One of those times when you plan to write so well that you know the title even before the blog ranting begins. But plans never work out, do they?
I don't intend to write about good old times and sound like a 70 year old, but surely about things that influenced me around when they were meant to happen. By that, I'm obviously referring to one of the most important things in my life - Music.
I guess it was during my 10th or 12th that we got a computer at home. Winamp that was installed on it had a few songs on its playlist. Rather than the song itself, it was the song playing on a software that had caught my fancy. Little did I would realise that I'm listening to a song that about 15 years later, is still on my list of songs to cover. But my knowledge of western songs wasn't that rich then. Not like it is now, any way.
With discussions about music spanning from region and language, I heard (thanks to my hostelites in engineering) music like never before, spending time with just my sony walkman (with extra bass boost, mind you), moonlight and audio cassettes that my friend would get every week, from home. With the ample time we would get during semester breaks is when I had an upgraded computer then, with a DVD writer, the 'in-thing', then. Mp3s that I had were neatly segregated, CD covers were printed out clearly mentioning how many tracks were in each album and the total number of tracks in the CD.
Storage spaces in computers grew, hard drives became the trend, computers without CD drives started coming out, metal and rock influences happened and most of the songs just died down. It was the same set of songs that I could talk about endlessly on a train journey with a friend, it was the same set of songs which initiated a review over an 'STD call' to Tumkur from a friend in Bangalore (let me please mention - from his landline to my hostel landline).
All this kinda came back over the past few days now. I don't have a fancy car that supports carplay or android auto. So, a good old CD player is still in place. I had kinda given up on listening to songs while driving after one of the rear speakers died, but realised that it was way too silent to conjure up weird things in your brain. So, I had company with a certain Mp3 CD titled "Music 6, Tamil". Tamil is in italics, by the way. Such gems. Such songs. Can't say I grew up on these songs, but I have lot of memories associated with them. First, the exposure to such a richness. Second, the influence that all these songs had, that came at a time when probably a musical change was happening inside my head. Metal found its way in, so did Rock. But it all translated to an amalgamation of sorts that still stays today. It has turned out to be a phase where in all this applies to anything that involves me contributing musically to a self initiated venture or a collaboration or just a suggestion. Such was a norm then to get excited seeing the name of a favourite playback singer on the credits. The only reason why I learnt to read Tamil. They all still remain favourites, but there is a irksome faulty trend in the composers who are trying too hard to act cool. I mean, if you are 40, you understand you are 40 and stop wearing tees that college guys wear. At 40, you'd have the knowledge and experience that the college goers might not necessarily have. I don't know what propels these guys to lose their shit that way. I guess its all about following the trend which is not true. Its about creating a trend. If a person has created a trend before, there sure is much potency to repeat that. But with time and insecurity, one robs away that opportunity from oneself only to 'stay with times'.
I guess the ranting about this could go on and on. But what I really missed is that over these many years, there were a few voices that I was really looking forward for when I would see a new release. Few have fallen out of touch. Few have maintained their voices and their sanctity, if I may. The saddest thing is that few of them aren't even physically there. Its not really nice to talk about people who you idolised some many years back in past tense. I'd like to mention Swarnalatha and Shahul Hameed, although the latter had passed away even before I discovered him.
Nostalgia indeed. Couple that with evolution. On a second thought, let's just not.
I don't intend to write about good old times and sound like a 70 year old, but surely about things that influenced me around when they were meant to happen. By that, I'm obviously referring to one of the most important things in my life - Music.
I guess it was during my 10th or 12th that we got a computer at home. Winamp that was installed on it had a few songs on its playlist. Rather than the song itself, it was the song playing on a software that had caught my fancy. Little did I would realise that I'm listening to a song that about 15 years later, is still on my list of songs to cover. But my knowledge of western songs wasn't that rich then. Not like it is now, any way.
With discussions about music spanning from region and language, I heard (thanks to my hostelites in engineering) music like never before, spending time with just my sony walkman (with extra bass boost, mind you), moonlight and audio cassettes that my friend would get every week, from home. With the ample time we would get during semester breaks is when I had an upgraded computer then, with a DVD writer, the 'in-thing', then. Mp3s that I had were neatly segregated, CD covers were printed out clearly mentioning how many tracks were in each album and the total number of tracks in the CD.
Storage spaces in computers grew, hard drives became the trend, computers without CD drives started coming out, metal and rock influences happened and most of the songs just died down. It was the same set of songs that I could talk about endlessly on a train journey with a friend, it was the same set of songs which initiated a review over an 'STD call' to Tumkur from a friend in Bangalore (let me please mention - from his landline to my hostel landline).
All this kinda came back over the past few days now. I don't have a fancy car that supports carplay or android auto. So, a good old CD player is still in place. I had kinda given up on listening to songs while driving after one of the rear speakers died, but realised that it was way too silent to conjure up weird things in your brain. So, I had company with a certain Mp3 CD titled "Music 6, Tamil". Tamil is in italics, by the way. Such gems. Such songs. Can't say I grew up on these songs, but I have lot of memories associated with them. First, the exposure to such a richness. Second, the influence that all these songs had, that came at a time when probably a musical change was happening inside my head. Metal found its way in, so did Rock. But it all translated to an amalgamation of sorts that still stays today. It has turned out to be a phase where in all this applies to anything that involves me contributing musically to a self initiated venture or a collaboration or just a suggestion. Such was a norm then to get excited seeing the name of a favourite playback singer on the credits. The only reason why I learnt to read Tamil. They all still remain favourites, but there is a irksome faulty trend in the composers who are trying too hard to act cool. I mean, if you are 40, you understand you are 40 and stop wearing tees that college guys wear. At 40, you'd have the knowledge and experience that the college goers might not necessarily have. I don't know what propels these guys to lose their shit that way. I guess its all about following the trend which is not true. Its about creating a trend. If a person has created a trend before, there sure is much potency to repeat that. But with time and insecurity, one robs away that opportunity from oneself only to 'stay with times'.
I guess the ranting about this could go on and on. But what I really missed is that over these many years, there were a few voices that I was really looking forward for when I would see a new release. Few have fallen out of touch. Few have maintained their voices and their sanctity, if I may. The saddest thing is that few of them aren't even physically there. Its not really nice to talk about people who you idolised some many years back in past tense. I'd like to mention Swarnalatha and Shahul Hameed, although the latter had passed away even before I discovered him.
Nostalgia indeed. Couple that with evolution. On a second thought, let's just not.
