Today is the World Music Day. In the first part of this two-part series Orissa Post gave its readers a peek into the minds of the doyens of Oriya music and their takes on the music scenario of the state today. From what they told one thing became clear that the Oriya music is evolving. While the soulful rendition of the 70’s or 80’s is missing today, the maestros are hopeful that with the new generation taking to music, both classical and popular, with renewed interest, the future of music in Orissa seems to hold promise. In this last part, Monalisa Patsani of Orissa Post speaks to a couple of rock bands to find out how the music that the youth of India, especially those in the metro cities, sway to, is received by the young men and women of the city.
post news network, Bhubaneswar, June 20: There are some rock bands such as the Indian Thrillers, the Square Circles, the Sweet Poison, etc. in the twin city of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, which are doing very well as bands and often perform in different concerts all over the country. There are some solo artists too who perform pop music.
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Typical rock music, it seems, is not the cup of tea of Oriya youths. They prefer Indie-rock instead. However, most school and college going crowd of the day are not aware of the melodious Oriya songs of the 70’s and 80’s. However, when the bands repackage and present those old hits to the young crowd they lap it up. They, in fact, prefer those melodious songs to hard rock.
Sudeep Jena of Square Circles said, “Nobody hears typical rock music now-a-days. Now people mostly prefer Indie-rock, Indie-pop and other popular music. I was the first to form a rock band in the state in 1988 which was called ‘The Glash’. We used to perform on pure rock music and songs of RCE, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and others, which were popular those days. Now, Bollywood songs, songs of Javed Ali, Mohammed Irfan and other tracks are more popular. Rock band culture has taken a backseat in the state; now pop, electronic music, fusion music, house music are in demand. Though people listen to all sorts of music, but Indie-rock has become more popular now.”
Perhaps this is why Coke Studio, MTV Studio, etc. are popular, Jena thinks and he is very candid about it. “Now is the tradition of presenting old wine in a new bottle which is why Coke Studio, MTV Studio, etc. are popular. We also do the same thing now. When we perform in KIIT or XIMB, we basically perform on western and Bollywood music but when performing for general audience we often stick to Bollywood or Oriya songs,” he said.
“We perform all over the country where we sing songs of all genres, but when performing in Orissa, we mostly sing Bollywood songs. Balakrushna Das, Akshya Mohanty are the legends of the Oriya songs, but many youngsters have never heard their melodious songs. To make the youngsters aware about the popular melodious songs of Orissa and their singers we often present old songs after giving those a modern touch, which the young generation loves to hear. This is just a way to keep the present generation connected with the hit songs of the 70s or the 80s. This new version of music is coming up and people are readily accepting it.”
Zubin Nayak is the main drummer in the Indian Thrillers, a rock band formed in 2012 in Cuttack. The band performs rock, hard rock, soft rock, Jazz, reggae, Indian classical, Karnatic and other genres of music. He thinks that Orissa is not open to rock music and concerts. “I have performed in many concerts in the city and have realised that in Orissa people don’t like rock music or any other (form of) western music. They don’t appreciate the rock performance, which is why we mostly prefer to do concerts in other states and not in Orissa. Many people here misjudge rock bands as orchestra, which makes us feel really bad. Even if we perform in the city, they demand Hindi songs or Oriya songs. Only the young mass understands rock culture or bands. During events also the hospitality here is very bad.”
The band has performed in cities like Pune, New Delhi, Hyderabad, etc. and is now planning to shift to Mumbai. “The response here is not that good, so we have decided to shift to Mumbai. Right now we are preparing for a tour of different cities. I hope that in future people in Orissa would start appreciating the rock culture,” he said.
