Second Take

I seldom watch NTV, but being stuck indoors due to rain on a recent trip to Daman, I was forced to a liberal dose of it. I don’t have much to say about the fare except for an anti-piracy ad issued by the association of record producers. When piracy makes a big dent on the multi-billion dollar movie and music industry in the west, the extent of its impact on our fledgling audio industry can only be imagined. Music is yet to become a mainstream career, but the industry has seen its share of success stories, and the future promises better and bigger things. Piracy is a major hurdle on the way, but I see the intrinsic flaws more than the external hurdles holding the industry back.

Piracy does affect the revenue from music sales adversely, and I am no advocate of piracy, but more than the impact on the sales due to music piracy, I see the music industry suffering more from piracy of ideas and concepts. The ‘template mindset’ has sounded the death knell for creativity in most areas here. From music to ads to movies, even before we ink the drawing board, we have presets in mind – templates of the finished product picked up from elsewhere. I have no qualms about adapting a style or a genre, but I simply detest clones. I can happily listen to GP belting out their attitude on ‘Ma Yesto Chu’ but I blow my top every time Mystic comes with their clone of Blue’s One Love. I only wonder why? Are we so pathetic and sad? I can understand Mystic coming up with a clone, but how can any music producer agree to produce such trash? Don’t our TV and radio stations have any form of quality control for their programs to be playing those tracks and videos on air? Imagine my surprise at seeing a Nepali music video on Channel Nepal, which featured video footage ripped straight from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, not in, parts but verbatim. Now I wonder who is doing more harm to Nepali music – the pirate or the producer and the media?

Technology can be empowering, and it can help a singer sing better. Our problem lies in thinking that technology can make a singer out of just anybody. The Nepali music industry is growing bigger and our TV channels and Radio stations are making stars of ordinary folk on almost a daily basis. Nepali music sells like never before, but is the future really bright? Our record producers, TV channels, Radio stations and the other so called guardians of Nepali music – are they really in a bid to save Nepali music or is it only a effort to save their pecuniary interests? Just how many singers and musicians that have come up in the past decade can we rate as truly talented? The Uglyz sell, but I would pay to hear the vocalist utter a single ‘clear’ line without the video hiding his flaws. Sabin Rai is hot, but why would I pay to hear a Bryan Adams clone sing in Nepali? If I want good Nepali music I would rather depend on Deep Shrestha who sings like himself. Likewise, if I want to hear Bryan Adams, would I need a clone who is not even half as good?

I have often been told to be nationalistic and ‘to be Nepali and support Nepali’. I do agree to a certain extent to Nepalis helping Nepalis – but we have to stop supporting mediocrity driven by emotional and nationalistic attachments. Nepali music in its current state is at best mediocre, and it is not piracy to blame for its sordid state. As producers, our producers are doing a disservice to Nepali music by producing trash, and so our channels by playing trash, and each one of us by buying trash.

Do not pirate Nepali music, but stop buying and accepting trash that gets made in the name of music.