Category: Music

The state of music retailers

[This was first appeared in Soundbox, September issue, as part of the cover story by Anita Iyer on the future of physical music retail in India]

The music retailers in the south-Indian city of Thrissur are on the verge of losing their business to the greater threat of Internet piracy. Some of the small players in the business have already shut down their shops for good and the remaining retailers are struggling for business. Now there are only two large music stores in the city, if you ignore a couple of small stores, and the grapevine has it that one of them are planning to shut their business down soon. But how is it possible that a small south-Indian city music business is affected by Internet piracy? We are not living in a country like UK where 83% of the population are online. According to World Bank’s development indicators, we have only 5.3% of our population using Internet. So what could have lead to this situation?

Blame it on the mobile phones. Now everybody has one and they use it extensively to play music than making and receiving calls. Youth, regardless of the economic class they belong to, are addicted to playing music on their cell phones. From the school/college students to manual laborers working on a construction site, music plays in the background. But where do they get these MP3 files from? If you take a look at the students, they know how to access and download the latest film songs from websites. But even they are not willing to spend time browsing on Internet for MP3 songs. They know an easy way – bring their mobile phone to the nearest mobile phone selling and servicing shop, give them a phone memory card and get the latest songs copied after erasing the old ones. The mobile shop charges a small fee but you get the songs you want for a much cheaper price than buying an authentic CD from a music shop.

Mobile phone shops and Internet cafes run this as a side business. All you have to take with you is a phone memory card, USB thumb drive or a blank CD. CDs are fast disappearing and it is the memory card that the youth prefers and USB storage drives that businesses and vehicle owners prefer to go with.

Then what is left for the retailers? Gone are the days of music fans who would line up to buy an A R Rahman album on it’s release date. One of the music shops in Thrissur, Melody Corner, has introduced an ATM (ATM stands for ‘Any Time Music’ here) where people can choose from a collection of 1.5 lakh songs and copy the chosen songs to a CD. But they cannot compete with the price that the mobile/Internet shops offer because the latter gets songs off piracy websites for free.

A large portion of music stores is now dedicated to movies. The loyal buyers of music seem to be those who have a genuine interest in a wide variety of music – like western/eastern instrumental, classical music, ghazals, devotionals, world music and old Hindi/Malayalam song collections of a particular singer or composer. Can music retail business in small cities survive with this small group is the remaining question.

Jagathy vs. Ranjini – What’s missing in the debate

There has been so much fuss about veteran Malayalam actor Jagathy Sreekumar’s mockery of reality show anchor Ranjini Haridas on the grand finale stage of Munch Star Singer. The majority of the people who cheered Jagathy were Malayalee men, with a few exceptions from some ‘progressive quarters’, but both the “for” and “against” arguments have missed some valid points that Jagathy had raised. But let me clearly state that I don’t fully condone Jagathy’s ‘show’. There are a few things that I did not like about the way he spoke. But I totally agree with the core point of his speech, on which I will comment later in this post.

One thing I liked about the beginning of his speech was that Jagathy had congratulated the judges of the show for all the right reasons. He mentioned that compared to the judges of other reality shows, the judges of Munch Star Singer (singers Venugopal and Sujatha) were patient to correct the kids, without making fun of them to entertain the audience/viewers. Here, we know which show and to whom he was referring to. I haven’t seen any other popular celebrities speaking up against this on TV or in public except Yesudas (who once made a mockery of, whom I would call, “the Sangathy man”). But that is obvious, no Malayalee celebrity would want to offend one of the most popular TV channels in Malayalam. They would be risking some prime time TV appearance by this. So I think it takes some courage on  Jagathy’s part to say this.

Then the mockery happened. What I didn’t like about that part was that Jagathy could have conveyed what he wanted to say in a better manner, without insulting the anchor who was standing next to him on stage. It is probably the Malayali male ego and jealousy of women who speak English, I guess. And it could be the same reason that the video of Jagathy’s speech is spreading across YouTube. Part of his speech was also taking a chunk of allowed time to elaborate on what would get him some claps. He also didn’t have to unnecessarily drag actor Jayaram into the issue. He could have spoken for himself.

