In spite of being a big fan of music in general and also of Metal, I’m usually a bit apprehensive when people suggest Metal bands that I “must” listen to. This apprehension is primarily due to the very thin blurred line between the kind of Metal I like and the kind I don’t. Metallica has long been my staple hallmark in metal, they mixed the aggression and chaos of metal with harmony and melody almost seamlessly, it also helps that most of their songs are usually pure energy. There are other great metal bands out there, but Metallica has held the mantle of the best in my book and nothing anyone suggested so far has come close, not Pantera, not Maiden, not Megadeth. Don’t get me wrong they’re all great bands but I’m just not into 'em. Add to that the fact that most bands coming out of college these days are so obsessed with HEAVY Metal and Death Metal, that they just seem to lose all semblance of music and even the smallest amount of growling in a song drives me up the wall.

So sadly it was with the same disregard that I treated a friends* suggestion of the band Tool that he said I absolutely must listen to. That was until one one rather fateful day that he actually made me listen to the song Lateralus by Tool, I was, to say the least, hooked. It had everything I looked for in music; power, emotion, beautiful bridges and melodies, it was mind blowing. So the next day I went to another friend of mine in office** whose a huge Tool fan asking for Tool’s discography in search of other gems like Lateralus, little did I know what I was in store for.

Tool is one of those bands that comes along only once in a few decades that make music of such exceptional quality that its genuinely hard to appreciate them till you are truly LISTENING to their music, and nothing else. Its a band that is composed of such exceptional talent, that there isn’t a weak link in there. The singer Maynard James Keenan modulates his voice so well to truly express his words, exactly how it should be expressed. Speaking of the words, his lyrics are inspiring, not sad, not morose or angry or anything, it's just what the song needs to be. He has a clear message that he wants to express in his work and that shines through really well (the lyrics of the song Lateralus is something I really recommend reading). The guitarist Adam Jones’ tone is exceptional and the clinical precision of his guitaring in such complex time signatures is truly amazing. Speaking of time signatures, wiki Tool and you will see they also belong to a genre all their own called “Math Rock”, they mix such complex time signatures so well that it blends together seamlessly and doesn’t at all seem enforced, each instrument in some songs play in different time signatures. Which brings me to, for me, the strongest unit in the band – Justin Chancellor on the Bass and Danny Carrey on the Drums, the thing with time signatures is you need great Bass and Drums to hold it all together and my God do they go far beyond just holding it together. Justin on the Bass is so exceptional with the mastery of his instrument and its effects that at times I have a hard time figuring out if its him or Adam Jones I’m hearing. Danny Carrey on the other hand is plain mad; he uses such a wide variety of percussion instruments that his setup in itself is a site to behold. Everything from digital drumpads to Tabla’s are present in his setup and if you listen to just his drumming you would find it hard to imagine that just one man is doing all that.

But the greatest thing about the band is that inspite of consisting of such great talents none of them stick out in a song, it’s the song overall that stands out. All the instruments, including the voice, gels so well with everything revolving around them that they act as one single piece, one unit. And I think if even one of them were to be replaced the whole thing would fall apart.

Then comes my favorite fact about this band, they don’t just make songs they make Albums, and I have long stressed my affections to Albums as a whole. In my opinion art in all its forms are means of expressing a thought or an emotion, and songs have the wonderful ability to do that and capture a persons attention for the entire 3 minutes that they are with that song. Now when you have the chance to do that over the period of over an hour or more, why wouldn’t you make use of that. The structure of the songs, the order of the songs, the build up to the songs are all such important tools in doing that. A song can capture your attention but an over all album can convey meaning and emotion and seem more complete as a package. A song should always remain a piece of the jigsaw that is a part of a bigger picture, a piece that makes sense on its own but feels so much better blended into the overall picture. Tool does this exceptionally well, their albums are fantastically structured and all of them sound unique, you can pick a song at random and almost tell which album it came from. Many other bands also place a signature sound on their albums and songs , but that’s usually just the bands signature sound, Tool takes that a step further and gives the album itself its own signature sound. While you can listen to Tool songs independently they just have so much more effect when heard as part of the complete album. And once you finish that album head to toe buried deep in it, you get that sense of awe and satisfaction, like the one you get when you finish a fantastic book. That sense of how fantastic it was and that it was sad that it had to end, but at the end of the day you know it had to end.

