What music means?

Music in our world today is an important instrument of relaxation. Music is a way of life that focus on putting various sounds and lyrics together to produce a work that transcends all race, language, ethnicity just to mention a few. Music creates an avenue of expression and a sense of satisfaction for both the performer and the listener. In the world we inhabit today, music has come a long way. In the early years of existence, music was used to express ones inner most taught. People listened to music and were able to relate to them based on a past experience or current situation. It is for this reason that we believe music as an art aims at bringing people together irrespective of one’s age or gender. Music employs sounds and words to create a message to its listeners. Ironically, some of the message conveyed in music can be negative or positive depending on the performer or the listener’s point of view. Significantly, music is a great instrument of communicating with one another. In the early days, musicians utilized music as a means of informing their audience about various political, economic, financial and world issues. Since most individuals listen to music, it was ideal for musicians not to only discuss personal issue, but also address pressing issue that affect the population adversely. For example in various temples and churches we find that one major feature is the bhajan and choir respectively. These songs that have religious content or messages that would empower an individual to be a better person in the society. An average individual has a particular genre of music he or she listens to ranging from jazz to rock, soul, gospel, rap,blues, just to mention a few. Some people listen to all types of music depending on the beat and its lyrical content,for others their mood determines and set the tone for their action. For example country music talks about emotional feeling that we can identify with while rhythm and blues describe similar issue but in a different manner and tone.Some one attracted to music that contains historical facts and great lyrical content in terms of type of message that is sent across to the listener. Music remains a monumental aspect of life because we utilize music in all we do. Can you imagine a social gathering without music? Can you imagine an Olympic opening or closing ceremony without music? Can you imagine the media industry without music? It is for all this reason that music is significant in our everyday life for recreational, academic, religious, social and traditional beliefs.

What Is The Importance Of Music?

Music is a good means of relaxation. Music soothes the mind making it to enter a sort of trance after a stressful and straining day. Music can change the moods of the frustrated people and those who are at the breaking point with fatigue. Music is such an art that appeals to the conscious mind and to enjoy good music, no thought is required. Music does not restrict the audience in the way that movies or graphic art does. The listener can create whatever image he or she wants to when listening to music. Next, music is undoubtedly one of the best forms of entertainment.Different types of music suit listeners of all ages. Everybody is free to choose the type of music he or she likes.Music gets to the reach of many individuals through the radio, television, internet and recorded music in the form of CDs and DVDs. Also, concerts and live shows are conducted for none other than the purpose of entertaining the populace. There are also night clubs and disco clubs for this purpose. Can family events be imagined without music? Certainly, this shows the value of music in society and daily life. In addition, music is used to inspire man in the some way or the other as it creates a solemn atmosphere for better communion with God. Music has always formed part of many religions or religious activities. For example, music is played in the Christian church during the Mass. As for many other religions, it should be noted that music forms part of many prayers. Music can further help at the workplace when used for the creation of a healthy and sound working environment. This is sometimes very necessary as many people go to work but are not really in the mood to work. In such a way, music increases production and productivity, described as the Hawthorn effect. Music is also a means to shake off the fatigue of the workers who keep doing their monotonous work all day long. Believe it or not, music plays an important role in green revolution. These are the new methodologies to maximize production in agriculture and farming. In the state of Gujurat in India, music is played to plants to make them grow despite being in arid regions. Likewise, music is used in farming to make cow give more milk.

Indian Music

The history of Indian music can be traced back to many centuries. Traditionally, music was a means of communicating prayers for religious purposes and strictly confined to the theatres. However, Indian music has now branched into diverse forms and varies from classical to pop. These increasing changes within Indian music are attributable to an important evolution of our times, mass media. Many of the changes led by mass media have been positive and led to innovations that did not exist before. However, it is believed that are also a series of negative influences that have caused India’s own enriched music to metamorphose into something unrecognizable causing listeners to become less apt to connect with the core values of Indian music that once existed. 2. Ever since the beginning of modern communication technology, it has been easier for people around the world to communicate; this has evidently made the world itself seem like a smaller space. The art of broadcasting has allowed millions of people to be united through one medium, in which they become the common recipients of a particular message. In the contemporary India, television has become the most influential source of medium for mass media, in which it plays an important role in the “social construction of reality” (Morgan, 1990). Therefore, it is believed that television has indirectly brought change to Indian music through its influence on the social and cultural situations of India. 3. Before outlining the prominent effects on India’s music, it is significant to indicate the reasons pertaining to the strong influence of television on developing nations, such as India. Firstly, television has become a common household item due to its relatively inexpensive purchase price. “The number of televisions in India sets increased from around 9 million in early 1987 and to around 47 million in 1994; increases are expected to continue at around 6 million sets per year” (India TV 1). Even the rural regions in India now have access to television. Secondly, television offers a variety of programs that are of interest to all age groups; basically, it does not discriminate against any one group. There are cartoons for children, dramas for adults, and talk shows for teenagers. Lastly, individuals have the ability to control the programs they watch and when they watch it (Johnson, 2001). These factors together have propelled the Indians’ reliance on television which has ultimately inflicted many changes within the Indian society and culture that led to changes to the music of India. Through the examination of diverse situations in India such as urbanization, lessening of gender differences and a large increase in musical-related shows, this dissertation will illustrate the vast social and cultural changes taking place in the culturally rich India, in large part due to the relatively recent popularity of television throughout the country.