But the main point that he raised in his speech is valid. Jagathy said that the anchors do not have the right to pass judgement on the singing/performance of the participants (and I assume that he did not mean to avoid encouraging/supportive comments). He said that is a bad practice and anchors should do just their job, of presenting the show well, rather than passing judgement. Evidently, he aimed at Ranjini Haridas and he is right at that too. This is what some of the opposing voices against Jagathy, feminists and ‘progressive people’ alike, fail to see.

Ranjini Haridas is as bad an example for an anchor. She has made unwarranted comments on the participants and their talent. In some cases, this has reached an abusive level. Read this post from Insight Young Voices.

The following is from a 2008 segment of the show. The compere, Ranjini Haridas is admonishing the ill-fated singer Somadas who had just delivered a supposedly miserable performance in the classical music round:

“The judges have been telling you to start learning classical music for the past 4-5 stages, but have you? You know that in this show we are not looking for a particular type of singing. One has to sing classical songs, songs with feel, there must be range, perfect pitching, will Somu fit in this would be a question in spectators’ minds. you must realize that you have reached this far not because of them [pointing to judges] but them [pointing to spectators]. It’s their SMS that has pulled you through from stage to stage. But this competition should be won by the best singer.”

Let’s check out another segment of the same show. This is from an elimination round in 2007. Of the two singers in the fateful danger zone, Thushar is a classically trained singer and the other, Sannidhanandan is not. One of the judges Usha Uthup comments, “This is the most extreme spectrum. On the one side Thushar and on the other extreme Sanni“ music and popularity.

The compere Ranjini adds: “Sanni has always survived the danger zones because of them, the spectators. Thushar is a strong singer and Sanni is a strong performer.” At the end of the show the compere addresses the spectators and says: “let music be the winner. You must vote for those who are competent.” And in a master stroke she makes Sannidhanandan reiterate that appeal. (Needless to say, both Somadas and Sannidhanandan never became star singers.)

After all these insulting and abusive remarks, Ranjini Haridas can’t get away with it just because she is a woman and gets support from the feminists. Note that in her reply to Jagathy Sreekumar, she hasn’t admitted her fault. She said as a professional she handled her job well that day without replying in the same coin or running away. That is an admirable professional quality of course, but what about the professionalism when anchoring a popular show like Idea Star Singer?

Kerala’s YouTube Stars!

Sound Box - August 2011

[This feature was first appeared on Sound Box, music industry magazine, in it’s special anniversary issue in August 2011]

To Hindi movie buffs, the word ‘Silsila’ would bring back memories of a popular Hindi film that featured Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha and Jaya in the lead roles. But for youth and netizens of the southern state of Kerala, “Silsila” currently refers to an album song that has become a YouTube sensation. The song video, shared by several users on the social networking website, supposedly has had more than twenty lakh hits thus far.

Nearly everyone and his uncle in Kerala is aware of this song, and in all probability, has it tucked away in his phone’s memory as well.

The song is an unlikely winner, however. A search in YouTube with ‘Silsila Hai Silsila‘ as the keywords will reap you results with the video, boasting taglines like “the worst album song ever” or “the worst song in Malayalam“. If you try one of those pages and decide to check out the comments section, you would realise that the song has probably set a record by receiving the most number of abusive comments. The song video has a set of people including two foreigners dancing as they please, without having to worry about choreography of any sort while the singer-cum-lyricist-cum–composer-cum-director Harishankar’s face keeps popping up in between. Needless to say, there isn’t much sense to either the music or the vocals.

All publicity is good publicity

Silsila HarishankarBut that exactly is the selling point of the song. Even though the creator of the song was serious about his song, the audience has taken to it as an object of ridicule, something to laugh over with your friends.

The video has been shared through emails, social media and mobile phones. The song, that the producer-director-lyricist-singer-composer Harishankar had taken off YouTube when he received negative comments for his video when he first posted it, became an instant hit through the Net and the cell phone. Harishankar and the song went on to become the biggest YouTube sensation in Kerala.