But through all their good points there is one rather minor downside of Tool. While they do make fantastic albums and music, their albums come through only once in a while. A Tool fan has to wait a fair few years before getting a fresh album from Tool. But at the end of the day when the music that comes out of this wait is of such exceptional quality it is easily forgivable. The sad part of truly great things are that they are also scarce.

A friend*** of mine said that Tool is like the Led Zeppelin of this generation where they have that same sense of greatness and mystery and where each member is just so talented. And that comment really struck a chord with me, it was summed up quite well, Led Zepplin is not a band that everyone gets, it’s quite an acquired taste. But the thing with them is they aren’t out to please crowds or anything, they are out to say what they want to say in the best way that they can say it. They needn’t be popular, they are not just brilliant, they are so much more, they are. . . Influential.

Credit where credits due:

* Mahesh for recommending and introducing me to Tool.

** Swarit for giving me the entire discography, it is now a prized possession.

*** Vikas Rao Pejavar for the Led Zep comment, well said my friend.

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Living in a country where "new music" is produced every single week with the release of each new movie, it is more than easy to forget the true music of our beloved country lying hidden behind all this fluff (to put it incredibly lightly). What am I on about? No not the Indian Rock band scene, I'm actually talking about Indian classical music. Now I shall wait a bit while you adjust your jaw back in place as its no doubt fallen to the floor, but yes I do enjoy classical music, more importantly I have tremendous amounts of respect for Indian classical music. I especially enjoy the instrumental music that it has to offer, not that I'm undermining the vocalists in any way but its just the way I'm wired, I always tend to focus on instruments rather than vocals.

I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful concert by the great Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia at NCBS, organised by the very admirable organization that is SPIC MACAY. It was a small affair at the quaint open air theatre at the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and the setting was to put it simply, beautiful. But I'm actually not here to talk about the concert at all (which was great by the way) but rather to talk about Indian Classical music itself.

I have had the great opporunity to learn about the intricacy's of western music thanks to the good folks at Nathaniel School of Music and that I must say has really helped me appreciate Indian classical music much more. You see music albeit an art has its fair share of rules. These rules, as I see it, are primarily meant to make the music more discernible to the average listener. The big jumps in notes, the placement of some notes over the others are all meant to make music more accessible to everybody.

Indian classical music on the other hand actually has a completely different set of rules, which are more focused on making music more grand, complex and intricate. But you see complexity and intricacy are great words but they do make the music harder to appreciate. Because you have to concentrate, pay attention to the minor changes in notes, the little vibrations and the like. And in this age of shorter and shorter attention spans its sad to see Indian classical music suffer. Which is why I appreciate organizations like SPIC MACAY who are trying to instill some of that attention back in us.

But to those of us who do pay attention, such kind of music does present a very rare quality which isn't seen often enough in music today. . . . Potency. The power to emote and move and to force those vibrations through your body is incredible in such music. Only this has the capability to move you to tears or instill awe in someone by the sheer level of complexity involved. In comparison you could say it is like fine wine, it is an acquired taste, it may not be for everyone but for those who get it is quite simply brilliant.

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia was asked by members of the audience what his song was about and he simply replied that it was a prayer. It is a musical submission to God who he said, we might have missed it but, was in the audience. That to me is quite reassuring because in this age of remixes and Hip-Hop, to hear such genius, may be only God is worthy.

