City folks groove to the remixed tunes
If you had a chance of visiting any dance party, wedding reception or concert of late, you would have noticed a peculiar trend. Youngsters can be seen setting their foot loose to the tunes of old Nepali folk music –repackaged in pop/rock versions by innovative artistes. Welcome to the world of remixed music.
As modern and folk songs find themselves under pressure, the culture of dance music has dominated the Nepali market in recent years coinciding with the growing popularity of the party culture and dance clubs.
To speak of a few years back, the dance parties, which were few and far between, were ruled by Hindi pops, especially the fast numbers. The ‘Wari jamuna, pari jamuna’ of Khem Raj Gurung revived the interest of urban youths towards the folk music. In the subsequent years, a plethora of artistes emerged who followed the trend. And their works were quickly endorsed by the youngsters who found themselves caught up in a time warp where 1960s music were fused with 21 st century’s style. The popularity of songs like Chyangba Hai Chyangba soared as lines between past and present blurred.
One among such innovative artiste is Santosh Subedi, who is generally known as DJ Santosh. He managed to sense this demand, cashing this trend into fame and fortune, when his album ‘Addiction’ reached the market in the late 2004.
“Since my involvement in the music industry some eight years back, I was looking after what Nepali music lovers are demanding for at the same time conscious enough to grow up with the Nepali music,” said DJ Santosh.
However, it was not always a smooth sail for Santosh. Obviously, his work of remixing the older folk songs raised issues related with intellectual property rights. He faced a court case that charged him of violating the copyright regulation. Subsequently, he emerged unscathed as the Section 4 of the copyright act stated that collected folk songs, music or lyrics would not be covered under the act and this, as Santosh claims, saved him from being termed a music pirate or illegal forger of folk music. According to records in the Radio Nepal, most remixed folk songs contained in ‘Addiction’ were not composed by those who sung the songs – rather they were collected by them.
He carried on his efforts as the remixed music started getting hotter and hotter among the dance bar prowlers. By the time he released his third album ‘Magnet’, the popularity of the dance music poured beyond the dance bars or party functions. Artistes were attracted to give their voice for dance numbers to such an extent that established singers like Kranti Ale, Sugam Pokhrel, Raju Lama, Kumar Basnet, Sambhujit Baskota, among others, extended their involvement in the production of remixed music.
Till date, the dance numbers almost always are based on old popular folk songs. The conjunction lies around: most remix singers have folk music background – some are themselves folk singers.
Shyam Nepali folk singer-turned-remix artiste says, “Unless the folk songs depicting Nepali folk stories are tuned with the demands of the time, they might vanish by next generation.”
‘Salko pata’ singer Aastha Rawat, a bachelor’s student at the Campion’s College, agrees with Shyam Nepali. However, she is undecided that remixed singing would be her career because she has an academic background in journalism. Still she wishes to sing songs that best fit the demands of the market.
Nepali agrees with DJ Santosh that without being able to keep pace with the changing demands, expansion of Nepali music industry is impossible. In his attempt to show the evidence of such expansion, Santosh says, most Hindi dance numbers have been displaced from the parties and clubs after the introduction of the remixed Nepali fast songs.
According to Suman Shrestha of Riaz music, the demands for remix albums has reached as high as 30,000 (cassettes and CDs) while those of folk songs have dropped down to 15,000. Pop and modern songs sell even lesser. He said demands for more remix albums have come from Pokhara, Narayangadh, Birtamode, Butwal, Nepalgunj, Mahendra Nagar and Dhangadi, as it spreads its wings across the urban Nepal where the party prowlers and dancing clubs are getting popularity. Santosh says he received reports that his album is ‘rocking’ even in far flung places like Salli Bazaar in Jajarkot district.
No matter what challenges and criticisms lay ahead to establish the market of the dance music, its Nepali innovators seem committed to go ahead, and face challenges head on. If the Nepali Diaspora, which largely remains unknown of the new Nepali music, could be updated of the changing trends in Nepali music industry, the prospects of Nepali music enjoying place in the international arena are high. The expanding Nepali Diaspora can add fuel to this fire because they know, ‘it’s the time to disco’.
Published in Nepalnews.com