The influence of Silsila in Malayali pop-culture is only growing. The song was featured in a Malayalam movie called “Seniors“, in a scene where students poke fun at their college principal. An upcoming Malayalam movie called “Three Kings” has its remake of the song sung by actor Jayasurya under the supervision of original singer Harishankar. In a recent stage show of AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artists), Malayali superstars Mammootty, Mohan Lal and Jayaram sang this song. Avial, the rock band, featured the song in one of their live shows, and that too is now becoming a hit on YouTube.

Though he continues being ridiculed, Harishankar is a winner at the end of the day. Now every Malayali youngster and techie knows about him and his song. He has appeared on television channels and given interviews to newspapers. Many articles are being written about him in mainstream and online news channels and blogs. And Harishankar is aware that it is the negative publicity that brought him the attention. In an interview, he said, “When people called it ‘the worst Malayalam album’, Keralites were curious to see it. Malayalis are more interested in negative things.” He has also admitted in a television interview that his song has its own drawbacks and that he is just a beginner.

Spawning a trend

Santhosh PanditThe negative publicity that Harishankar and his song ‘Silsila’ received has prompted several wannabes to post their own album songs to YouTube. Aspiring and small-budget album producers now know how to publicise their songs, thanks to Harishankar and his popularity. They do not wait for approval from TV channels; instead they post their songs straight to YouTube. Sometimes this PR work is taken care of by people who stumble upon these music videos accidentally and share it through their online spaces.

After Harishankar’s “Silsila”, another song is doing the rounds on YouTube, again for all the wrong reasons. “Raathri Shubharaathri” is a song that was written, composed and sung by Santhosh Pandit. Like “Silsila”, this music video too was posted under the ‘worst Malayalam album’ title. The video of the hero singing and dancing around a teenage girl attracted much criticism when it was posted with people linking it to the news of sex rackets that use the casting couch for flesh trade. But eventually, the focus shifted to Santhosh Pandit, the hero of the music video. Pandit has so far released eight music videos on YouTube and says these songs are from his upcoming movie project, “Krishnanum Radhayum”, which he claims to be a ‘violent love story’. Now there are several websites and blogs dedicated to Pandit and his movie that has the movie stills and songs. The ‘fans’, ironically, comprise people who make fun of him, call him the Alien Star (a spoof of Super Star or Mega Star).

Unlike Harishankar, Pandit does not admit that his work may have any drawbacks but claims that his movie and the songs will bring in a sea change in Malayalam movies and music. He lashes out at big budget mainstream Malayalam movies. The audio of the phone calls that his ‘fans’ made with him are now running on YouTube and those too have become the laughing stock of Malayali netizens. But one has to admit that the compositions of Santhosh Pandit are as good as any Malayalam film song that is being churned out these days. Two people did a cover version of Pandit’s song “Raathri Subharaathri” with just guitar chords in the background and it is being appreciated online.

All in the game

So, what do we learn from Harishankar and Santhosh Pandit? Sometimes negative publicity could help you become famous (or infamous, depending on how you view it) and to sell your product which otherwise would not have seen the light of the day. Also, perhaps both these adventurers show where they draw inspiration from. If you compare Pandit’s song with the song “Entadukkal Vannadukkum” (movie: Merikkundoru Kunjaadu, singer: Shankar Mahadevan, music: Berny-Ignatius), or “Othorumichoru Gaanam Paadaan” (movie: Makante Achan, singer: Vineeth Srinivasan, music: M Jayachandran), or “Moham Kondaal” (movie: Christian Brothers, music: Deepak Dev), it will make you think that Pandit’s song is anytime better than these movie songs in terms of lyrics and music and perhaps the only thing that it lacks is a good vocalist and an industry-standard orchestrator.

With Harishankar and Pandit both having become household names in Kerala, more such ‘internet sensations’ could very well be launched in the near future. For an audience that thrives on such entertainment, the fun is just beginning.

Kudos to you, Gayatri!

