Once upon a time, music was more about a collective experience. But things have changed since. Today, music is all about a personalised experience.
Thanks to technology, listening to music has evolved as an independent engagement, a habit that is deeply aligned to one’s personal contexts of life. Good or bad, one thing is clear — no one today is obliged to surrender to the homogeneity of a popularity list or an eclectic range that doesn’t really appeal to one’s sensibilities.
Around 25 years ago, says Sanjay Bhansal, an avid music lover in his late 60s, “you would go to concerts with friends or wait for the Diwali bonus to buy a music system for the family. Sometimes, you would even celebrate the latest CD release of your favourite artist with a cousin. In a broader sense, there was something universal about music.”
However, technology has blurred the hierarchy with ample choice and free access to a treasure trove of options, feels Manish Chawla, who is doing his research on digital music. He explains this phenomenon as a result of the times that we are living in. He adds that the Internet has radically changed a lot of things including movie-watching and reading. “Similarly, in music, playlists are getting to cater more to one’s exclusive choice.”
Talking to a cross-section of people including trend spotters, musicians and experts, it seems that the online space offers incredible options to build your very own playlist. From Internet radios and innumerable apps — focussed on singers/eras/genres — to free online music libraries, downloading options, format converters and web players with access to free digital music, music streaming platforms, cloud-music steaming services and live music archives, the list is endless.
Meenakshi Shaw, for instance, is very specific about her music.
“I have an MP3 player, which I use to listen to FM radio on my way to work. It’s small and I can just clip it to my bag as I walk to the metro station and in the metro. But, when I am on a flight or a long drive, I prefer my iPod because I store a wider range of songs in it. Also, since YouTube has allowed the offline video-saving option, my life has changed. That, unlike earlier, allows me to explore much more than ever. I save plays, concerts and an entire gamut of music. I have a folder for that which I call ‘new’.”
If Meenakshi has a separate folder to sustain her at certain times, IT professional Shivaji Rao has a range of folders including ‘bored’, ‘gym’, ‘family’, ‘auto’ and also ‘cool’. In his late 20s, Shivaji likes to have folders and sub-folders so that he knows what exactly is on his iTunes and iPhone.
“I am very finicky about my music. I take hours to choose what I want to hear, what I may want to hear and what I certainly won’t ever want to hear. So I need to be meticulous. It’s a lifetime investment. I have several backups so that I don’t lose my music.”
However, for many, there may be a flipside to focussing too much on a personal playlist that starts and ends online. While it is true, they feel, that technology has helped us develop an exotic international taste for music, sometimes it can be exciting to go with the flow. It is difficult, feel the more traditional music lovers, to discover singers like Turkish folk-singer Selda Baðcan or the panpipe player Gheorghe Zamfir or even our very own folk/regional artists if you are not celebrating music with different kinds of people, if you are not travelling and soaking in the local music and discovering or meeting artists or just getting to know about them. Music is, they feel, a journey that one needs to undertake beyond the Internet and neat folders.
