Feb 28, 2014

This is the first song I heard of this band, and I keep coming back to it, for its drumming and strumming that mesmerizes me. The other fascinating thing about this song is its lyrics, which talks of music, and its industry. I won't go into trying to dissect it all, but would like you to have a listen:

Hear the sound of music
Drifting in the aisles
Elevator Prozac
Stretching on for miles

The music of the future
Will not entertain
It's only meant to repress
And neutralise your brain
Soul gets squeezed out
Edges get blunt
Demographic
Gives what you want

Now the sound of music
Comes in silver pills
Engineered to suit you
Building cheaper thrills

The music of rebellion
Makes you wanna rage
But it's made by millionaires
Who are nearly twice your age

And the chorus goes:
One of the wonders of the world is going down 
It's going down I know 
It's one of the blunders of the world that no one cares 
No one cares enough


Posted on Friday, February 28, 2014

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Feb 25, 2014

Within the circles of my network, a debate on Facebook with a southward bound series of comments is ensuing regarding the quality of the ICC Trophy 2014's official theme song and video.

The spark: Why is the song so formulaic, so typically bollywood-ish, and so on; why couldn't we have created something more original?

Fire and smoke follow this surely,  inciting  arguments such as:
  • What is art? 
  • Being high-brow,  
  • Reaches and pangs of commercialism, and demands of our corporate sponsors, 
  • Where is creativity? Are we creative? 
  • How many Bangladeshis does it take to change a lightbulb? 
  • etc.
After finally having seen the video, I can see where its coming from. The 'pop' elites are visible, and the conscious effort to make a connection with the rest of the country, which are mostly villages and small towns and swayed more by bollywood than hollywood or dhaliwood (which is recently trying hard to emulate bolly); or any movie with sexually provocative posters.

I am beginning to see the point of view of the makers, whose arguments are similar to the makers of hit films like "Baba keno Chakor" (Why is Dad a Servant? Not a film with a  serious political narrative as you might think), or "Jiddi Mama"(Stubborn Uncle)* - to reach the masses. If we consider "Chorompotro", which was live on radio keeping up the spirits of the fighters during '71's war of independence, the language was not the pure form of Bangla, but a more 'rural' version of it if you will. That definitely made it more accessible to the masses. Is that to say, today's newspapers don't reach the masses if they're not using a similar tone?

* I love how specific we are with our movie titles!

Movie makers have used the common man scapegoat for years to justify their films which made 0 efforts to alleviate the art of storytelling, but stubbornly held their grounds of being artists, and producing art. Its quite an age old dilemma for societies such as ourselves and India where there is so much class divide, where each class' reality is unfathomable to the other. A similar trend is noticeable in the music industry, which is also partly competing with Bollywood (item number and all), and partly keeping time for the sentimental garbage that feeds the new middle class, who wants to listen to something 'romantic' and wear something 'gorgeous'.

Art has always needed its patrons, and there lies the tragic core of this issue, as corporations hungry to reach the masses take that place and with no forethought or afterthought than profit. Meanwhile, go watch that video. Dhak dhol (traditional drums) was always part of our rhetoric and culture, but we just had to learn how to glamorise it from our neighbours a little with a mix of Yo and us.

As there are 30 year old rockstars who can write anthems for 16 year olds, surely there can be those who pay at least 30,000 Taka just in rent who write music for those who earn 3,000 Taka a month. Cricket, like war, is the only event that can bring those two to the same level.



Posted on Tuesday, February 25, 2014

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Feb 10, 2014

malapropism 

   [mal′ə präp′iz′əm]  .  noun

  1. Using the wrong word for something, especially one that sounds similar.

    An example of malapropism was Archie Bunker from the American television sitcom All in the Family saying "Patience is a virgin," when he meant to say "Patience is a virtue."
I had often seen this at work and reading articles online, and often while I am typing myself. Most common ones at work are:
   STUFF, instead of STAFF, and
   CARRIER instead of CAREER
and the one from this morning's reading:
   PROSPECTIVE instead of PERSPECTIVE

Posted on Monday, February 10, 2014

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