Music of Kerala

Music of Kerala has a long and rich history. Kerala is a state which lies in Southern India. The music of Kerala not necessarily directly imply to poetry in Malayalam language, the official and most widely used language in the state, despite the fact that most of the music in Kerala is poetry driven. Kerala has a rich tradition in Carnatic music as well, though that branch of music was formed in Tamilnadu and uses Kannada, the language of Karnataka, both Tamilnadu and Karnataka being neighboring states of Kerala. Songs formed a major part of early Malayalam literature, which is believed to have started developing by 9th century CE. The significance of music in the culture of Kerala can be established just by the fact that in Malayalam language, musical poetry was developed long before prose. With the development of music in the region, different branches were formed out of it. The most basic branches are classical music which is primarily Carnatic music oriented, and popular music which primarily includes film songs. Then there is music like chenda melam , which despite its religious nature, enjoys status of classical music as well as popularity.

History

The earliest written record of Malayalam, the language of Kerala is the Vazhappalli inscription (ca. 830 CE). The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition Classical songs known as Naadan Paattu Manipravalam of the Sanskrit tradition, which permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with Malayalam The folk song rich in native elements Malayalam poetry to the late 20th century CE portrays varying degrees of the fusion of the three different strands. The oldest examples of Pattu and Manipravalam, respectively, are Ramacharitam and Vaishikatantram, both of the twelfth century.

Classical Music

Kerala is musically known for Sopanam. Sopanam is religious in nature, and developed through singing invocatory songs at the Kalam of Kali, and later inside temples. Sopanam came to prominence in the wake of the increasing popularity of Jayadeva's Gita Govinda or Ashtapadis. Sopana sangeetham (music), as the very name suggests, is sung by the side of the holy steps (sopanam) leading to the sanctum sanctorum of a shrine. It is sung, typically employing plain notes, to the accompaniment of the small, hourglass-shaped ethnic drum called idakka, besides the chengila or the handy metallic gong to sound the beats. Sopanam is traditionally sung by men of the Marar and Pothuval community, who are Ambalavasi (semi-Brahmin) castes engaged to do it as their hereditary profession. Some famous sopanam singers are Neralattu Rama Poduval, Janardhanan Nedungadi and Damodara Marar.

Kerala is also home of Carnatic music. Legends like Swati Tirunal, Shadkala Govinda Maarar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Palghat Mani Iyer, Vidwan Gopala Pillai, Chertala Gopalan Nair, M. D. Ramanathan, T. V. Gopalakrishnan, and T. N. Krishnan are renowned musical exponents from Kerala. Among the younger generation, child prodigy violin wizard L.Athira Krishna and Carnatic vocalist P. Unnikrishnan have made their musical impact in the international arena, thus keeping the regal tradition of Carnatic music alive.

Kerala also has a significant presence of Hindustani music as well. The king of Travancore, Swathi Thirunal patronaged and contributed much to the Hindustani Music.

Popular music

Popular music of Kerala had a linear development along with classical music of the region, till the branches separated. The popular music in Kerala is enriched by its highly developed film music branch. Other forms of popular music include light music albums. Devotional songs also constitute a major part of Malayalam popular music.

Pulluvan Pattu

The pulluvar of Kerala are closely connected to the serpent worship. One group among these people consider the snake gods as their presiding deity and perform certain sacrifices and sing songs. This is called Pulluvan Pattu. This is performed in the houses of the lower castes as well as those of the higher castes, in addition to serpent temples.

The song conducted by the pulluvar in serpent temples and snake groves is called Sarppapaattu, Naagam Paattu, Sarpam Thullal, Sarppolsavam, Paambum Thullal or Paambum Kalam. The main aspects of this are Kalamezhuthu (Drawing of Kalam, a ritual art by itself), song and dance.

Kathakali Music

The language of the songs used for Kathakali is Manipravalam. Even though most of the songs are set in ragas based on the microtone-heavy Carnatic music, there is a distinct style of plain-note rendition, which is known as the Sopanam style. This typically Kerala style of rendition takes its roots from the temple songs which used to be sung (continues even now at several temples) at the time when Kathakali was born.

Ottamthullal Songs

Ottamthullal songs are meant for the performance of the artform called Ottamthullal. The Ottamthullal artist has to sing and dance to his music. Unlike in the case of Kathakali, the language is not heavy sanskritized Malayalam and the lyrics are set to rhythms that range from simple to rare and complicated.