My respect to playback singer Gayatri just went up for speaking openly against the malpractices of Malayalam film music industry. Gayatri, in a response to music director M Jayachandran, has lashed out at his unwarranted comments. Read the full interview here (in Malayalam).

To those who cannot read Malayalam, here is a loose translation of the core of what she said:

M Jayachandran doesn’t need to tell me that I should listen to Shreya Ghoshal. I don’t need his advise. I don’t need to hear his opinion to understand that Shreya is the best singer in India. I’m not stupid enough to criticize Shreya’s singing.

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I’ve never asked for a chance to any music director. I am very happy in my space. These people should understand this.

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Bollywood singers are paid good money here, but what is the situation of our singers up north? I know about this. I have heard people blaming Hariharan’s pronunciation. They are very strict on this matter. They never would excuse even a small mistake. But what about us? The song “Chaanchaadi aadi” sung by Adnan Sami is rated very low in the charts. It’s not my personal opinion. People say this on media. The problem is not the choice of the audience, but the attitude of [Malayalam film music] industry.

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The industry doesn’t consider the local singers. I stand by that opinion. Singers from other states are VIPs for us. But do we get the same treatment from them? We are still asked “do you want the travel allowance” after we sing and this happens to singers like us who have been in this field for years. We are asked such questions when the north Indian singers are paid upto Rs. 75,000 per song. But the industry doesn’t have at least Rs. 2000 for singers like us.

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Why this discrimination? If it’s Adnan Sami, they are ready to pay upto 1 lakh rupees. We do not ask even half of this amount. All singers face this but nobody dare to tell the truth. But it must be told.

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Up to an extent, it is the singers themselves to be blamed. Some singers who come from reality shows tell the MDs, “sir, I will give Rs. 50000, please give me a chance”. Singers as a whole suffer due to this kind of people.

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There are organizations like MACTA and FEFKA. We go to their programmes and sing for free. They need our co-operation for their programmes but our needs are not considered.

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There is no gender difference in the case of singers not being paid for their work. In Bollywood and Tamil Nadu, they would send us call sheets even for small jingles. It is because they respect the work we do. Is there anything like it here?

Also you can listen to my Malayalam podcast with Gayatri and Pradip Somasundaran (in two parts) for M-Pod below.

Part I

Part II

Group Activity

[This feature was first appeared in the July issue of Soundbox, India’s premier music trade magazine. Checkout the website here.]

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Group Activity

It was late in the evening when a group of three techies walked into one of the residential colonies in Bengaluru. They were going to attend what their host called a musical get-together and they did not have the slightest idea of what to expect. They heard people singing when they entered the host’s house, some people even dancing to the music, all of which was followed by thunderous applause and appreciation. It felt weird to them that a group of people came together, many of them not even amateur singers, just to sing their hearts out. But as they sat through the event and heard the songs being belted out one after the other, they were totally moved. Here was a group of people encouraging and applauding each other to sing just for the love of music and not to scale their ability to sing as in a reality show. Here, it is music that rules.

People from several walks of life in the metro cities and small towns in the southern part of India are forming music appreciation groups where they also get to shape their raw talents. And they are not shy to sing their heart out before the others in their group meetings, because these groups are not primarily about showing off but appreciating a certain song, composer, lyricist or singer.

Inspired by Antakshari

Ant-Tak (meaning ‘till the end‘ ) is one such group based in Bengaluru. They begin the music sessions in the early evening and the music goes on until the wee hours of the morning. According to Rama Iyer, a lawyer and partner at Legal Solutions Bangalore, who is also one of the hosts and organising members of Ant-Tak, the idea of this group came about after a corporate antakshari contest in 2004. An Ant-Tak member’s company had planned to send teams to the contest after internally picking out people who were interested in music. It was then that they realised there were many people within the company who were passionate about music. The rehearsal sessions were filled with the participants’ family members who helped them with song information for the contest. And music being the bonding factor, they became friends in a short span of time. This made way for further get-togethers to sing with karaoke tracks and some music instruments (played by the members themselves) and many other friends joined them. Ant-Tak has held 31 music sessions and the event mostly takes place at members’ homes. If the number of people coming over to the meeting is larger than can be accommodated at home, the host family rents a hall for the purpose, even though it is not obligatory for each family to host an event.

