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The Cassette Industry and Popular Music in North India

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The Cassette Industry and Popular Music in North India City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research John Jay College of Criminal Justice 1991 The Cassette Industry and Popular Music in North India Peter L. Manuel CUNY Graduate Center How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_pubs/320 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] pl'\^ {/0, ?tular Music (1991) Volume 10/2 The cassetteindustry and popular music in North India PETER MANUEL Since the early 1970s the advent of cassette technology has had a profound effect L'lnmusic industries worldwide. This influence has been particularly marked in the world, where cassettes have largely replaced vinyl records and have "leveloping ertended their impact into regions, classesand genres previously uninfluenced by the mass media. Cassettes have served to decentralise and democratise both pro- .iuction and consumption, thereby counterbalancing the previous tendency ton'ard oligopolisation of international commercial recording industries. While the cassetteboom started later in India than in areas such as the Middle East and Indonesia, its influence since the early 1980shas been no less significant. in other publications, including a previous article in this journal, I have referred rriefly to the rarnifications of the cassette vogue in India and other countries llanuel 7988a,pp.173-5,1988b, pp.6-7,274).Thisarticleattemptstosummarise, Lrnsomewhat greater depth, albeit still superficially, the salient effects of cassette ;echnology upon the production, dissemination, stylistic development and general :,ultural meaning of North Indian popular music, by which I mean to comprehend :iI those genres, including commercialised folk music, which are marketed as mass ;'-trmmodities and have been stvlisticallv affected bv their association with the mass nedia. Popular music in India before 1980 -:'rthe aforementioned publications I have summarised the development and major =:,-les of North Indian popular musics since the advent of recording technology 1900. At this point it will suffice to reiterate a few of the most basic and :eler-ant-ound characteristics of the popular music scene during this period. The most >.:lient of these features was the relatively undemocratic structure of the music ,:,iustry, control of whose production was concentrated in a tiny and unrepresen- -.rr-e sector of the Indian population. From the mid-1930s until the advent of ::-<settes,commercial film music accounted, by informed estimates, for at least 90 :ei cent of record output.l The dominant eniity throughout was the Hindi film :"lustn', whose production itself lay in the hands of a small number of firms, :lu-,*nucers,actors and actresses, and music producers. Given the vast output of -,1 songs, a certain amount of stylistic and regional variety was naturally evident, ::i 3as been stressed, for example, by Arnold (1988). Nevertheless, the stylistic :r.rLogeneity of the vast majority of film songs was far more remarkable, and was 1Llst conspicuous in the overwhelming hegemony, for over thirty years, of five siiigers - Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, and above all, 189 _tu1 190 PeterManuel -:'-11r5 LataMangeshkar.SincevocalstyleinT:,i.issuchanessentialandbasicaesthetic :'- , il. ffilld liifl-i,i],T $M [*Hr,nx'L*::#irtxJri*Hix"[:*i3'l1;nttftn+i;**rr' ltm,u il s music and singing .: r ili[$]lfi1ilmr!fi{l Sll|{$irUtlllfi'd ilHI:."i.:",*#F'J:':L'i'iil'T::i;fip'8) *{t}:*:f""1*#*[t*l rnnilluwEs; *J**t.r',ui1*"uiu'" intl' +':J",#,'@ Th ;i"h;varietv i+"Jil:'n:li*:tl;or rr ilmuditnn Al*t|;# m ff:il'T:'il:il"'ffi' 'ItLitl|ri:I'lmt$M dealing almost exclusivelY I musics. --^rr-,rimileri in subiect"i matter, nrordlue-w :# s; nwrciumrrdid :gl'd "" f: ll'ii {q in*:nJ i:i :: ilI "''" ''"' f ;,lJ'ais oili:.j r tne irrruuiiie, --,no* tr,y * ".]"ffi J:ti!:i+li,l'"H ffi runum11'imnud ",",,movies " tn"H?;"r?"ffiilTtso *.:*n:*;,i:i Indian llL']lr'(g'EIflt rndian basicto '"i'X"*J radio;only the rrnuirfiiilqummLri illllmm,onqmn *.:t**nHl{A$tir$irr:iirit*Ii1,$;*,.i1";,'#'llrumn,qililt ilfim lne.g*sml 1lr,c ;.,M *xi**89*rff*+Hq':}:"'*ffid,s:diil;ilrr;'i.tilulltu ;; ;h r'ever or stand a rd s J*'i',h*"'n# Hil J;.lil'il; " t.rj rry fi$[n "'" ot ?lrlrrtratrvrl;:;';"xiffx"'"?: commun"J cient was any- sort It is such a sense ot ']ll:;:;; :tr :lfe :llt,:,.je( f?i""le1?iT ,,lE Ll ctivecommunitY an d 1an gu ag -_-ii-: colte ],#: i JfiT ?lr;,;;. "' ", T'^'rt;'j:,fi$ f m -(- -_t -\ :*::ilT?T,TlU;;-f,:*,nrns;:IH*"ffi :;-'eyil"::ru :re:er I asthe escapist cin In ihe I ::-$y;:.:Ti;f"ti**tv "rienating an.i ]Tt ltt' igntrre. "tib"dd"d unl.i-itle Master's Voice alternatives to His ber"rld The advent of cassettes: ethnl'l qon L-a i YJ'1";;,TT:::::',:1'*musiccassettesbega::*':'*r*;HfjJi:$reliirl :;;#;F,"*::::;11,'lt*i',i'i',X,U;,i5:T;:,;ru:fir ell. i i;;*'il:',i.;.i^.