Professor Holbrook did a series of studies on music, mostly to understand the role music plays in shaping the way most of us think and feel about nonmusical things. He once told me that he found that most adults form their preferences for musical styles and formats in their early to mid-20s.
Knowing scores of relatives who took to appreciating classical music well into their 40s, I questioned that observation, until he gently guided me through the reasoning of the human mind in its quest to categorize musical stimuli early.
He taught me that the groove gets set much earlier than we realize. In effect, our minds become comfortable with the structural characteristics of a preferred music form much earlier than the emotional meanings associated with it, which in turn are affected by life situations and experiences. A fascinating idea.
As I think back to the musical styles, songs, artists and records that I treasure the most, I realize that the music I heard while taking the commuter train to work in Mumbai shares pride of place with the concerts I had attended at the time, all of which I encountered in my early 20s!
I had started listening to Carnatic music at the time, a preference that has now burgeoned into a dangerous obsession. I had also started listening to Miles Davis and, for some inexplicable reason, to Cat Stevens. And I hoarded my Ilaiyaraja mixed tapes like a smuggler with new-found gold. These favorites continue to dictate my evaluations of other artists and styles.
I have yet to meet someone younger than 30 who does not compulsively listen to music of some form. Be it classical, pop, jazz, reggae or the ubiquitous film music, young people are exposed to every style and format of music, faster than the combined might of the recording industry and the information highway can provide.
And it is important for the industry and for musicians of all genres to realize that these experiences are forming “grooves” in the young that will inform what they listen to in their older years. As a musician, I can see that this is perhaps a responsibility, and also a position of tremendous privilege. It is a call to communicate to younger audiences more meaningfully, developing a dialogue that will deepen their interest in and craving for music that is both contemporary and representative of a cultural identity that they are proud to espouse.
It is also a call for more composers and creators of original sound. As ever, I maintain that younger Indians are endowed with tremendous creativity, and are capable of advancing the body of musical content we currently enjoy. New sounds that reflect individual compositional style should be judiciously interwoven with themes that reflect today’s mood and preferences.
And this does not mean resorting to the sort of risqué lyricism that predominates popular music. Traditions can be retold with grace, and stories that embody cultural heritage can be told through younger perspectives just as well as they have been by voices of the past.
When I think of Professor Holbrook sitting in his office at the business school, playing jazz on his makeshift keyboard suite, I think of the word “bliss.” There is a secret to all this, he used to say — to be able to understand the vagaries of the corporate world, make sense of academic politics and maintain one’s passion for a language that goes beyond the corporeal requires perfect balance. It requires being able to understand ancient stories but tell them in a way that is entirely new, infusing old themes with entirely new music and boldly pushing the envelope forward. And keeping one’s focus on the young people, for they will decide what will become of the world we know. It is this focus that will keep the music we make from going out of style.
© Indian Express
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