Cassette boom

CASSETTE CULTURE - Popular Music and Technology in North India: Peter Manuel; Oxford University Press, YMCA Library Building, First floor, Jai Singh Road, Post Box No. 43, New Delhi-110001. Rs. 595.

THE PRESENT book is the first scholarly account of Indian popular music but, going beyond the cassette phenomenon, it enables the reader to understand the contemporary culture and social issues in India.

Peter Manuel conducted research on the subject in India in two spells during 1989-90 and 1990-91 and found little scholarly literature on any aspect of the topic. He had to depend on journalistic articles and reviews but most of his research consisted of interviews with producers, musicians, folklorists, and music lovers connected with the cassette boom. The first edition of the book was well received by the public and this second edition was published this year.

The record industry in India had an early start with commercial records being marketed as early as 1902. The British-owned Gramophone Company of India (now called Saregama Ltd.) had the well-known label "His Master's Voice (HMV)'' and had virtual monopoly in the field. Within two years of its inception in 1910 the company released over 4000 recordings. Since being taken over by an Indian group recently, it has ceased to be a foreign multinational, has diversified into myriad activities and continues to be the largest company in the music industry. A notable recent entry into the market is Music Today, a branch of India's newsweekly India Today. Attractive packing and aggressive sales promotion secured for the company a sale of over one-lakh copies of a tabla solo by Zakir Husein and Alla Rakha.

Piracy has been the nemesis of the cassette industry from the beginning. In a long chapter the author discusses this topic in great detail and concludes that most producers are reconciled with this evil.

But the most interesting chapters in the book are those dealing with the different kinds of Indian music recorded in cassettes in the various regions of our country.

These include the traditional ghazal, devotional music, bhajans, Rasiya of the Braj culture, regional music and songs on socio- political movements. Intensive research has gone into these chapters and a wealth of information, highly useful to musicians and musicologists, has been presented.

The author must have listened to innumerable cassettes in different dialects to arrive at his conclusions. His illuminating notes on the 10 chapters of book, the glossary of Indian language terms, the bibliography and the index enhance the value of this study which is the only one of its kind.

T. S. PARTHASARATHY

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