Rock and Heavy Metal: My Journey of Questions and Answers

My journey into Rock music began on April 1, 2001, the day the British Rock band Deep Purple played their first concert in Bangalore. Its a day that I will remember and cherish for the rest of my life because that was the experience that made me understand rock music not merely as a form of entertainment but also an agent of social change and empowerment.

As a Rock music enthusiast, fan, musician, observer and critic, I’ve developed a deep interest in understanding the qualitative attributes of Rock music that make it such a powerful socio-cultural phenomenon. My experiences of Rock music have raised many thought provoking questions in my mind about how the  of the phenomenon of a Rock band mobilizes people in spaces and situations where they express shared beliefs, ideas, contradictions and attitudes.Rock and its evolutionary counterpart Heavy Metal have become a subject of interest to me because of the unique positions they occupy, as two distinct yet similar socio-cultural phenomena characterized by a variety of meaning making elements that make them powerful instruments of expression. These meaning making elements include musical instruments,language, lyrics, composition, external appearance, clothing styles, mannerisms, body language and performance styles, to name a few. The music that emerges is a synthesis of these elements in varying proportions. Thus it becomes interesting to look at Rock and heavy metal in the context of their socio-cultural fabric.

Rock and Metal are characterized by a large degree of heterogeneity in terms of musical style and creative expression. It is this heterogeneity that grants them different forms and identities in different regions to which they have traveled ( through various media) as cultural products. They have strong connections with various political events in history and reflect the characteristics of various social, political and cultural conditions in which individuals and groups co-exist.

I tried to understand Rock and Heavy Metal music within the context of subcultures and thus in 2007 I began my masters degree communication research project on Rock and Heavy Metal as Youth Subcultures. I set out to study these  genres of music as subcultural formations and the manner in which they grant identities to individuals and groups; and to also locate subcultural expressions produced in various ’sites’ of production ( in live and computer mediated spaces) by people who are mobilized around the phenomenon of a Rock Band. I chose a few bands in Bangalore as objects of my study but some of the findings and key observations of my research could be applicable within larger geographical contexts.

There’s more to come. Drop by again.

http://radioverve.com – Independent music from all over India

In 2003, kaustubh Srikanth, a computer engineer from Bangalore was struck by the idea of starting an internet radio station dedicated to independent Indian music. ‘Infinity Radio’ was born out of this idea and became India’s first Internet radio station for independent musicians. Infinity Radio played two hours of independent music produced by various local bands between 9pm and 11pm. Although the concept gained popularity among a dedicated group of friends and listeners it needed a lot more innovation to make it a grand success.In June 2005, engineering college classmates Gaurav Vaz and Shreyas Srinivasan joined Infinity Radio and decided to revamp it and give it a new identity and fresh start. The new radio station was named Radio VeRVe. “The uppercase letters V, R and V in Radio VeRVe signify ‘we are we’, implying that we are ourselves and our niche is to present to the world, music which we think deserves recognition”, says Shreyas Srinivasan, co- founder of Radio VeRVe. Radio VeRVe thus became a 24 hour internet radio station committed to preserving, promoting and sustaining the diverse and vibrant independent music scene in India. “Ours is arguably the largest collection of independent music across different genres in India,being played on an Internet radio station and we strive to add maximum value to the music being played on our station by backing it up with innovative content formats such as interviews, talk shows, podcasts, special features, articles, concert reviews, artiste updates,album reviews and much more”, says Gaurav Vaz, co- founder of Radio VeRVe.

The Radio VeRVe homepage

Radio VeRVe is a privately funded not-for-profit, community-driven project that is built entirely using free and open source software.

We don’t believe in Digital Rights Management or anything which curtails the freedom of the users, In fact the copyright for the music we play is owned by the bands. We just retain them. The ultimate goal is to make a lot of independent music mainstream and thus a viable means of income for the artistes. Talent deserves recognition, we just want to be the small spark that started the fire” says Shreyas.

