Wednesday 18 May 2011

Commercialization


Volume of artistic productions is not independent of patronization by sponsors. They are in the continual hunt for a larger market. Larger market means more money. If artistic productions are converted to entertainment for the mass the market becomes strong. Hence producers are not interested in matters that are not easily recognizable or that contain classical ingredients.
So the low grade music with lots of fun and excitement hits the market. Feeling them as more digestible the unsuspecting common people starts swallowing them not realizing the fact that they are being fed with slow poison. The chaos that is called music is meant for one dimensional entertainment only.
Slowly they get habituated to this form of music, losing all the capacity to think and concentrate, and an addiction follows. They tend to lose the taste of serious music even subjected to inferiority complex, rendering those are for selected people only. Finally an eerie restlessness prevails everywhere.
Compelled by the market force producers are encouraged to produce more and more insubstantial music and the effect of restlessness is cascaded. There is no way-out till the market is left to drive the quality of an art form.
It is no wonder that Rabindra Sangeet too has fallen to such booby trap. Only a handful of songs, may be two hundred or so are repeatedly sung, recorded and rerecorded among two thousand songs to choose from. Gimmicks galore in most of the presentations. Accompaniment especially the rhythm portion is made to dominate the song ignoring its literal, musical and philosophical values. Sound engineering of the recent times has been able to renovate a noise to a pleasant-sounding one by adding some acoustic values. Obliged by these productions the audience is fascinated for being a part of the ‘Modern Rabindra Sangeet’ fan club. They are in fact deceived.
Rabindra Sangeet has to be included in the list of National Heritage art forms. Then a suitable committee of knowledgeable people should be empowered so as to ensure that the proper quality is maintained while public performance. Some time-bound program for quality performances should be scheduled and be sponsored by the committee. Demonstration of the recordings of Rabindra Sangeet exponents is to be made mandatory at certain levels and gatherings. Finally the objectionable and inauspicious recordings are to be banned.