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Simple everyday pleasures amplified to such an extent that they cease to be mere everyday pleasures and morph into rare experiences that you'd want to hold onto forever. That is what I describe as resonance, not in its scientific sense, but rather, it is a word I've given to this little fantastic thing that happens with music and me sometimes. And before the question creeps into your heads I'll answer it myself, this NOT under the influence of drugs of any sort.

You see in my opinion your body, or mind to be more specific, wants, and I mean really WANTS to hear a specific sound or a specific type of song and if you happen to get that sound it resonates through your entire body and begins a chain reaction where nearly every song that comes along after that sounds great. All the notes are amplified and you can feel each change in note and tone, to the extent that it gives you goosebumps. And you can't help but swoon your head to the music, or head bang or air drum or air guitar frantically in search of an outlet for all that energy coursing through you. And on days like that parting with the earphones becomes the hardest thing you'd do all day. Unfortunately like all great things in life there is a catch, figuring out what that song is that your mind wants to hear is tricky. Contrary to the belief in your head right now, it isn't always your favorite song or that song stuck in your head through the day.

To find the kind of song that sparks off resonance has long been my aim and after a long time I've come to the conclusion that it is a great song that you like, a lot or even a little, maybe even only some parts in the song perhaps, but its that song that you like and you haven't heard in a while. So its kind of like the feeling of seeing a great friend after years purely out of the blue, the feeling of happiness is insurmountable. The same is the case with the mind, once it hears the song that it hasn't heard in a while a feeling of jubilation takes over, as if your mind is remembering all the good parts of the song, just like you remember all the fond memories of the old friend.This too is purely in theory at this point but after lot of speculation, I think thats about as close to the reason as I can get. That being said there usually is a host of songs that you like and haven't listened to in a while so knowing this doesn't necessarily make it any easier to start the process.

Many of you might read this and question as to, what the difference is, between this and just listening to a playlist of songs that you really like? And the answer is quite simple when listening to a bunch of songs you really like often, the process tends to end at the point where you hear it. You hear it, you like it, your brain acknowledges the fact that you like it and thats it. But in the case of resonance thats merely the start, you start to remember the great parts of the song, anticipate it and feel it in a much deeper level. Which is why I love it so much and that feeling is the reason that its always the thing I'm searching for the second I whip out my beloved iPod Touch.

It is at about this point in the blog that I'm sure many of you are thinking to yourself that I am a teensy bit cuckoo in the head (especially for using the phrase "teensy bit cuckoo in the head" :D ), but let me explain as to why I wrote this post in the first place. You see I am quite convinced about this Resonance phenomenon, I have experienced it too many times for me to ignore it. This post then is a mere plea to the many who read this (... ok handful who read this) to ask whether they have ever felt the same. Maybe they have and have given it a different name, or may be reading this you might remember a time where you REALLY enjoyed your music and asked yourself as to, what made that day so special? So this post is essentially me just sharing my experience of this phenomenon, asking people if they've ever felt the same about their music (I should really stop referring to it as a phenomenon, sounds like I've been abducted by aliens or something). At the end of the day it's because this is the ideal place for me to even try to explain this thing cause as the name states, its Music 'n Mayhem.

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It's been a while but I'm back, sadly work and other obligations have kept me from attending too many other concerts in the city, I also sadly missed the Dire Straits tribute in Hard Rock and a bunch of little Christmas shows. But I did have the unique opportunity to attend a rather interesting event called the Music Mechanics a while back and I felt its about time I wrote about it. This was an idea thought up the people over at the Nathaniel School of Music to bring all things music together under one roof on one single day for one grand event.

Music Mechanics was a set of workshops that brought together all aspects of music from making it, to playing it live, to selling it all in one big event. To add to it the workshops were conducted by some of the best in the industry. The likes of Bruce Lee Mani, Jason Zachariah, Rajeev Rajgopalan from Thermal and a Quarter, Gaurav Vaz from Raghu Dixit Project, theater personality Anmol Velani, Naveen Thomas of Galeej Gurus and Ryan Colaco of Kryptos fame to name a few all shared their expertise at various workshops at the event.

