World Music Day, coinciding with the summer solstice on 21 June every year, is supposed to celebrate non-western popular forms of music, notably the folk or ethnic genres of music from around the world. Although it is celebrated in different ways around the globe, the genre of world music still has few takers in India. Bollywood music still rules the roost and brings home the bacon, and labels are loath to experiment with something perceived only as ‘niche’ music.
The Hindi film industry has tried to incorporate the genre in some of its tunes, but the audience at large is yet to embrace world music openly.
A few Indian music labels are tying up with international ones to promote the genre of world music. The latest to join the bandwagon recently was Sony BMG which launched Coloumbia records in India. But despite all this, world music remains a niche market with only a handful followers of the genre in the country. As popular music store Rhythm House director Mehmood Curmally puts in, “There is a niche market for world music but it is growing, slightly.
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Demand for world music is in its nascent stage and is very metro specific. It is mainly growing because of increasing availability and Indian labels tying up with international labels.”
“The market for World music is catching up slowly and steadily”, avers composer Suleiman Merchant. “It was in early 2000 that Indian stores witnessed a bit of world music. The audience is growing and world music can grow if labels promote them in a big way.”
T-Series president – marketing media publishing (TV) Vinod Bhanushali believes the growing presence of the Internet has enabled music lovers to get hold of any music genre from across the world. “Many a times, without even understanding the lyrics, people tune into international music for the tune and rhythm.”EMI General Manger T. Suresh agrees. “Today Latin, reggae can no longer be termed as world music as many artistes like Ricky Martin have entered mainstream. Indian customers are now open to listen a to wide range of music from varied countries.”
Songs from World music genre are also ruling the charts with ‘Djin Djin’ by Angelique Kidjo winning the Grammy awards in the contemporary world music category.
Taking Indian music abroad
Does folk, traditional Indian music have takers overseas, as a sub genre of world music? Composer Shekhar Ravijani says, “In a culturally diverse India, we have a humongous treasure of folk music in every corner with different raagas and styles and it has the potential to make a mark abroad.”
Specifying the demand in countries abroad, Bhanushali avers, “There are a good amount of takers for Indian music abroad in Spain, Germany, UK, Canada and some other countries. Globally people have a taste and liking for Indian music.”
Independent label Blue Frog’s co-founder Ashutosh Phatak agrees that there is a slow upward climb and there are takers for Indian music in countries in Europe, among others. “Often, there are similarities in two forms of music like Flamingo gypsy Spanish music has a resemblance to Rajasthani music.”
Curmally supplements the fact, saying, “Classical music is big abroad and there have always been takers for it. Apart from that, there is a good market for Punjabi, indi-pop abroad but it has to be made palatable for western audiences.”
Influences in Bollywood
Bollywood is not lagging behind in incorporating world music into its tunes either. Songs like ‘Mayya Mayya’ from Mani Ratnam’s 2007 film Guru and ‘Bura Bura’ from Rohan Sippy’s 2005 feature film Bluffmaster seem to be inspired by world music genre with Hindi and Arabic vocals.
As Suleiman says, “As far as bringing world music to the audience is concerned, there has to be fusion with hardcore Bollywood music. We do a lot of mixing with Latin or Arabic for that matter. There has been a tremendous growth in Sufi music in India.”
Shekhar adds, “Indian music is necessarily becoming a part of the international music scenario. So, we have artistes like Madonna coming down to India to record music to add an Indian feel to the song. On the other hand, we have a good number of international rappers and artistes becoming a part of Bollywood. This trade of music is good for the evolution of music.”
Suresh concurs, “There is a huge demand for Arabic and North African music and it is increasingly getting assimilated in Bollywood. Indian music is popular abroad in fusion formats like merger of western music with Indian vocals and instruments.”
Are music labels interested?
Although there are international labels involved in promoting World music, the Bollywood driven Indian labels are still not keen in investing in this marginal profits venture.
As Bhanushali says, “All the music labels seem to be looking out for a sureshot success formula and do not experiment with any unconventional formats. But we believe in reaching Bollywood out to audiences in Tanzania and promoting our music.”
Commenting on the monetisation, Phatak states, “There is no monetisation of the World music genre in India yet as there isn’t enough awareness. There are some labels like Times Music and Sony who are promoting world music but I doubt if others would like to venture into it. Only the labels who put aside the profitability factor and want to promote world music, venture into it. Like we, an independent label Blue Frog, are promoting Latin and other international music and there are crowds gathering for it.”
Suleiman accords with the thought adding, “Indian music labels are forever scared to experiment with a new genre and world music is just a speck on the horizon.”
