - rather than posting a rant. I do understand that special circumsatnces can exist where one is not in town and wants to hear about a particular artist (like the request for reviews of Sri Unnikrishnan's concerts), but barring that, NO ONE should complain (so, the tone of the complaint - emotional or otherwise is moot!).

What do you mean by favoritism? There would be favoritism if reviews of certain artists were the only ones that were allowed to be posted. Since such a gating doesn't exist, the reviews posted reflect the choices of the (voluntary) reviewers.

And, as far as I am concerned all of this amounts to 'dAnam kODutta mATTin pallai piDingi pArtal' (looking a gift horse in the mouth)! Let us enjoy the reviews posted and hope that more rasikas/members post reviews of concerts of other artists. As I see it, there is no room for rants/getting emotional/invoking favoritism etc. regarding the reviewers.

musicfan_4201 · Post by **musicfan_4201** » 08 Jan 2010, 21:43

VK, suggest you read my intial post. why Himdu covers more of MA concerts. Perhaps you will understand the intend.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 08 Jan 2010, 22:18

musicfan_4201, by saying "Why pick on a daily for not adequately cover then !!", you correctly admonished us to look at ourselves first before picking on someone else. That is perfectly fine. Then you quoted rbharath and rajesh and your comments implied that they do not write about upcoming or non-frontline artists. rbharath and rajesh are model examples of those who attend non front-line artists and write about them ( beyond the list you provided ). Anyway, no big deal, now that enough clarifications have been given and understood.

veeyens · Post by **veeyens** » 09 Jan 2010, 03:44

Talking about reviews , few decades back NMN"s reviews in "THE HINDU" used to look more like school boy's exercises in English Composition than objective review of music concerts

jeevatma · Post by **jeevatma** » 09 Jan 2010, 07:25

I spend most Decembers in Chennai. This focus on reviews in THE HINDU is not necessary. Most of the reviews are written by the reviewer for his/her own pleasure. They are indecipherable except to the technically proficient. They showcase the reviewer's music knowledge or the lack of it. How do I know?). They do not give the reader a sense of whether the artist concerned gives pleasure to the soul which is what most art is about.

It is an exercise that keeps out the uninitiated and limits the circle to a elitist group.

That they cover only MA concerts is one more reason to ignore them.

That Suryaprakash was not covered is incredible. So was his treatment at the Kala Rasana (Rani Seethai Hall) on Jan. 2nd when the curtains were brought down on him literally because he had overshot by two minutes without even giving him the pleasure of receiving the applause of the small audience that had assembled to listen to him. Graceless behaviour.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 09 Jan 2010, 08:28

Since I was the original poster on this thread:
Let me clarify and reiterate the intent of the posts, this was purely boxed on the coverage of the Hindu. then it went to reviews in this forum and then about reviewers , that is all fine.

So far block out in the hindu has happened for these artists
1. Suryaprakash
2. Sikkil mala chandrasekar - I think it came in the hindu , but not too sure
3. Lalgudi siblings - did not come in any reviews here in the forum , but definitely one review came in the hindu
4. Bhushany kalyanarAman

So as such it is suryaprakash, mala chandrasekar and bhushany kalyanaraman. Certainly the last two have merit but they did not have that many concerts, but still it is a point well taken. I am asserting a point that suryaprakash is sidelined , when all the other musicians have been reviewed there appears a conscious shift to block him in the hindu. That is a fact. Period. So far none of you have named any other musician other than this three.

On a side note two musicians are to a major extent blocked by the system . One is suryaprakash and the other is much younger abhishek, while suryaprakash has got more than enough concerts (no cribs there) but abhishek's concerts are dwindling. I have very soft corner for both of them because of their musical ability not any thing else. This forum and forumites should know that , and I personally take over a period of 2 years or three atleast to make this asserts and till I am 100% sure , I don't write about just like that.

No qualms as such with any one , every post sometimes it appears can be better written , but that is what internet forums , this is a systemic problem not with people's real intent as such, but with the urge to hit the submit button little sooner than later

. Take it easy...

Let us concentrate on adding more names of "the hindu total blackout'. So far just three

musicfan_4201 · Post by **musicfan_4201** » 09 Jan 2010, 08:51

vasanthakokilam wrote:musicfan_4201, by saying "Why pick on a daily for not adequately cover then !!", you correctly admonished us to look at ourselves first before picking on someone else. That is perfectly fine. Then you quoted rbharath and rajesh and your comments implied that they do not write about upcoming or non-frontline artists. rbharath and rajesh are model examples of those who attend non front-line artists and write about them ( beyond the list you provided ). Anyway, no big deal, now that enough clarifications have been given and understood.

VK, again I reinterate, I did not say they do not cover

It was a purely an appreciation on the refined taste of bharath and rajesh.
Lets leave it at that than getting into argument over nothing:)

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 09 Jan 2010, 13:32

Suryaprakash sings in Bengaluru on the 12th. Hope we get a review on that not only on the forum but in the local papers too.

karthikbala · Post by **karthikbala** » 10 Jan 2010, 16:00

I'm not sure that the Music Season supplement or even the Friday Review has the wide readership that some seem to think. The Hindu was very sensible in branching out separate Cinema and Metroplus supplements. I suspect Friday Review was proving to be a "drag". It is therefore commendable that they are soldiering on and devoting so much space to CM (if not quality, at least there is quantity). My own anecdotal observation is that music-related pieces that appear in Metroplus seem to be read by far more readers.

shankarabharanam · Post by **shankarabharanam** » 10 Jan 2010, 23:19

After reading all the comments, let me comment from the side of the newspaper owners. As of now there are at least four english dailies in the market. TOI have been covering season for the sake of it. We know Indian Express is finding it tough to run itself in this business. So compared to all the newspapers Hindu has at least done justice by giving so much space to the art form. Let me tell you, its a tough job being a journalist in this world. Its a double edged sword, firstly you are blamed for not covering the event and then you are criticised, when you do it. Also, given the space constraint, I think they have done a decent job.

Lets not forget the fact, that people do like to read about popular artist and advertisers play a very important role. So the newspaper owners am sure have to struggle a lot to sell their spaces. I think their online coverage was just too good. And to quench your thirst, there are online forums and blogs like these that keep us updated. So why crib, when you know what is happening in Chennai. Mind you these days, newspaper is not our only source for information but there are others including facebook, twitter

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annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 10 Jan 2010, 23:48

A few points and reality. This blog's reach or impact is very limited - only a few rasikas who are hooked on to internet. A proof is Aruna Sairam's concerts While most folks here in this forum were negative, her concert had the maximum crowd / applause at sabhas.

Newspapers like Hindu have a much higher reach. N. Murali belongs to Hindu family and thus Music Academy events are well-covered and lesser coverage to other Sabhas.

In recent past, Hindu had adopted a biased/securlar coverage; which prompted some of my friends & family switch over to Indian Expresss or TOI.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 11 Jan 2010, 06:01

It is comforting to know that Reviewers at Hindu/... do read our Forum reviews as well. We welcome their healthy participation here since we do not have space limitations or restrictions. We respect Freedom of Expression and a healthy debate. The views expressed of course are only those of the participants and we at the Forum are avowedly Neutral. Also we have a global reach! We invite the best reviewers to take advantage of our site to promote CM-awareness and excellence.