It was a great to have these guys who you usually only see playing on stage sit in front of you talking about their music and their journeys sharing their little exercises and tips and tricks that helped them to get to where they are today. Most of which were actually really useful. The best of them all in my book was surprisingly enough Music Biz by Gaurav Vaz, the presentation was nice, funny and presented some unique perspectives on the industry and how to sell your music and your band. The other highlights were obviously Bruce Lee Mani's classes, Naveen Thomas also presented some really good guitar exercises and theater maestro Anmol Velani's session on stage and band persona was also really fascinating.

To those of you who are curious the various workshops at the event were

1. Groovy Kids – Fun music workshop for kids under 5 - 12 years
2. Speed King – A session on shred guitars with Naveen Thomas
3. Leave no Tone Untu(r)ned! – Bruce Lee Mani on getting the guitar to sound right
4. Exercise to Improvise – Improvisation concepts and exercises by Bruce Lee Mani
5. Blaze in Keys – Jason Zachariah on performance keyboard techniques
6. Music.biz – All about the business of music by Gaurav Vaz
7. The DnB Coalition – Prakash and Rajeev demonstrate how to lock and groove
8. Vox – Techniques to improve your vocal skills with Lillian Zachariah
9. In the movies – Explore the role of music in movies with Nazarius Manoharan
10. The Showman – Learn to present yourself with confidence and poise on stage
11. Digital Music School – Music technology and production in a nutshell with Jason Zachariah
12. Beat – Roots – Rudiments of drumming with Ryan Colaco
13. Song Writing – the acoustic way – Get a peek into the mind of the composers.

All in all fun day and one that shouldn't be missed were it ever to return. Kudos to the folks at Nathaniel School of Music for organizing it, hope to have more such events in the future.

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"Ah yet another weekend, yet another gig".. longing for the day I can actually pull that one off but for now, it'll have to be, "Yet another weekend and yet another gig to cover". And this past week I was at the Absolut Launch Party at Kyra with the band Mood Logic, who were called upon quite literally to set the mood at this rock themed event.

The concert which was supposed to start at 730 in true Rock fashion started fashionably late at around 10 after the band members had their fill of food and alcohol and after giving their fair share of interviews for the event, ah such is the life of a band. Speaking of band members the band Mood Logic consists of an ever playful Timmy on lead vocals, a wily Naveen Thomas on lead guitar, Britto providing solid rhythm guitar, a very energetic Wilfred Demoz on the drums, Bryan providing the platform with the bass and a person I have already complimented enough Jason on the Keys.

I was there early, or un-fashionably on time, at 730 and had a chance to hear the band sound check and I must be honest I had a few concerns regarding Kyra's acoustics. But once the first note was hit I must say all those premonitions were laid to waste. Yes the acoustics of the theater weren't that great but a great band, sounding really tight, playing high tempo classic rock numbers, will make you over look that and get you dancing or head banging in seconds.

For this night, Mood Logic played classic rock covers that ranged from Pink Floyd to Deep Purple to Maroon 5. The set list included hits like "Rock you like a Hurricane", "This Love", the Beatles classic "Come Together", a very jammy "Roadhouse Blues", Deep Purple's "Burn", "Another Brick in the Wall" etc. Timmy was completely playing to the crowd getting the crowd involved as and when possible, to the extent that during their rendition Pink Floyd's Wall rather than playing to the crowd, he instead played in the crowd getting into the mix to get people more involved. Naveen Thomas dug into his usual bag of tricks and provided some really sweet sounding solo's mixed in with a few tricks and quirks like playing from either side of the neck etc. Britto was also really on the money providing rhythm guitar and really came to the fore in what I consider the bands high point of the night with Burn by Deep Purple. He hit that riff with pin point accuracy and really made the song jump. In a live performance the little things are what make the difference between good and great and in this case it was solid backing vocals from both Bryan on the bass and Jason on the keys. On songs like Burn backing vocals play a major part and can cause a song to fall apart when not done well but that wasn't the case this time and they also filed in during the start when the crowd was only slowly "getting into the mood". Jason showed his prowess on songs like Roadhouse Blues where he performed a solo and in also in some keys centric songs like Final Countdown. It wouldn't be right if I left out the drums with Wilfred in all this, but I'll simply state the fact that a band can never sound great with just an average drummer, and Wilfred was anything but average.