}ildiverv '*in+'i:?,1'iffJr3lT'??r:rTilJr,r*tli{t*t*rffi:il-1i1- 3 : .:=n : X** T ---::-,\ : ''.:- :.: *$#$ff**lt*usfi;;;;il""'*'1no".1,?1iil:,1.,,i::;i;1ti:1ilihT':i'ffIh$#+:*di''ffi:"1":iti:"J"li1t-a;:; '*"T;r- :1. #:**i,}*i*f"'t"'ru:r*i:fftg'#e"utri:il?'ffi in NorthIndis 197 Thecassette industry and popular music rnarrufacturerswerenowabletoproducepresentablecassettesandplayers,the aforementioned imported ."-f"""",s o'r not.' Finally, rrhether using some class while of questionable benefit to the lower economic riu".ii*tion iolicies, consumerism the purchaslng.P.owr and general majority, the "..ri;;;;t-""lhu"t"d secto* oi in" lower-middle classes' in of the middte classesand even somJ countrysid.eu,'-"rtasthecities.Thisdevelopment,amongotherthings,has of t"l"rririons and casiettes in slums and greatly contrinuieJ to the protif"rutior-, the country'a irittug"" throughout music industry technology effectively restructured the The advent of cassette the had come to account for 95 per cent of in India. By the mid-1980s,cassetteJ Lui"g purchased only by wealthy audio- recorded music market, with record, prefer using themas masters)'5The philes, raaio statior,sand cassettepirates 1wfio by HMV (now Gramophone Co' of recording industry monopoly f"tq"ttt:"ioy-e-d India,or,GramCo,)dwindledtolessthan-lSpercent.ofthemarketasover300 while salesof film music remained strong, competitors tn" r".orairlg field. "*;;i - fro1. $] z mjllion in 1980 to over $12 , the market market' ";;JJ;o "tpo''J''tontcame to constitute only about half of the , mllion in 1gg6?- that film music and devotionai music, and other forms of , the remainder consisting oi r"glo.uilok 'basic' pop music' ;;;-il;'. or in industir- parlutl't"' I ended the unchallenged the cassetterevolution nua a"ri"itively In ettect, of film music, of of the corporatemusic industry in general, n heeetrftonvot GramCo, gombay film music of the uniform aestheticof the -.tnuI-ata-\trukJ.:o.ui ,wf" ana ,- a few hundred million music listeners ir;rlrs.* n .n had been superimpose{ 91 ; factors were the relatively low expense o,._errhe y"u.r. The crucial v Fr-.";;;-;r,1, its lowered production costs which t, .ut=*tt" t"?htoiogy' and especially t" F: t",Pttry"ti:e throughout the country' enahledsmali, 'coftage'cissette tomputti"i rq regional markets to whose diverse rt ,^.ul"u"r, t"^ito have local, specialised, ]: to respJnd in a manner quite uncharac- nr,*sical- rfr"y are able und *i''lrrg id cornpanies, which, as we have seen, :eristrc oi-r"r"rl the monoiolistic major recordi.rg be to criqtea mass homogeneousmarket' l,refer ,o uoor"r, urrd, u, much as possible, as have been energeticallyrecording lin the process,the backyard.usreit" companies which were previously marketi;; ;ll ,,'uJr,", of regional 'iittle traditions' an. being oriented toward ignored Uy HrfiV and the fin' p'JO":"t:: -""it cassette-basedllTl:nutl musics are aimed at a undifferentiatedfilm-goefs, most of ihe new target audiences' *:*t of class' age' gender' Lrervildering o? specific ll ,/as ""ri",y occupation(e'g' Punjabi truck drivers' ethricrt,v,,regionand, in some ou'J'' the """" in terms of their region' trr"'*it"' producers themselvesare varied lllv songs)' class backgrounds as insofar is many are lower-middle class, their ,i, religion and, more t r"u.,, of musical production is thus incomparably Mas rr.ell. Ownetri'rip".i,n" is be?orethe cassetteera' As a iesult' the average',t:^:"lt^t:Indian .ers diverse tnan thatnow,asrt".r",b"fo'e,offeredthevoicesofhisownto**''tttityasmass-mediated alternativesto His Master'sVoice' il; orientation, operating prac- The cassetteproducers now. Vary greatly in size, rary are the handful of major fkms, uiz' tices and **r"p"iir."ters. On the o'.,e"hani und and-inability to compete' relies GramCo, ."ni.it, hampered by inefficiency cas- and a break-away firtn' on its back catalog"" film music; CBS rt of primarily "f Polygram's Music *hich speciatJe in releases of western music; and Magnasound, Industries (SCI)' a ftt-i'ly Polydor); T-Serieslsuper Cassette after india Ltd. lft4fi, diannewelbusinessfoundedbytheruthlessentrepreneurGulshanArora,witha t92 PeterManuel i--:estu-ork diversecataloguenowincludingmostCurrentfilmmusic;Venus,aBombay-basedcover ,epertoire; and TIPS, which specialisesin concern with a ,i-ifuriy ai"er# '',--rrg nosl are the smaller regional producers' til t-tryt nila ,"::,1- - - -:-- -'- versions of pop ,orrir.'on ---i,-: 500 nationally.TThese themselves range which probably r,,rrl]Ii". betweer1250and insizefromregionalfolk/popproducerslikeDelhi,sMax,SonotoneandYuki,with _ ._ i _- i - like Chandrabani Garhwal series' over a thousand releases'-isgg, to operations "u&, a single cassette.Beyond this level are whose series, u, or consisted'of, who record music and sell copies numerous provincial ;;;;;p;;;""rial individua"ls them with simple one-to-onesetups' ;;;ta;Jt, out of ttreir residences'dubbing .l- -.i.].:r.j * t;: Technology, financing and PitacY r'i Theexpensesandtechnicalresourcesofthecassetteproducersnaturallyvaryinand ".
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