Mappila Pattu

The Malabar region of the state, with a large Muslim population had developed a signature music stream based on the Hindustani style. The stream consists of a variety of forms like gazals and mappila pattu, and also music for authentic Muslim dance forms such as oppana and kol kali. The poetry forms a main part of this stream of music, which is primarily in Malayalam with the use of Arabic words in between. Mappila songs have a charm of their own as their tunes sound a mix of the ethos and culture of Kerala as well as West Asia. They deal with diverse themes such as religion, love, satire and heroism.

Film music

Film music, which refers to playback singing in the context of Indian music, forms the most important canon of popular music in India. Film music of Kerala in particular is the most popular form of music in the state.Before Malayalam cinema and Malayalam film music developed, the Keralites eagerly followed Tamil and Hindi film songs and that habit has stayed with them till now. The history of Malayalam film songs begin with the 1948 film Nirmala. The film's music director was P.S. Divakar and the songs were sung by P. Leela, T. K. Govinda Rao, Vasudeva Kurup, C. K. Raghavan, Sarojini Menon and Vimala B. Varma, who is credited as the first playback singer of Malayalam cinema.

The main trend in the early years was to use the tune of hit Hindi or Tamil songs in Malayalam songs. This trend was changed in the early 1950s by the arrival of a number of poets and musicians to the Malayalam music scene. People who stormed into the Malayalam film music industry in the 1950s include musicians like V. Dakshinamurthy (1950), K. Raghavan (1954), G. Devarajan (1955) and M.S. Babu Raj (1957) and lyricists like P. Bhaskaran (1950), O.N.V. Kurup (1955) and Vayalar Rama Varma (1956). They are attributed with shaping Malayalam film music stream and giving it its own identity.Major playback singers of that time were Kamukara Purushothaman, K.P. Udayabhanu, A.M. Raja, P. Leela, Santha P. Nair, P. Susheela and S. Janaki. Many of these singers like A.M. Raja, P. Susheela and Janaki were not Malayalis and their pronunciation was not perfect. Despite that, these singers received high popularity throughout Kerala. In later years many non-Malayalis like Manna Dey, Talat Mehmood, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle and S.P. Balasubramaniam sang for Malayalam films. This trend was also found among music directors to an extent, with outside musicians like Naushad, Usha Khanna, Bombay Ravi and Ilaya Raja.This can be attributed to the fact that film music in South India had a parallel growth pattern with so many instances of cross-industry contributions.

K.J. Yesudas, who debuted in 1961, virtually revolutionised the Malayalam film music industry and became the most popular Malayalam singer ever. He became equally popular with classical music audience and people who patronised film music.He, along with P. Jayachandran, gave a major facelift to Malayalam playback singing in the 1960s and 1970s. Malayalam film music also received heavy contributions from musicians like Johnson, M.G. Radhakrishnan, Raveendran, S.P. Venkitesh and Ouseppachan, lyricists like Sreekumaran Thampy, Yusuf Ali Kechery, and Kaithaprom Damodaran Namboodiri, and singers like M.G. Sreekumar, G. Venugopal, K.S. Chitra and Sujatha Mohan. A notable aspect in the later years was the extensive of classical Carnatic music in many film songs of the later 1980s and early 1990s. Interestingly, that particular period is also considered the peak time of Malayalam cinema itself and is quite widely known as the Golden Age of Malayalam cinema, a period in which the difference between art films and popular films was least felt. Similarly, classical Carnatic music was heavily used in several popular film songs, most notably those in films like Chithram (1988), His Highness Abdullah (1990), Bharatham (1991), Sargam (1992) and Sopanam (1993).

At present, the major players in the scene are young talents like musicians M. Jayachandran, Deepak Dev, Alphonse, Jassie Gift and Biji Pal, lyricists Gireesh Puthanchery, Vayalar Sarath and Anil Panachooran, and singers Madhu Balakrishnan, Afsal, Manjari and Jyotsna, along with stalwarts in the field.

The national award winning music directors of Malayalam cinema are Johnson(1994, 1995) and Bombay Ravi (1995). The 1995 National Award that Johnson received for film score of Sukrutham (1994) was the only instance in the history of the award in which the awardee composed the film soundtrack rather than songs. He shared that award with Bombay Ravi who received the award for composing songs for the same film. The lyricists who have won the national award are Vayalar Ramavarma (1973), O.N.V. Kurup (1989) and Yusuf Ali Kechery (2001). The male singers who got national award are K.J. Yesudas (1973, 1974, 1988, 1992, 1994), P. Jayachandran (1986) and M.G. Sreekumar (1991, 2000). Yesudas has won two more national awards for singing in Hindi (1977) and Telugu (1983) films, which makes him the person who has won the largest number of National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer with 7 awards, closely trailed by S.P. Balasubramaniam with 6 awards. The female singers who have won the award are S. Janaki (1981) and K.S. Chitra (1987, 1989). Chitra had also won the award for Tamil (1986, 1997, 2005) and Hindi (1998) film songs, which makes her the person with the largest number of National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer wins with 6 awards, closely trailed by P. Susheela with 5 awards.