High points sadly can't exist without there being relative lows and that came about when the band went into romance mode for "Bed of Roses" by Bon Jovi. But then again a band must play to its crowd and I'm sure all those with wives, girlfriends or significant others wouldn't consider that too much of a low. But the band from then on steered clear of anything else low tempo and just concentrated on keeping the energy sky high. They ended the night with a special encore request (by the organizers) of surprisingly, Queen's "Crazy little thing called Love". And Jason threw in a little Mario (the game) jingle right at the end just for kicks, to sign things off.

All things considered, its hard to go wrong with a mix of private concert, free Absolut and great music and this night was no different. For a music lover this was another great night in the book, or in this case the Blog. Until next time adios.

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There are but a few near perfect places in Bangalore, and in my opinion the Hard Rock Cafe Bangalore has always been one of them. Nestled in quite literally the heart of the city on St Marks Road, on the MG road intersection it's placed in a quaint yet lavish stone Cottage (formerly the St Marks Barista), with its high wooden roof and smoky feel (just the feel theres no smoking allowed inside) it really is the perfect location for the world famous chain. On top of that, like all Hard Rock Cafe's around the world, it's laden with priceless rock memorabilia including Eric Clapton's guitar, The Doors drum, a great picture of Metal legends Black Sabbath, Dave Grohl's guitar and the list goes on and on, coupled with a playlist of the genres best numbers and the place is almost perfect. Add to that the food and drinks served in humongous quantities in true Americana fashion, and it becomes a must visit to all Bangaloreans or visitors to Bangalore with even a faint inclination towards Rock. It truly is a little piece of Rock heaven in our own Bangalore.

You might have noticed that I mentioned the place was "almost" perfect and there is a good reason for that, you see all Hard Rock Cafe's around the world are known for their live music where local bands have the opportunity to come to the fore in truly legendary surroundings and that was the missing piece of this master piece. For a long while they didn't have live bands playing at Hard Rock and started doing gigs at the place a little while ago. Most of these concerts have always one way or the other eluded me. Until Now.

And so it came to be that with an over expectant heart I went to see Thermal And A Quarter (TAAQ) playing live at Hard Rock. TAAQ to me, from even what little I had heard of them before the concert, has always been in my book one of the best bands ever to be produced by this city and possibly even this country. Their classic rock numbers heavily influenced by supremely contagious blues guitar, with stand out vocals from the bands lead Bruce Lee Mani and the never-a step-out-of-place drumming from Rajeev and the peppy bass lines from the ever smiling Rzhude (Rudy), have always been great catchy funky numbers that never fail to put a wistful smile on your face. And for this concert at HRC they were joined by the uber talented Jason Zachariah on the keys.

The stage at the HRC is another thing that adds to the allure of the place, its placed right on top of the bar, the place is almost made with live music in mind and thats always a good thing. So with these long list of expectation I went to see TAAQ play live and lets get one thing straight right off the bat it was amazing. The vibe at the place was spot on the crowd was amazing, the music was sublime. TAAQ played a bunch of their own compositions and a couple of covers the highlight of which in my book was a funky version of Hey Jude a crowd pleaser like that is always good to have in the set list. Bruce (aka the Guitar Doctor) was inspirational, his bluesy style play and smooth vocals are hard not to love. Rajeev was performing pretty much from the background as behind a huge drum kit and on the back of the stage, on top of the bar you kind of have to crane your neck to see him. But he really was on the money with some great drumming. As far as Rudy goes well if a smile is contagious he probably infected the whole crowd, it never left his face as he kept putting out those beautiful bass lines. TAAQ's songs are rather guitar centric so Jason was just providing support for the most part but when his number was called up he doled out his impeccable signature style keys solo that we've all come to expect of him.During the break the waiters at Hard Rock also surprised us with a sudden performance of the Village People's legendary song YMCA. I'm not that big a fan of the song but when performed (seemingly) impromptu and on a bar top its hard to dislike.