Theme song

Priya and Venkat, a couple from Bengaluru were instrumental in bringing together like minded people and hosted many such music meets in the city. The last event they organised was this April, named Ek sham Bhoole Bisre Geet ke naam. The meet was firmed up through Bhoole Bisre Geet, a music group on Facebook. The success of the event has encouraged the group and they are now planning to arrange such meets in Mumbai and Delhi.

Bangalore groupThese musical meets sometimes have a central theme. If Ek sham Bhoole Bisre Geet ke naam was about celebrating retro Hindi film songs, they had two musical meets dedicated to the legendary composer M S Viswanathan. They talked about MSV’s music, exchanged tit-bits of his compositions, played his original tracks and their own instrumental versions and sang his songs together. And not just that – the group had M S Viswanathan, the man himself, for two days when the group interacted with him about his music. Priya notes that it was the happiest moment of her life. Another event of Ant-Tak was named Bollywood Hungama where the members came dressed as Bollywood characters and movie posters were plastered on the walls.

There are people from several walks of life who participate in these shows and what bring them together is their love and appreciation of music, irrespective of the language. The participating homes are suitably decorated, most of the times with a banner that has the event name on it. Songs in different languages are sung at these events. But it’s not just about singing one song after the other. The participants spend time in appreciating the lyrical and musical aspects of a song. Sometimes, karaoke tracks keep company or music instruments are played by some of the members.

Notes from the homeland

Roshni Chandran and Iyyappan Santhanam, a couple from Los Angeles formed a group DesiTunes with the primary goal to unite the Indian/desi musicians in Los Angeles. DesiTunes also welcomes musicians of other nationalities who are interested in performing Indian/desi music. Roshni says that though there were many musicans of Indian origin in Los Angeles, there is no common platform for all of them to meet or socialise and this is what DesiTunes is striving to provide.Los Angeles group They meet twice a month to jam with other musicians. “Usually they have to wait for once-ayear community events organised by Indian regional communities where they hardly get a chance to sing a song due to the time constraints. We thought it would be helpful to create a consistent opportunity to perform where it could benefit the existing and the new musicians who relocate to Los Angeles to get the exposure they deserve,” Roshni says.

Back in Thrissur, Kerala, another group of people organises a monthly music meet-up called paaTTarangu. The event takes place every month in Thrissur town, at any convenient location. The songs are mostly unplugged versions without any karaoke or instrumental tracks to support the vocals. They welcome everyone to join them and invite a celebrity guest singer for every meet-up. The response, they say, is heartening.

So what goals do these groups achieve with these meet-ups? Priya and Venkat say the aspirations of participants are on different levels. “What happens is, they better their own performances the next time. Each one takes time to select songs, learn them, procure karaokes somehow, practice well and when they render at the music meets, it is sheer happiness to see the contentment on their faces,” Priya notes. She says it has also helped people, especially the kids, to get over the stage fear and the fear of holding microphones and singing in front of a group of people. paaTTarangu also has a similar success story to tell about singers from the city of Thrissur in Kerala. For DesiTunes, it is all about meeting, socialising and jamming with fellow musicians. “And for others, it is a consistent opportunity to perform which in turn gives them a chance to display their talent. There are a few music bands which are part of DesiTunes and some of these bands have been able to select singers/musicians based on their performance during our past meet-ups.”

In the early days, people were happy and content with singing along the karaoke tracks in their private spaces. They called themselves ‘bathroom singers’ and were hesitant to express their appreciation towards music by singing in public spaces. But with many of these groups encouraging people to sing before the others and help them get better and better with each new meetup, south India could witness a new trend of grooming musicians through impromptu music sessions and meetups. Not to mention allowing all those bathroom singers to be able to sing their heart out!