The procedure is very simple. Log on to http://radioverve.com and select a channel that interests you, go over to the music player and click on the play button. Radio VeRVe can also be accessed using external media players like Windows Media Player and Winamp and can be streamed on desktops, laptops, PDAs and any other internet ready device. Listeners also have the option of choosing between low-bandwidth stream for dial-up connections and high bandwidth stream for broadband connections.

There is no strict selection criteria for music to be played on Radio VeRVe and there is no restriction or bias towards a particular genre. The only pre-requisite is that the music should be original and must be of a good recording quality. Radio VeRVe does not play cover versions of any songs and supports only original compositions by independent artistes.

Musicians and listeners can contact Radio VeRVe by writing to music@radioverve.com for submitting their music, contributing ideas and suggestions. The all new Radio VeRVe website http://radioverve.com is set for a launch towards the end of July 2008.

With cutting edge technology, innovative content formats and hundreds of independent musicians offering quality music, Radio VeRVe is set to script a new chapter in the Indian music scene.

Internet Radio and Independent Music in India

The Internet has brought about significant changes in the way the world functions today. As a conceptual wonder and technological breakthrough, it has altered the communication landscape of the world in a big way. Within a short span of time it has demonstrated the potential and power to redefine business models, communication methods and lifestyles and facilitated faster, better and easier communication of information worldwide. Advancements in Information and Communications Technology have not only enhanced and empowered the communication process but also ensured the evolution ( and in some cases, the revival) and integration of older means of communication into more technology powered domains. A good example of a product of such an evolutionary process is Radio. During the course of its evolution from being a device used primarily for news broadcasting, to becoming an entertainment medium that facilitates economic, political and socio-cultural exchange, Radio has undergone technological and structural changes that have given it new features, forms and thus new identities.
A very significant development that the Internet has facilitated is the phenomenon of media convergence. Media industries worldwide have benefited from this development and capitalized on it to enhance and optimize their operations. Online news portals can now integrate print, radio and television on a single platform and give consumers a more enhanced and holistic experience. By becoming a part of this process, Radio has evolved into a modern day wonder – Internet Radio.

India’s entertainment industry is a highly profitable industry that is growing by leaps and bounds. Several companies in the areas of print, broadcast, television, music, film, theatre, animation and graphic design have carved out their niches and established their positions as powerful businesses and brands. The key factor that drives these businesses in the entertainment industry today is commercialization and commodification of ideas and content into profitable entertainment products for consumption by target audiences. The music industry is comprised of several record labels, production houses,radio stations, television channels, artiste management firms and distribution networks that seek out and produce products that are commercially viable and have a high entertainment value. Outside this mainstream sector there are several other forms of music and many independent musicians across the length and breadth of the country that the mainstream music industry hasn’t tapped into yet. These include a large variety of amateur and professional musicians who form their own niches and produce their own music and share it within smaller socio-cultural formations. Such a phenomenon is caused partly due to various structural contradictions in the music industry that prevent and deprive such musicians of exposure to mainstream media because of the low commercial value attached to their music. If a particular form of music does not sell, then it is not likely to be considered by music companies at all. As a result, a large pool of talented musicians gets scattered into lesser known subcultural formations and remains active within smaller networks and groups giving rise to new type of music known as Independent or Indie music.

What is independent music?

In a world where technological developments are blurring boundaries and changing the rules of the industry, it becomes difficult to find the perfect definition for the concept of independent music. There is a thing line that differentiates independent music from mainstream music but the conditions that characterize the two types of music function are different.
Independent music refers to the music produced by artistes who seek to break away from the mainstream commercial record labels in order to seek alternative routes to promote and distribute their music. Independent musicians seek to gain autonomy and freedom from the rules of the mainstream commercial music market so that they can control and enjoy the creative process of music making. They make a conscious attempt to disassociate themselves from record label contracts and promote their music by using their own resources. Most independent musicians follow a Do-It-Yourself(DIY) approach where they become self reliant and become involved in every stage of the creative process, right from the conception of an idea to creating the final mix and producing an album.Independent musicians develop their own little social networks,interact with other musicians at concerts and on computer mediated spaces,exchange ideas and identify several shared beliefs that strengthen the concept of Independent music and help increase its popularity.