Sadly soon after their little intermission work beckoned me to leave and cut the fabulous night a wee bit shorter than i would've liked. But that was the only small downside to what was a fabulous night which will not soon, if ever, be forgotten. If anyone from TAAQ, or Jason, actually ends up reading this, great show guys, you rule.

P.S: Haven't got the pics of the Gig yet will put em up as soon as I get them.

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Music is kinda like your veggies, now before you come at me pelting stones and out to break cymbals over my head, let me explain. We were all most likely force fed them as a kid and never took it up and when we grow older we realize they were actually important and now its "too late" to take it up again. Everyone with even a faint interest in music in general has always housed that dream of learning the art well enough to rock the stage. And these hidden desires often show face be it, singing in the shower, drumming at the table or shredding furiously at a guitar only you can see.

So why don't people take the plunge and actually get involved with music and try to live the dream? Everyone seems to have their own little list of the reasons why they can't do something that will actually enrich their lives and chief among the list of usual contenders has always been . . . Time. But now a bunch of upstarts from my own backyard of Bangalore seem to have come up with the answer with what they call "Music Method" (can't you just hear the raspy voiced movie promo guy going Music Method).

In this age of quick solutions ranging from ready to eat food, to crash course studies they claim they can train you in music (in vocal, keyboard, bass, guitar or drums) and in 9 weeks you can be good enough to be put on stage. And thats not just a tag line this time around, that is the actual end result of the course, you and few other students form a band and play at an event. And with this dream of bringing music to the masses was born the Nathaniel school of music (NSM) headed by the mother and son team of Lillian Zachariah and Jason Zachariah. The faculty includes the who's who of the Indian music scene, headed by a Jason himself, a man who is regarded by many (including myself) as one of the best keyboardists in the country today. Add to that bass heavy weight Dwight Patterson (who has played in as big a stage as Wembley no less) and guitar maestro Naveen Thomas and it does have the makings of an all star cast.

Now while I agree most "fast short cut methods" have the tendency of feeling a bit incomplete, what NSM is offering is more of German Drill than a Crash course. Their course spans for 75 hours over 9 weeks with periodic assessments, state of the art equipment and software. And with music, after a point, there is only so much you can do, its like strapping a pair of training wheels and giving you a push on a bike, how far you pedal after that is really your call.

If you haven't figured it out by now I am quite impressed with these guys and what they have to offer, more so after a visit to their site (www.nathanielschool.com) and talking to them about their course and other plans. Visit their site and choose your own method to keep abreast of all the happening at NSM through their Facebook Group or using Twitter or follow this blog (yes I've finally bit the bullet and added the Follow feature to my blogs). Seeing these things really gives me hope that Bangalore is still the music capital of the country and I intend to use this blog to let the world know.

And to further make my point I've actually signed on to join NSM once the courses officially start on Nov 16. If you haven't, then now that Time is out, whats your excuse?

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Of late a certain alarming trend regarding Reality TV shows hit me, I mean apart from the fact that so many of them exist in the first place. Most “couples” that enter reality TV shows or feature as the main focus of the show tend to end up broken up after it. Be it families that have been through hardships or couples that have spent years together, they all end up divorced/broken up. That begged the question from me.. why?

