Passion 2: Music (Contd.)

"Everybody
Rock your body
Everybody
Rock your body right,
Backstreet's back alright!"

-Backstreet Boys, Backstreet’s Back (1997)

Saw this playing one fine evening when I was surfing through channels. I was all of 12 years then. Really liked the video! And no, I din’t have any amount of knowledge about the teeming popularity of the band- Backstreet Boys. I just liked the song and video! Zombies everywhere! Dracula! Mummy! All in one place!! And well, keeping aside the video, the music and the singing appealed to me too! Wanted to hear it again! Made a mental note to revisit Channel V more often.

Then followed more bands and artistes like Westlife, Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Destiny’s Child, Spice Girls, Boyzone, Ronan Keating, Eminem, Dido and many more mainstream pop artistes. I followed the Billboards religiously, and kept tab of every new artiste, album and lyrics.

Name a pop band/artiste and a song, and I’d sing away, in school. ‘Jukebox’ my friends rightly called me. So much so that teachers would reprimand me for interrupting their class with singing, that occasionally got loud enough to fall into their ears..

3 years later, I was catching up with the MTV award nominations, where they played a tiny video clip under the ‘Best Video’ nominations. It was Linkin Park’s ‘Somewhere I Belong’. Now that sounded like nothing I’d heard before and I wanted to hear more! Had never heard of such a band before. The clip din’t last long and I awaited its re-telecast.

Lacking a PC back then, the TV was my only source of new music. I’d buy audio cassettes after I really liked the band. But they weren’t any real source of information on the bands either, for they too, directed us to the respective band websites..

So the tube it was, where I caught what were called ‘Rock’ bands, again. Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Evanescence, Creed, Aerosmith, Avril Lavigne.. liked them all as well! They were Generic misconceptions I know, but there was no way of telling it then. I had not many friends who’d listen to English Pop. Rock was a long way off. And so I was on my own. And the pop and apparent rock craze continued..

Another 3 years later, (I was now loaded with a PC) a friend sent me a file he recommended a listen to. Metallica - Turn the Page.mp3. Now, I’d really happily told some guy friends of mine that metallica sucked, and that it was nothing but noise, and that Linkin Park was way better, quite like every other wannabe alive today. Baseless accusations that.

Nonetheless, gave it a shot and voila! Loved it! A random play one night on the Last.fm Radio yielded the gothic metal band Tristania, a band I came to love almost instantly. It was also the 1st band I’d hunted down and downloaded the entire discography of.. piracy,yes. Dug more Scandinavian bands- Sirenia, Therion, Tiamat, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquility, Ensiferum, Kalmah….Children of Bodom, Cradle of Filth, Rammstein, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Indus Creed, Slipknot were slowly added.

With more friends and resources added, I slowly explored more bands along the way. Stumbled upon Opeth in yet another radio play. ‘The Moor’ was the song that got me stuck onto the band that still tops my charts. Iron Maiden happened on yet another night with ‘Aces High’ and ‘ Dance of Death’. Pink Floyd happened on many nights together. Many more bands ‘happened’ over time, many I love, few I detest, and the experience still flows on, plays on..

Hindustani Classical to metal, quite a journey its been, but I’d admit here, that each artiste and each genre have been a great experience.. none too less, none too ‘derogatory’. Each a pure and distinct element in the musical escapade to sheer joy!


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Now playing: Opeth - Deliverance
via FoxyTunes

Passion 2: Music

“Dil hoom hoom kare, ghabraaye
Ghan dham dham kare, darr jaaye
Ek boond kabhi paani ki mori ankhiyon se barsaaye
Dil hoom hoom kare, ghabraaye

- Rudaali (1993)

7 yr old me asks: That so doesn’t sound like Dimple Kapadia. And where are the musicians??
Mom: That’s called playback singing. Songs are pre-recorded in a studio and later, simply played during the shoot. And no, Dimple Kapadia ain’t singing this one. Playback singers do the singing, in the studio.

That accounted to the little me, for all the sudden music and singing in Bollywood movies! I’d always wonder how difficult it must be to set up a music troupe in the middle of nowhere! Now I finally knew their cheat. Hmph!

Thus started the growing love for this new and independent (as I now realised) form of art. Being an actor din’t necessarily mean you had to know to sing or play the instruments, after all. There were special artistes to do just that.

Back then, I was exposed primarily to Bollywood songs, with added Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Urdu songs ranging from Classical, Carnatic, Ghazals, Lavnis, movie numbers, Devotional songs (Islamic, Christian, Hindu) and the like, thanks to Dad’s wide and eclectic music collection. That exposure still shines on..

It also happened to be the same year that my dad’s friend gifted me a Casio, my first keyboard. Unable to do create any music more than few pounds on the keys, I’d always end up letting it play the preset tunes and demos. I loved my instrument! With a little practice, I could play some tunes from Hindi movies, if not too well. Six years later, we heard of a tutor/ Guru who’d recently moved into our block. All of us little happy campers ran to her with our keyboards to finally make sense of the keys!

My Guru was a dear Lady who was amused at the first demo of my keyful proficiency that I offered her. Assured me I’d learn fast enough and set to work at once. Hindustani Classical is the medium we learnt in. The Sa Re Ga Ma and the soulful Ragas were a joy to play! She kept our fingers tickin’ with Bollywood numbers as well, those that we’d chose as we liked. Quite a lot of note-writing on her part to put down every key note in Sa Re Ga Ma! It was amazing how 7 notes with variations is all it took to make music, and that so diverse!

As it turned out, I was the best among the lot, for all I ever did those days was ram on at my keys day and night back home. My Guru’s husband, also a Tabla Guru himself would love always stop by and make me play whenever he came around. He’d then prop his tablas up onto the table next to my keyboard and we’d both then jam to the finest of ragas- Raag Yaman!

Their beautiful daughters were friends of mine, and theirs was a happily musical family from Indore. My best memory with them is the Diwali evening I’d spent with them and their extended family, so much of happy singing and playing.. my first performance in front of a highly, musically proficient audience! Their applauds being my highest accolade yet! Those were the days..

(To be Continued..)


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Now playing: Lata Mangeshkar - Dil Hoom Hoom Kare
via FoxyTunes