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The strain of capitalism
Exposed to market forces and technological advancements classical music stands threatened

The fact that the music industry has been changing like quick sand should merit no surprise. The fallout of these changes includes some obvious winners and losers. The maximum changes, undoubtedly, have been wrought by the internet and the digital media. While the end-user consumer continues to enjoy free, at-a-click music it is the musicians and musical corporations that tend to lose out on big bucks. Reaping a rich harvest off the present musical bonanza are those at the other end of the distribution spectrum- the aggregators and streaming services like YouTube, Saavn, Gaana and so on. Capitalism, known for unleashing material productive forces, has helped take music to wider audiences. Capitalism is bolstered by technology thanks to improved musical transmission systems like speakers, mikes and sound recording devices including iTunes, CDs, and so on. Technology also enables artistes to travel all over the world through better and faster means of transport. It is thanks to capitalism that classical music has emerged from princely courts and temples and entered auditoriums, radio, TV, and the digital firmament. But this is only part of the picture, there being the more obvious tropes of winning and losing. There is another kind of loss that has been occurring at a more subtle level- in the realm of Indian classical music, to be precise. Indian classical music, by its very nature, loses its dynamics once subjected to capitalism. Unlike film playback music that may be recorded and replicated, Indian classical music is vital and sentient. To some extent western classical music, which is sheetbased, lends itself to this kind ‘decommoditisation” more easily. Indian classical music is a performing art in the true sense, necessitating direct contact with its votaries. Pandering to the imagination of both musicians and audiences, it is virtually nonrepeatable. Using technology-driven Nikhi Banerjee Amir Khan NETWORK July-December 15 Vol. 19 • No. 3-4 15 capitalistic tools serves to further its cause to only a minimal extent. In other words, marketing musical content through digital means – CDs, iTunes, or YouTube – are short-term tactical moves to lure audiences into watching live performances. Classical music, being abstruse, does not lend itself to the marketable picturization observable in other forms of music. While the marketability of (even classical) music and its practitioners may be debated in this consumerist era, there is nothing above the music itself- not even the musician. Sheila Dhar, a well-known classical singer, wrote in an excellent essay entitled Music: From the Traditional to the Modern, in which she noted that “Musicians like Amir Khan and Nikhil Banerjee did not even raise their eyes during a performance because they were so deeply involved with what they were doing and oblivious of everything else. They were sure that nothing significant could possibly exist beyond the frontiers of their world of music.....” It is hard to picture stalwarts of such stature flaunting themselves on the cocktail circuit in snazzy attire purveying their achievements via glossy brochures. As Dhar writes, “... One can hardly imagine people of this ilk performing with a sheaf of air tickets in their breast pockets in the mannerisms and dress styles of megastars of Western jazz and rock music, or working the public-relations circuit armed with glossy brochures listing their achievements and the standing ovations they received in this or that foreign country. ..” Besides, Indian classical music requires deep contemplation owing to its deep soul connection. You simply cannot have it flowing into your ears via the FM channel while driving to the office or to the Metro. Dhar puts it most succinctly when she writes “Silence... is the starting point of all [Indian] music. It is also a fundamental concept Technology cannot replicate Indian classical music NETWORK July-December 15 Vol. 19 • No. 3-4 16 in raga where unbroken melodic lines of sound are drawn on a canvas of silence to create the musical portrait of a heightened state of consciousness..... The gradual invasion of silence by everincreasing noise levels is...the single most important change that has come about in the music world...” Furthermore, recorded music that sounds the same every time is in stark contrast to a live performance of the same raga by the same artiste for it never sounds the same on two occasions. That is why a canned performance heard over the laptop or otherwise, becomes boring after a while since it defies the very rationale of Indian classical music that is underscored by its freshness. Classical music is the spontaneous, unrehearsed, improvised release of musical notes on stage and no two performances can reflect the same musical rhapsody ever. To put it differently, the classical music of our country simply cannot be produced, transmitted, marketed, and consumed through the logic of capitalism. Doing so would mean losing its flavour and spirit. It is a realm in which the audience cannot have the upper hand; it cannot dominate the artiste who reigns supreme during the rendition. It is up to the audience to raise the bar as far as comprehension and appreciation is concerned. Yet, under the contemporary neo-capitalistic regime even that is a tad Utopian. Witness what Dhar writes: “Today’s audience does not consist of connoisseurs who were brought up to tune in to the mind of the performing musician, but of a vigorous new class of passive listeners who feel entitled to.... be served to them without any effort on their part......In the old days.... [T] he musician was not someone who was being paid to deliver what the listener felt entitled to, but a living treasure to be cherished for what he was – a superior being. The musician was the leader and the listener the follower.” The media too is under capitalist forces. Very few popular TV channels air classical music and artistes- the exceptions being DD Bharti, Lok Sabha TV, Rajya Sabha TV, and All India Radio. Few newspapers – except for The Hindu perhaps – treat classical music with the seriousness it deserves. Music is headlined in the event of a renowned practitioner passing away, for instance. Even so, their contributions to Indian classical music are seldom mentioned, and their popular appeal becomes the only reason to regret their sad demise. Thus, Pt. Ravi Shankar’s death becomes not a reason to look at his great contribution to Indian classical music but as an opportunity to showcase his collaboration with The Beatles in the 1960s. In the final analysis, a great deal of reawakening is required to give Indian classical music its due place.

By: Abhishek Gupta (PRM 35) Email: p35110@irma.ac.in