Now one might argue that the whole reason for the break up could well be staged and it’s a part of the show, while I don’t completely agree with this its not a theory that can easily be dismissed. After all, all reality TV shows thrive, and I mean REALLY thrive, on tragedy and controversy. A couple’s breaking up would mean more people tune into the show, saying “Oh, I wonder why that happened?”, when in truth they’re in their head going “Wow I wonder how much they fought or how badly they suffered?”. That means more TRP ratings, it’ll get aired in more countries, each will start their own version of it, and the subsequent tumbling avalanche of money will conquer everyone in its path. But there is an issue with that theory, which prevents me from buying it. If in fact the reason for their breakup was indeed a bunch of conniving “reality TV show producers” (aka Satans Children) telling them to, well, then once the whole thing is over and the dust settles they should in all honesty get back together. Unless they were brought together only for the purpose of the show, which then questions the whole “reality” concept in the first place (Hmm actually hadn’t crossed my mind till now).

Which then brings me to my next reason, reality TV shows, like I mentioned before focus on tragedy, now the normal human life of one and all including the poor souls who go for these shows (aka Satans Puppets), is not filled with problems and issues (well not entirely atleast and I’ll get to that). And these shows being “reality” they can’t be scripted (again debtable I know but for now lets assume the reality part of it is true), so they must be invented. Now when I said human life is not full of problems and issues its not really true, problems are a dime a dozen in all our lives but we are usually content enough to not see them as problems. They can be dismissed from the mind without even a moments thought and that is where the creepy camera men come in (aka insert your own devil reference here). Now what these shows do is focus on the little niggles, replay them (sometimes in slow motion) and worst of all ask you how you feel about them, in a little testament to national television.

This leads to the next problem, in times of undying misery a human being can rarely, if ever, blame themselves, so they blame whoever they are with. One would say why don’t they blame the tv people, well that simple isn’t it, they will simply say “we are only showing you what exist we aren’t the one you are truly mad at”. And thus in an age far beyond fables is born the Anti-Cupid, armed with a camera in the place of a bow.

But all this begs the question of why we need these abominations in the name of entertainment in the first place. Have we reached such a low point in entertainment that fake agony is just not good enough? As the walls of the neighbors grow higher have we found another window to peer into? Stop the madness, please, the world really is a brighter place. Join me and shout for the Death of the Anti-Cupid \m/

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The other day I was talking with a friend of mine about the sad state of music today, how artists aren’t really artist anymore and are only bothered with selling what they have to sell and not create something that will live on long after they do. About how no one makes albums anymore. they just make sure they have one or two “hit” songs in an album and your done. Speaking ofwhich, what is a “hit” song exactly? Something that momentarily, say for a period of a week or so, stays relevant to the entertainment world and that’s it. They make their money on that and they’re happy!! It’s like they’ve washed their hands off it. And in that moment as a passing comment I said music today is like fast food: cheap, momentarily satisfactory and almost never good for you.

That got me thinking; is the pattern of food over the ages is vaguely similar to music? And it seemed to make sense as I pondered upon the thought. Food started out pretty basic in its early days made from what was available at the time and the place. Same case with music, it started off quite basic and simple primarily focused on vocals and simple instruments. It was also largely regional, and it remains so to some extent, just like different regions and countries have different cuisines so too does music have traditionally different styles all over the world.

With the advent of technology the food started to get more processed, in the seventies came the advent of frozen foods and cans and processed food, and lo and behold music also underwent a similar change with digital instruments playing a heavy part of 70s and 80s music. Both started to become more available too across the world thus bridging the gap between cultures (for better or for worse is a matter of one’s own opinion). And as time passed music and food both seemed to deteriorate becoming things of momentary pleasure that appealed more to the masses. In the case of food this happened in the late 90’s with the advent of fast food chains, and for music sadly the time is now. The rise of Hip Hop and drum machines and “2 weeks hits” all seem to be rampant these days.

They say when you go looking for similarities in something vague you more often than not tend to find it, primarily because you tend to inject sense into the littlest most non-sense-ical things and I’ll admit it’s very likely that that’s the case here too. But I for one would like to believe this correlation because it might just have a happy ending.

