“MUSIC IS NOT A STATIC THING… IT HAS TO BE CONTEMPORARY”
Renowned modern Bengali singer-songwriter and music director Srikanto Acharya spoke The Daily Star a couple of months ago, during his visit to Sylhet for The Bengal Sangskriti Utshab, about the timeless appeal of Tagore and old Bengali songs and what makes a song a classic.
What drove you towards recording 'golden oldies' which are now celebrated by audiences worldwide?
Srikanto: When I recorded the albums, there was a trend of remaking songs of yesteryears in Kolkata. Remaking of old songs provided two opportunities – popularising the golden oldies and introducing a new voice to music lovers. Music companies there perceived it as great commercial strategy. I was lucky that the audience received my albums so favourably both in Kolkata, India and in Bangladesh. Some of them were not very popular in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, but when songs are revived after a lapse of several decades, you have to applaud their power. But, if I might take partial credit, I did try to interpret the songs in my own way.
Tagore has been a great musical inspiration for you. How do you interpret Tagore's songs in this day and age?
Srikanto: Tagore is an all-time great composer. His compositions have a sense of precision and modernity. I don't think of Tagore songs as a thing of the past. The more I listen to his songs, the more I am struck by the aesthetic essence of his music. Sometimes I come across a lyric of Tagore and think about his brilliance in saying something so ahead of his time. I first try to understand the modernism in Tagore songs and then I apply it to the rendition of other songs.
What do you think makes a song timeless?
Srikanto: Music is not a static thing. Artists will experiment with music and lyrics; some will succeed, some will not. The audience's taste changes with the passage of time – time is the best yardstick to measure the popularity of a song. If the audience takes a song to their hearts, it will become timeless. But we must also remember that music has to be contemporary. That's the challenge – to create music that is contemporary and classic at the same time.
How has the onset of digital media affected the music industry and your own work?
Srikanto: I closely observe the advent of digital media and sites like YouTube, SoundCloud and others along with audience's changing habits and tastes of listening to music. This actually causes harm to the audio industry. But I cannot transform the trend of time and the audience's responses towards it. I should rather cope with the new situation and adapt to the trend. In the middle of this year, I plan to record several Tagore songs together with some original songs for YouTube.
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