Tuesday, July 27, 2004

I'm listening to this really great classical piece by this south indian classical singer named Seshagopalan. It is a totally different experience from listening to mainstream music. If music is expression of the soul then i must say that modern/mainstream musicians are without depth or consciousness. Music is supposed to fill you up and sustain you, touch the very core of you and leave an impression. It is spiritually uplifting and conveys an emotion, not in the lyrics as any person can do that but just through the sound. Maybe I'm an elitist when it comes to music, i can only listen to mainstream music for so long regardless of genre. Take hip-hop, the rappers aren't so much musicians as they are lyricists or poets. They do not need much in the way of musical talent or skill as they do in being able to flow with the beat. Contrast this with an Indian classical musician, who truly epitimozes what a musician should be. They are able to create music on the spot, the music conveys an emotion and opens up the musician for all to read and listen to. For those who disagree with my treatment of rappers as lyricists and not musicians, well my first question is have you listen to Indian or even Western Classical music? If not listen to that first then compare. Music in mainstream has ceased to be about music and more about spectacle and making money. Everyone wants to copyright their lyrics, music and beats. If music is truly from the soul then why does that need to be copyrighted? Does the soul need protection? need money? No, lets be honest, music isn't what we listen to nowadays but we listen to entertainment, something fleeting that sounds good for the time being until something new comes along. Classical Indian Music, which isn't dead by any means, the composers of music and lyricists allowed all to sing and use music, even their own works, without permission. Music from over 500 years ago is still sung today by anyone and everyone, even at concerts. The names of the composers are remembered and praised. This is because for them Music wasn't merely entertainment it was divine, it was the source of creation and it was spiritual. Music for them wasn't a spectacle but was meant to touch everyone at all levels. The Musician didn't create music but was the medium in which music expressed itself and became manifest. The emphasis is music not the musician, in this day and age we have lost touch with that. Music takes second place to the musician. The divinity of music has been lost, i hope that one day it will return... or maybe those days are over.

This is my first web blog ever, quite interesting. I've been thinking quite a bit recently. My thoughts much like my life are random, sometimes they make sense and other times i want to bang my head against a wall. Before we get to all that, i just want to say i love southern california, well specficially newport beach. Where else can you see enough plastic and silicone in a person and not be thinking about what kinda of person would do that to themselves because you are too engrossed on where they put that plastic and silicone. Apparently everyone in Newport Beach is from Sweden or somewhere in the Nordic region, i've never seen soo many blonde women, even the lovely brown, yellow and black women all had blonde hair, man they must have some dominant blonde hair genes. Black hair and brown hair aren't good enough anymore, we need to have blonde streaks running through them as if to give us some sort of unique new look, which oddly most high school and college kids seem to have. Whenever i see people with streaks in their hair, i assume they are having some sort of identity crisis, am i that far off base? I mean it seems that they want to be different from how they are naturally but what do i know i'm just a clueless indian-american lad. What's with this ethnic group-american thing? It seems that saying I"m Indian is no longer acceptable, i have to say i'm indian-american. Yes i'm an american citizen, and yes Indian women i am willing to marry so that you can get your green card and live in the USA. Its a bit difficult for Indians to just accept their americanhood. Our lives are sooo heavily ingrained with our indian culture and language, that many of us if not most of us find ourselves affliating with our indian side much more. How can we not? We for the most part learnt english as a second language, we speak our mother tongue at home and are expected to live according to our indian moral standards, which differs in some respects from American moral standards. Maybe its just me but sometimes being American equates to being white? We don't hear white-american or causasian-american (ironically, indians are causasian), i mean if you really think about it most "americans" are european-americans but that europeanness has been dropped and only american is left. How long will it be before Indian-american's stop being Indians and are only Americans? Or how about any other ethnicities?