What happens when we cross-pollinate literature & music?

The result is Literary Jukebox (LJ). LJ is an interesting project by Maria Popova of Brain Pickings. Maria takes passages from books and thematically match them with music. Her interestingness and creativity have been proven again through LJ and this is for people like me - music lovers who are also, voracious readers and writers. 

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Artist Recommendation - Sakthi Ravitharan

A few days ago, I started off doing the artist/album recommendation on my blog. This time, I recommend the artist, Sakthi Ravitharan. 
I stumbled upon her debut album a few months ago. I found the sounds refreshingly original and authentic and instantly downloaded the tracks from iTunes. However, it's only recently that I got to hear the songs in a repeat mode. 
I was blown away by her talent and creativity to fuse two of her areas of strength - Carnatic and Western classical music. Embar Kannan, Keith Peters, and Sai Shravanam brilliantly accompanied her on violin, bass guitar, and the keys respectively. 
My picks are the tracks named 'My first memory' that has traces of Srothasvini raagam, and 'Just you and me' that has traces of Mohanakalyani raagam. I also loved the brilliant harmony with a subtle violin in the background of 'Eyes will meet'.
Do buy the album here. 

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Can music counterbalance what we lack?

I had never paid attention to the song, Kera Nirakal Aadum from the movie, Jalolsavam when I was in Kerala. But the moment I stepped out of Kerala and went to Bangalore for work, I started paying more attention to the song. I saw and heard something that I hadn't before. I started seeing the beauty of Kerala, the beauty of Malayalam lyrics, and music. As I moved out of India to the UK and the US, I started seeing more nuanced elements of this song that told me what I was missing out in my current life.
On retrospection, I realized that music can counterbalance us. It can fill us with what we long for. Therefore, the kind of music we like could be an indication of something that we lack. 
This can explain a lot as to why our tastes in music change from time to time along with our changing needs in life. Paying attention to our tastes in art and music can reveal a lot about ourselves. 

Jalolsavam is a movie that is said to be shot almost exclusively in a remote village in Kerala (Kuttanad), where rice crops form the main source of income. Hence, almost all the tunes in this album are based on folklore.

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What can we learn from reality shows and college culturals

Growing up I had taken part in many music fests at school and college levels. When reality shows were the 'in thing', I gave them a shot as well. There had been phases in my life when I used to think these stages as the be all and end all of my future as a musician. When I was about to give up and was taking it too hard on myself, this thing called the internet happened. Not only did that open up a whole lot of new possibilities but it also made the idea of being a part of the industry to build a career or future obsolete. That said, it would be dishonest for me to say that I didn't learn anything from the reality shows and cultural competitions. Here are a few learnings from my experience and I urge the next gen kids to take part in these as well just as a part of shaping up their worldview on things. 

1. How to deal with success and failure - The keyword here is 'deal with'. It simply means, how to take any success or failure and understand what they mean in the grand scheme of things. Any kind of failure or success at this level doesn't necessarily represent our future or true potential. However, how we react to these situations help us cultivate some invaluable transferable life skills. The quote by Charles R. Swindoll is relevant here: 'Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.'

2. A lab to test what works and what doesn't - This is a useful business lesson. Reality shows and culturals can give a fair idea as to what the market needs are and what works 'mainstream'. Knowing these can help us evaluate our options and help us choose what is best for us even if that means going non-mainstream a.k.a. independent. The quote by Albert Einstein is relevant here: 'I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work.'

The most important thing here is self-reflection after every performance, win or loss. It helps manage expectations as to how our skill sets and interests meet the market needs and how we can navigate the direction of our musical career. 

[UPDATE]

Seth Godin talks about 'What's the point of popular?' in his blog. A few highlights worth reading and pondering about below.

“Popular is almost never a measure of impact, or genius, or art. Popular rarely correlates with guts, hard work or a willingness to lead (and be willing to be wrong along the way). In general, the search for popular is wildly overrated, because it corrupts our work, eats away at our art and makes it likely we’ll compromise to please the anonymous masses.
Worth considering is the value of losing school elections and other popularity contests. Losing reminds you that the opinion of unaffiliated strangers is worthless. They don’t know you, they’re not interested in what you have to offer and you can discover that their rejection actually means nothing. It will empower you to even bigger things in the future. When you focus on delighting an audience you care about, you strip the masses of their power.”

Desensitizing ourselves to such public performances can help us realize that if it can't kill us, we can use it to help us. Instead of taking a plunge, these shows can serve as stepping stones to get over public anxiety. 

“The danger is entirely different than the fear.”

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The paradox of choice in music

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post on how it has become so hard to choose a favorite artist, a genre of music, or a song now. We are flooded with way too many varieties of music that we eventually, might end up making no choice at all. 
One result of this paralysis is the ever increasing number of cover songs. You must be wondering how. Here's how.
Let us analyze this from the audience's and the musicians' perspective. 
A good majority of the audience is already suffering from this paralysis and hence, they tend to go back to their old favorites that they grew up listening to. Why? Because that's so comforting since they already have decided their favorites from yesteryears' songs. Needless to say, this automatically creates a market for those songs again that we fondly recall as 'nostalgic numbers'.
Now, today's musicians, if they have to monetize their craft, has to embrace this market need and contribute songs accordingly. How? By doing covers of these nostalgic songs. 
If you have ever wondered the point of today's musicians making more and more cover songs, now you know a possible why. The paradox of choice is real.

http://www.ted.com Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied.

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