Skip to main content

Should we mourn the demise of folk music?

I am a city kid. Born, brought up in a city. Nowadays I get to hear a lot of positives of rapid urbanization of our lands. New, fancy buildings, cosmopolitan cultures, and heaps of aspirations.

But one thing that I feel is being let down is our music. And the style and uniqueness of our music. In earlier times, every region had it's own dialects and hence its own unique music. You had people holding whatever they could gather, and prepare songs and all, almost spontaneously. Someone would get a dholak,another one would get hold of a harmonium and just like that, a band would be formed. We now call it, folk music. And it is almost dead.

Now we have guitars in over priced coffee shops in large cities, and someone waiting to become center of attention would be singing an already popular song. All this, with little annoyance to the other clients of the same joint. Since we already have forgotten our own cultures and our own languages running so fast in this mega affair called life, our songs and their quality is now almost extinct.

True, we should praise, appreciate and enjoy music of the universe.
But does that also mean that we should do that at the cost of our own very music?
Richness of which, has been derived from our own soil and water?

Comments

Post a Comment

Also read

Epitome of equality

First of all This is not to demean any religion.. I am a Hindu by birth, but yes I respect all religions .I offer my daily prayers , fast on holy days , but there was something that was disturbing me . God as per me was a Friend, someone who was by my side always , someone who was a dear friend , but this is not what everyone else thought , for others he was the Judge who gives his verdict always and punishes anyone and everyone . Walk into any temple and you would see , if you have money , you will be treated in a way as if you are the ONLY disciple of the God . I have had too many experiences where I was treated as a second class citizen in the temple . Why? Well I could not afford giving thousands as donation. This is not how it should be , God looks at each one of us with the same divinity .As I mentioned God for me is a friend, so tell me, do we chose friends based on their bank balances? Do we give our verdict on them ? then how can God do it? I know many of us would ...
32 comments
Read more

Politics - A profession

Note: This article was originally published on 18 March 2009, 01:10 on this blog and has been thoughtfully revised on 30 January 2026, 12:00 noon to reflect fresh insights and updated context. This post is loosely inspired by the  TATA Tea a d  where this politician goes to ask for votes and a voter asks him for his qualification and work experience the the important 'job' that he is embarking upon. The politician laughs at the voter, asking him what job is the voter referring to. The voter responds, "The job to run the country". Do politicians in other countries view politics as a profession? Or is politics viewed similarly across international boundaries? The best way of course to find out is go to that ever useful tool for professionals - LinkedIn.  Here are the results: Barrack Obama Hillary Clinton Sarah Palin The apparently technologically challenged Senator   John McCain. I also came across many politicians, prime ministers who have LinkedIn profiles. While ...
30 comments
Read more

Debate : Do the ends justify the means...

Note : Give it all a fair thought before you jot down... Flaming and religion-bashing will not be tolerated. Your participation is gladly appreciated. I dunno if you folks remember this incident; a couple of yrs back, the UPSC exam had a question where the emainee had to assert his views on *revolutionary terrorism* initiated by Bhagat Singh. As is typical of the government, hue and cry was not far behind... Anyway, let us look at some facts -   Bhagat Singh was an atheist, considered to be one of the earliest Marxist in India and in line with hi thinking, he renamed the Hindustan Republican Party and called it the Hindustan Socialist Revolutionary Party. Bhagat Finally, awaiting his own execution for the murder of Saunders, Bhagat Singh at the young age of 24 studied Marxism thoroughly and wrote a profound pamphlet “Why I am an Atheist.” which is an ideological statement in itself. The circumstances of his death and execution are worth recounting. Although, Bhagat Singh had a...
30 comments
Read more