A Cause for Music

Every band needs a hook,a cause or a marketing idea to make them appeal to journalists on the lookout for the next big story. In recent times,bands have associated themselves with every known cause anti-war,womens rights,Naxalites,corruption,prison inmates8230; Dont get me wrong. I am not against the trend. Ive done my bit for prisoners and the dead Yamuna. But its a bit of a joke when the causes become nothing more than PR gimmicks. Ive had excited journalists nudge me endlessly to find out if the music my band produced had any political message or the beginnings of a revolution. Did we support the Anna Hazare movement? Were we plotting to overthrow the government? Were we communists? When Id tell them that all we sang about was personal confusion,theyd sound disappointed. Some would be persistent. Maybe we had plans to do something on those lines. Surely we were thinking of an anti-establishment album. What would they tell their Editor?

I feel for the bands that rode the Anna Hazare tide last year. They showed up in solidarity at the Ramlila grounds,sang songs of freedom from corruption and notched up views on YouTube for their deep social responsibility. The revolutionary riffs are missing this year. Many of them have moved on to suicidal farmers while Anna wages a battle thats quickly running out of steam.

PR gimmickry is part of showbiz. The Beatles did it. They hired truckloads of girls to scream hysterically when they landed in America. More recently,American singer-songwriter Beck has come up with a new album which will be 108 pages of sheet music and nothing else. Musicians can play the album for themselves and put their interpretations out there for the world to listen. Great idea,though honestly I would have just preferred a conventional album straight from the man. But thats just me and all I am trying to say is that there is a problem when the aura is more overpowering than the act itself.

I feel this sense of urgency in bands in India today to be acknowledged as a voice of a generation. Everyone wants to be part of some imaginary history book that seems to be in the making where ones credibility is gauged by ones link to PR-worthy causes. If this imaginary history book on Indian indie music were ever written,amateur journalists who also cover restaurant openings would write it. The state of music journalism in this country warrants another column and it shall come soon.

On the bright side though,there are acts that are thriving on being provocative and laced with honest messages. Ska Vengers from Delhi,on the verge of an album release,talk about wife-beaters and the Red Corridor. MC Kash from Srinagar raps about angry Kashmiris tired of being caught in the middle. 

I was at a cafe in the now-bohemian Hauz Khas Village where a young Assamese lad Pratap Dev was crooning in a corner with his guitar. After his brilliant impromptu performance,he turned around and asked me what he should do next. How should I market myself? What next? Where do I go from here? he asked me.

Nowhere. You will be exactly here singing your songs, I told him.