You see if you look back at that description of mine you will see that music has always lagged behind the advent, if you will, of food. And if you look around today the age of fast food is dying (though slowly, you know what they say a heart attack will only kill you eventually), chic eats and eating healthy are the “in” things today. Food for many has started to become more about the whole package, about the dining experience, rather than fulfilling a craving. Translate that to music and it could well mean the age of good music might be returning, albeit in perhaps a different form. Maybe what is to come is a new age of music, with music to soothe the soul and once again be good for you, musicians might give up their drum pads and auto tuners and synthesizers for more traditional maybe even unconventional instruments to create music, like chefs are giving away the oil and the processed food for more natural fresh ingredients. Maybe… maybe…

In any case all I can do is pray that my mad theory is right and the age of "fast food music" is indeed coming to an end. Amen.

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I've been meaning to write a post for a while now and a number of ideas had popped into my head as to what to write on. But all those were put aside when I heard of the sudden death of Michael Jackson. I cannot call myself a music buff if I didn't write about it, speak about it and make my peace with it.
I heard the sad news from a friend when I was at work, and its funny how people react to it. First almost is a state of shock that creeps in because its a blow that came out of nowhere. And then you think of his music and a small momentary smile comes on your face and at the same time you feel that pull of sadness to know that the man who made them is gone. But then you start thinking of his life and feel a very different kind of sadness to see what this amazingly talented artist has turned into.
Michael Jackson was a legend, he truly was a king. In all my life I haven't come across a music fan, be it a Death Metal fan, be it a hard core rock enthusiast or a even a hip hop fan who ever denied the fact that the man was great. He was one of those people that was blessed with one incredible talent, his voice, its pitch, its smoothness its aggression (when the need came) was all perfect. Add to that the music that in most cases accompanied that voice in such a beautiful way, thanks to great musical minds like Quincy Jones and you think that there isn't a person on this earth who hasn't heard a song of his and thought (may be secretly) in his head that, “Damn that's a good song”.
I haven't even got to the second thing he was blessed with, dance. I mean he inspired a legion of copy cats and inspired so many choreographers in the world. He had so many signature moves and tricks. And don't even get me started on the Moonwalk cause no one EVER did it like him. It was like he was one ice and gliding backwards.
Add those two things together and you get one hell of a performer, the likes of which I don't think have ever graced a live stage since. It is unfortunate that I have never had the opportunity to see the man perform live but every live gig of his I've seen on TV you see it and you think, it would be demeaning to call his concerts merely a concert. It was a show in its own right, huge theatrics, huge stages the big lights, the dance, the music. I'm not surprised so many people faint in them.
He was also the artist in my mind that was responsible to change the way the world thought of a music video. Till then it was merely an artist singing his song so people buy his album. But Michael Jackson changed what you could do with a music video with Thriller. I mean he made a mini movie, sold his song, sold the dance moves, and even made that red jacket the most popular thing on the planet. People would bunk school quit work so they could catch the “premiere” of his music video. The world of music revolved around Michael Jackson at that time, and its sad to say that the end of that era pretty much marked the end of the man we knew as Michael Jackson.
You know how there are always TV shows or movies where the story goes on to say how a man sold his soul to the devil to have the one thing that he wanted most? In my head MJ fit that description perfectly. It was like he was on this planet to do one thing make music and he sold his soul to the devil so he can be the greatest at that. We all know the tumultuous life he had and for the sake of the fans reading this (including me who is writing this) all I'm going to say is the Michael Jackson we all admired was sadly gone a long time ago.
In my mind, and I don't know if I speak for more fans around the world, this final news of his death was merely an affirmation of the fact that the great man had long since passed and sadly that's the thing that hurt the most. And it sad to say the the best way to sum up his life is in the same to words that make up this blog. . . Music and Mayhem.
The Ride is over, from the highest high to the lowest lows, Rest in Peace Michael Jackson. . .

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