Here is an interesting article i read and thought i should share with all the veterans here for their views too!Quite a long one though..
The death of classical music
Arati Menon Carroll & Shobhana Subramanian / Mumbai September 29, 2007
Arati Menon Carroll and Shobhana Subramanian say the Indian classical music industry is in dire need of resuscitation. The question is, who will take on the responsibility?
The ageless voice of vocalist Prabha Atre floats off the speakers at the head office of Ninaad Records. The niche music label is in the process of putting together a two-series album comprising three decades of her finest concert recordings to felicitate her on her 75th birthday.
Senior artists like Atre make up a significant but small percentage of Ninaad’s classical music catalogue; its growing focus is promoting undiscovered talent. More importantly, it is one of the few record labels that continues to record fresh classical releases — up to 12-15 in a good year.
This method of re-release has become the model of content creation in an industry that appears to no longer find viability in producing new content. The Indian classical music industry is stuck in a rut, and topmost on everybody’s blame list is the record label.
“Where is the musical diversity that India is known for? When categories like classical music are relegated to the back of the store where five racks have become one rack, you know we have a problem,â€
' The death of classical music' - an article in the Business
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vijay
- Posts: 2522
- Joined: 27 Feb 2006, 16:06
Quite a one-sided picture even though both writers are south Indians! Their claims is certainly not valid in the case of Carnatic music. We have a good number of small labels like Charsur, Giri Trading, Carnatica and Rajalakshmi which continue to produce plenty of new releases...I am sure at least a part of their labour is driven by love for the art...but at least they are still up and running and, as far as I can tell, without branching off into spirituality or film..
I have been thinking about this for a while and the above story only seem to confirm my suspicion - CM actually has a larger following than HM. It may cater to a small minority of the population (let's say the south Indian middle/upper middle class) but the penetration within this segment is very high...almost everyone who's over 40 drifts into CM at some point! Even those who are not into it would like their kids to learn...
This is quite contrary to the prevailing situation in north indian communities of a similar socio-economic profile. I can hardly think or a single Punjabi or Marwari friend who knows anyone even remotely connected with classical music. Even in communities like Marathi or Bengali which have traditionally sustained the art, HM's popularity seems to be on the wane. I often try to fit in concerts when I am in Delhi/Mumbai and I am shocked by the response that many senior artistes get. In these very same cities, CM concerts are sold out!
Another example is the complete cultural barrenness of suburbs like Gurgaon and NOIDA where large pockets of well-heeled upper middle classes live. I cannot think of this ever happening in Chennai - even relatively new localities like Thiruvanmiyur/Valmiki Nagar have seen several sabhas springing up. To a lesser extent, this is also true of surburbs in Bangalore like JP Nagar and Bannerghatta Road...
Some sort of a market study would be needed (it would be interesting to analyze worldspace listernership stats if at all that is possible to generate) to corroborate my premise but the evidence at hand would seemt to suggest that CM has overtaken HM (purely in terms of popularity - this is not an opinion of their relative superiority which is a point on which I am agnostic) at some point over the last 25 years. It is another matter that in terms of state/corporate support, CM continues to lag behind..
More opinions would be interesting...
I have been thinking about this for a while and the above story only seem to confirm my suspicion - CM actually has a larger following than HM. It may cater to a small minority of the population (let's say the south Indian middle/upper middle class) but the penetration within this segment is very high...almost everyone who's over 40 drifts into CM at some point! Even those who are not into it would like their kids to learn...
This is quite contrary to the prevailing situation in north indian communities of a similar socio-economic profile. I can hardly think or a single Punjabi or Marwari friend who knows anyone even remotely connected with classical music. Even in communities like Marathi or Bengali which have traditionally sustained the art, HM's popularity seems to be on the wane. I often try to fit in concerts when I am in Delhi/Mumbai and I am shocked by the response that many senior artistes get. In these very same cities, CM concerts are sold out!
Another example is the complete cultural barrenness of suburbs like Gurgaon and NOIDA where large pockets of well-heeled upper middle classes live. I cannot think of this ever happening in Chennai - even relatively new localities like Thiruvanmiyur/Valmiki Nagar have seen several sabhas springing up. To a lesser extent, this is also true of surburbs in Bangalore like JP Nagar and Bannerghatta Road...
Some sort of a market study would be needed (it would be interesting to analyze worldspace listernership stats if at all that is possible to generate) to corroborate my premise but the evidence at hand would seemt to suggest that CM has overtaken HM (purely in terms of popularity - this is not an opinion of their relative superiority which is a point on which I am agnostic) at some point over the last 25 years. It is another matter that in terms of state/corporate support, CM continues to lag behind..
More opinions would be interesting...
Last edited by vijay on 22 Oct 2007, 00:23, edited 1 time in total.
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knandago2001
- Posts: 645
- Joined: 05 Sep 2006, 10:09
Vijay: It is interesting that you bring up point of cultural conciousness in certain communities and the vitality of that link to sustenance of classical music in India.
ITC-SRA in Kolkata has organized a "guided listening approach to HM" spread over 30 sessions (till Feb 2008): http://www.itcsra.org/sra_story/sra_story_course
While it has meant that I leave work a full 2 hrs before schedule (twice a week) I've attended four sessions so far and have found it rather stimulating.
During Holi, which marks the advent of Spring and the New Year in North India, marwaris of Kolkata organize soirees (often in their own homes) to celebrate "raas" - an occasion where showcasing of talent and tradition goes hand-in-hand.
ITC-SRA in Kolkata has organized a "guided listening approach to HM" spread over 30 sessions (till Feb 2008): http://www.itcsra.org/sra_story/sra_story_course
While it has meant that I leave work a full 2 hrs before schedule (twice a week) I've attended four sessions so far and have found it rather stimulating.
During Holi, which marks the advent of Spring and the New Year in North India, marwaris of Kolkata organize soirees (often in their own homes) to celebrate "raas" - an occasion where showcasing of talent and tradition goes hand-in-hand.
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vijay
- Posts: 2522
- Joined: 27 Feb 2006, 16:06
MIssed this. Quite interesting - wish I were back in Cal!
I am aware that some wealthy Marwari families have been great patrons of music, especially those from Cal. The Birlas are probably the most prominent. But when it comes to the average middle/upper middle class Marwari, I find that the level of interest in classical arts has dimished considerably.
The same is true of the Panjab which at one point was one of the great centres of HM producing such luminaries as Bade Ghulam Ali, Fayyaz Khan among others. The Harballabh Music Festival is one of the oldest of its kinds. But ask the average Punjabi family today is almost completely divorced from classical music. I am sure this is true of a lot of North Indian states
I am aware that some wealthy Marwari families have been great patrons of music, especially those from Cal. The Birlas are probably the most prominent. But when it comes to the average middle/upper middle class Marwari, I find that the level of interest in classical arts has dimished considerably.
The same is true of the Panjab which at one point was one of the great centres of HM producing such luminaries as Bade Ghulam Ali, Fayyaz Khan among others. The Harballabh Music Festival is one of the oldest of its kinds. But ask the average Punjabi family today is almost completely divorced from classical music. I am sure this is true of a lot of North Indian states