By RACHNA KANWAR
SVP & Business Head, Digital Media & New Business, Radio City 91.1 FM
My husband and I have always been associated with music. I have been a big supporter of the ‘Live Music’ movement in some way or the other, be it through SPIC-MACAY as a student or attending and organizing music concerts later on. Above all, I am a Radio fan for life.
If an award for the Most Musically Adaptive But Capricious Generation of the century was ever constituted, mine would win hands down for, we have adopted and discarded with alacrity and disdain. Our musical journey began with Binaca Geetmala and gathering around the good old classic radio receivers. Quickly, however, the action shifted to cassettes and all-in-one players in the middle class home. My colleagues and I often talk of the first cassettes we bought and laugh about how our brothers masked some of the risqué covers (remember Samantha Fox in all her, er, glory)! And then the Walkman breezed in - really the first ape that started to evolve. Life was portable now!
But the real game-changer was the CD, that shiny sleek substitute for the rickety old cassette. And we (faithless, as ever) jumped ship immediately. The trauma of discarding all our favourite tapes bought with our pocket money went pretty fast. My husband still has a pretty significant stash, though. Give up, retro-buddy – it’s not turning into gold.
The real twist in this musical tale came when a certain Steve decided to put a ‘ding in the universe’ and all the i-things stared us in the face. Adapting to new music and tech trends being a core skill for my job, I had to seem extremely excited and knowledgeable with this breakthrough technology. Tough job, I tell you. In less than 10 years, I had been flung about in a maelstrom of musical madness. Treacherous beast of a little musical thingy, it looked and felt like a gift from the devil. And frankly, once I saw what an iPod and all the other i-things could do, I was ready to fling all those CDs out.
What’s funny is how different generations have been reacting to these mind-numbing changes. Some years ago, a family elder went to a studio and painstakingly transferred some of his favourite Begum Akhtar and KL Saigal cassettes to CDs. A few months later, his kids bought him an iPod with a dock. Now, with Wi-Fi, he plays them on his iPod through YouTube. The CDs gather dust along with the cassettes and LPs. The music lives on.
And, of course, there are the one-foreverything apps on yet another i-something. My mother-in-law was cleaning her sitar one day when my eight-year-old landed with the iPad and started explaining Garageband to her. Much to our surprise, she looked very interested.
These days, when I bluetooth my i-somedevice to the Bose Soundlink and we listen to something from the Net, I wonder whether my son will ever be able to understand the thrill of ripping off the plastic packaging of a cassette/CD and listening to that first track of your favourite artiste.
I think of all the Indie artists who grew old playing covers at college rock shows, hoping to make it big one day because it was so difficult to get a music label contract. Today, looking at the bustling music scene online, I realize that all you need is talent and fame finds you!
As it began, so it must end with my husband, who is currently in mourning. Our Bose speakers with a Yamaha deck, that he had so lovingly put together less than 10 years ago, had been lying in a vegetative state for the past six months. We have realized that we’ll have to let it go.
Meanwhile, am waiting for the next ‘ding’.
Feedback: srachnak@myradiocity.com