Mazha Njaan Arinjirunnilla (cover)

It has been more than two months since I have sung or recorded anything. Thanks to my wifey and kiddo who were kind enough to leave me alone on a Saturday evening, I recorded a cover version of this beautiful song without any backing track. Do hear and let me know how it sounds. 🙂

Movie: Doctor Patient (2009)
Lyrics: Rafeeq Ahammed
Music: Bennet-Veetrag
Original singer: Hariharan
Covered by: Joseph Thomas (Jo)

Mazha njaan arinjirunnilla (cover) by jocalling

Sankara Sasthri and the rocker

This is a well written article by Jithin Das in his Google Buzz (found it through Thulasi) and I am re-publishing it here with due permission from him.

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By Jithin Das

There was this ‘famous’ scene in the movie Sankarabharanam where noisy neighborhood kids annoy Sankara Sasthri with loud music at midnight. The vocal was a lampoon, intentionally done to annoy Sasthri and guitars were off the track. Situation surely warrants an interception. Sasthri did it. Then the unusual happens.

Pathetic rockers inform Sasthri that this is not Sa Re Ga Ma music and he wont understand it. Sasthri in turn challenges the kidos by telling them he can sing whatever they can but they cannot sing the way he does. One of the guys try out a tra la la l and Sasthri mimics it perfectly. But when sastri hums a raga rock kid fails to repeat it. Ashamed, he accepts defeat. Well, movies are movies.

What would have happened in real (if the entire rock band members weren’t complete morons as we presume everyone except Indian classical singers to be! ) is more like this:

Rocker: “Sasthri, this is not your sa re ga ma. You think it is noise because you dont understand western music.”

Sasthri: “Is that so? I can sing whatever you can, but you cannot do that to me.”

Rocker: ” That challenge shows your ignorance, Sasthri. Let me tell you something. What I meant by sa re ga ma music is, your music follows only tones. Your system trained you to associate everything with a note, a pitch and a beat alone. Sounds are in solfage and anything that falls out, such as a chord may sound like noise to you.

This is evident from the very fact that you challenged me to sing a vocal bit so that you can repeat it. If I sing something, you- the master of Carnatic should be able to understand it at tones, pitch and beats. But the music we make is much more complex to be measured by these alone. Rock has its own different aspects. The one you just heard was a verse chorus, which has a very different effect than solo singing or harmonic singing . Asking one of us to do a solo verse is like telling me to separate sugar from my coffee so that you can prove coffee is just some grains of sugar. I hope you got it now.”

Sasthri: “Are you telling me your music is as systematic and scientific as classical music? Our popular songs are not.”

Rocker: “Yes it is. The difference is, the popular music or rather film songs here did not evolve . It is fusion of Carnatic or Hindustani and very basic western classical. But our music keeps on evolving. Rock inherited everything it can from classical to folksongs and then, it evolved as a new music genre. In fact it is not one system, it is several systems that keeps on evolving.”

Sasthri: ” Now I am getting it. May be it is so different and so complex that it doesnt sound like music to me.”

Rocker: “It is not so hard. As a person who knows music you should be able to understand an unfamiliar one too. Just listen to this guitar chord. It is called C major seventh . It is sa-ga-pa-ni played together. sa is the root note, ga & ni are the major notes, pa is the perfect note. Together it becomes the chord C major seven . Now can you identify this?”

Sasthri: ” it sounds like sa-ma- ga-dha- mixed.”

Rocker: “you got it, it is F major seven. ma is the root, dha & ga are majors sa is the perfect fifth. I told you it is not as hard as you think.”

Sasthri was impressed. He learned several new things that night. He sang too and the rock kids were mighty impressed by his perfect microtones and easiness of improvisation. He just doesnt need to write down anything to make an improvisation!

That night Sasthri decided to lead the brats to forming a new band where he will be one of the vocalists. Kind of fusion music, but very different from those who pathetically mix and match music. Sasthri did his sweet revenge to the orthodox Carnatic music fans who outcast him because of his suspected illicit affair . In his new world nobody cares a shit about the guy, they just want his music. He did not have to beg and borrow anymore to make both ends meet. Needless to say earned reasonably well, his band was popular enough to get some concerts every now and then, for a decade.