Monday, May 4, 2020


Music after Covid-19? (1)


From the globalized, mediatized world to localized and de-mediatized world, fostering the musical diversity


One of the 100 Future Predictions for A Post Covid-19 World:

“Do you want to be in a room full of 300+ people six inches away from each other, and the answer is most likely, hell no. That’s Hollywood’s dilemma in a nutshell.” 

‘Covid-19 has left an estimated multibillion-dollar hole in the ticket sales that account for most of performers’ income.’ (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-04-20/musicians-turn-to-streaming-concerts-amid-coronavirus)

‘Movie theatres, on the other hand, are looking more like an endangered species thanks to COVID-19.’  


Concerts style entertainment also faces the same danger.

‘Even as other businesses like restaurants or retail slowly re-emerge, and workers begin to restart the economy, the concert industry could take well over a year or more to look anything like what we’re used to. When shows hopefully resume in 2021, promoters will likely treat the disease like another security measure at the gates: temperature checks, mandatory face masks or even on-site COVID-19 testing are all potential measures in the future.’ 

No More concerts; no more movie theatres; still music entertainment will go on.

‘Kantar – VTION’s passive OTT Audio Audience Measurement service data revealed that there was a 42% increase in time spent on listening to OTT/ Streaming Audio apps. Over 50% growth in the time spent on listening amongst the age group of 18-24 and consumers in the age group of 25-34 have shown a 30% growth in usage.

Hungama Artist Aloud, a platform that supports and promotes independent content, is launching a series of multilingual, multi-genre and multi-talent digital concerts called #StayAtHome #StayEntertained. The series will run for a period of 14 days starting 1st April 2020 and feature several artists like Shibani Kashyap, Mame Khan, Suneeta Rao, Manasi Scott, Sherrin Varghese etc. going live on Hungama Music’s Facebook page to deliver acoustic performances from their own homes.’ 

The transformation from passive enjoyment of listening to pro-active enjoyment of performing and experimenting, had started.

‘Due to a HUGE increase in online orders however, processing ordnowers is taking 3 business days. We endeavour to dispatch them as quickly and safely as possible. 
(https://www.bettermusic.com.au/covid19)

‘With time to spare, musical beginners are diving in by purchasing instruments for the first time and signing up for lessons. Tuerk says Reverb is currently welcoming an influx of new buyers. “We’re seeing an increase in acoustic guitar, synthesizer, keyboard, and pro audio orders,” he says. “Based on the types of gear they’re purchasing, many of these new buyers appear to be beginners.”
Defying the economic downturn, online business is booming for Apple’s GarageBand music software, as well as Sweetwater, Guitar Center, Reverb, and other retailers.’ 

With derailed globalization restricting physical movements, the transformation of the musical ecosystem had started with the transformation towards pro-active enjoyment of performing and experimenting. Self-learning music students, depending on their interest and progress, may approach music experts and performers for more learning and experimenting. It may lead to a new kind of synergic relationship exploring new music.  

Till now, the musical ecosystem was unfavourable to fostering creativity, as shown below.

‘I think the music industry is structured in a way that music output is restricted within it's 'creativity.' Producers have a massive influence on sound, appearance and who the target audience should be.’ 

Dethroning the above structure of the music industry, the pro-active enjoyment of performing and experimenting will lead to the development of the diversity in the structure of the music industry, demonopolizing the profits and shares ; also fostering creativity.

Post Covid-19, I will spend more time in the place where I opted to live, developing more connections to the surrounding nature and society. When people living in a village or town or city undergo transformation, that place will also undergo simultaneous transformation. 

The growth of a city like Chennai starting from a cluster of villages to become a metro city can be studied using the music that prevailed in those villages and the changes in the music accompanying the growth to the present Chennai. More interesting will be to study all current music in Chennai to segregate the weakening music from the new growing music to predict the future Chennai. This interesting link between the history of a city and the history of music of the city was found in ancient Indian texts.

“paNivuil chIr
mAththirai inRi  nhatakkumEl, vAzhum Ur
kOththiram kURappatum”.-  nhAlatiyAr 25:2


  பணிவு இல் சீர்
 மாத்திரை இன்றி நடக்குமேல், வாழும் ஊர்
 கோத்திரம் கூறப்படும். "- நாலடியார் 25:2

The sound of letters in a song and music are related by an objective grammar discovered in ancient Indian texts. The sound of the syllables – ‘acai’ அசை - arises out of the musical sounding of the letters of the syllable. Musically defined monosyllable – ‘nhEr acai’ நேர் அசை -and disyllable – ‘nhirai acai’ நிரை அசை - lead to a phrase like significant musical substructure called ‘chIr’ which will possess the details of the musical scale, unique aesthetic aspects including the percussion structure. This discovery was reported in


Hence chIr is not just the joining of acai as now taught in Tamil studies. It is a significant music substructure.

paNivu means obedience. paNivuil is the absence of obedience. mAththirai is the musical time and musical note measure. mAththirai inRi means not conforming to the musical time measure. vAzhum Ur means the city of living. kOththiram means the characteristic nature. kURappatum means revealed.


The characteristic nature of a city can be inferred from the music in that city. 
(https://musicdrvee.blogspot.com/2012/08/history-of-city-and-history-ofmusic.html)

To unravel the music ecosystem after Covid-19, the above socio-musical key may prove to be very valuable. 

Thanks to Covid-19, the pro-active enjoyment of performing and experimenting will revive ‘many music cultures now in a critical state of survival’.

‘We are living in a time when many music cultures are in a critical state of survival in terms of support, exposure, prestige, transmission processes, and infrastructure. This is the time for all of us who love, make, or work in music to collaborate with communities across the world to empower them to forge musical futures on their own terms. As we have seen in our research, both small and major gestures make a difference for music practices in transition and at risk, especially if the driving force behind this is not nostalgia or neo-colonialism, but appreciation of the idea that with a little effort and insight, it is possible to negotiate ecologies of musical diversity in a globalized, mediatized world.’ 

The weakening of the globalized, mediatized world is now imminent. Localized and de-mediatized world is emerging. The individual centric western style living, to safeguard from virus infection, is now adopting Asian style social distancing and social-centric living.  Hence localized and de-mediatized world will revive the musical ecosystem, fostering the musical diversity and creativity.

To survive during the above transformation, the music composers will have to transform to ‘Musical Building Architects’. Thanks to the developments in the Music Information Technology (MIT), it is now viable.

(To continue)

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