I don’t get it.

Only thing is that most popular desi female vocal artists voices are waaaaaaay to shrill for the non-initiated ear. That is the only general drawback. And some of the male classical singers sound like sick cows wailing and mooing with their aaahhhhhh …. uuuuuhhhhhs. You know, those classical ragas where the human voice is made to sound like an instrument. That is also an acquaired taste over time. But stuff like bhangra I can see becoming popular over here.

While I am sure there are many obscure WCM composers who have ccreated truly philosophically rich works, the large mass of WCM from the times of Bach till the advent of Impressionists in the late 19th century, deals with very simple themes, quite simplistically.

Err, what? That’s a huge and controversial statement to make, whatever do you base it on?

Akut, really interesting comments. I agree with you on pretty much everthing, didn’t know also that earlier pianists and conductors were expected to improvise. It’s certainly a technique that has been pretty much stamped out of the current learning repetoire. Which is a pity sometimes. It was only when playing in a band that I learned to transcribe and transpose chords by ear. Although when I sang classical for three years I did learn some improvisation and acquired better pitch sensitivity by singing intervals.

You may be correct about the difference in the meaning behind Indian songs vs. Western songs, but if you can only presume what they are about based on how they sound, then you can’t really understand their meaning. One shouldn’t judge music simply on its meaning. There is no Indian equivalent to American indie rock or Brazilian hip hop, and my point has more to do with evolution of the sound of music than its meaning. In mainstream India there are really only movie soundtracks, carnatic & hindustani music, and western cover bands. There are exceptions, but those are few.

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