Locating the Music Album Jag Changa as a Third Space and Examining the Conservation of Folk Elements through Hybridization A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Philosophy in English by Midhun Kumar (Reg. No 1630012) Under the Guidance of John Joseph Kennedy Professor of English Department of English CHRIST (Deemed to be University) BENGALURU, INDIA December 2017 DECLARATION I, Midhun Kumar, hereby declare that the dissertation, titled ‘Locating the Music Album Jag Changa as a Third Space and Examining the Conservation of Folk Elements through Hybridization’ is a record of original research work undertaken by me for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in English. I have completed this study under the supervision of Dr. John Joseph Kennedy, Dean, Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of English. I also declare that this dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship or other title. It has not been sent for any publication or presentation purpose. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation. Place: Bengaluru Midhun Kumar Date: Reg. No. 1630012 Department of English Christ (Deemed to be University) Bengaluru Kumar ii CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the dissertation submitted by Midhun Kumar (Reg. No. 1630012) titled ‘Locating the Music Album Jag Changa as a Third Space and Examining the Conservation of Folk Elements through Hybridization’ is a record of research work done by him/her during the academic year 2016-2017 under my/our supervision in partial fulfilment for the award of Master of Philosophy in English. This dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship or other title. It has not been sent for any publication or presentation purpose. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation. Place: Bengaluru Dr. John Joseph Kennedy Date: Professor of English & Dean, Humanities and Social Sciences Department of English Christ (Deemed to be University) Bengaluru Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Christ University for facilitating and providing an extremely stimulating, inspiring and enriching academic environment for this research. I sincerely thank Rev. Dr. Thomas C Mathew, the Vice Chancellor and his team, for making available such a platform. I extend my sincere gratitude to my guide Dr. P. John J Kennedy, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences for his ideas, moral support and patience throughout the duration of the course which helped me complete this research. I would also like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Prof. Shobhana Mathews whose commendable support has made this paper an engaging study. I am obliged for her advice, constant guidance, feedback and motivation. The Head of the Department of English, Dr. Abhaya N B and the Co-ordinator Mr. Joseph Edward Felix had meticulously worked out the M.Phil programme to make sure that the course progressed bit by bit through thick and thin. Sincere thanks are due to all those professors who enlightened us through their lectures on different topics foundational and supplementary to the course. I am grateful to the Librarians of the University who were pro-active with ready assistance and help. A word of thanks also to the Director and the staff of the libraries in the College for going an extra mile to help me with books and other reference resources necessary for the research. Most importantly, I would like to appreciate the Raghu Dixit Project for their support. Especially the manager Gaurav Vaz, whose interviews at the stroke of mid night deserves special appreciation. I would like to thank Kalyani Nandakumar for all the engaging thoughts and ideas, Father Vinod, Sohail Guledgudd and Janhavi Chadha for contributing to development of my research. Lastly, I would like to surrender all my heartfelt gratitude to my parents for being supportive with their generosity. Midhun Kumar Abstract Cultural mixing can be traced even beyond the Colonial era. It is evidently felt even today in a globalized world as the physical and metaphorical borders have turned into a melting pot of multiple cultures. The cultural mixing resulting from globalisation takes many forms, music as a mixed cultural form and practice has also continually engaged in the process of hybridization. Furthermore, in an in-between world, it becomes crucial to explore the negotiation and exchange of cultural elements in the domain of music. Therefore this thesis seeks to locate the cultural product or artifact from Bengaluru, Jag Changa, a music album by Raghu Dixit as a third space, and examine if folk music elements in the album are conserved or remains as a residue of the process of Hybridization. The dissertation will employ the postcolonial concept of Hybridity and Third Space by the theoretician Homi K. Bhabha as the framework to explore the album. The exploratory study poses the following questions: Is Bengaluru a conducive space for hybridization? What is the structure of authority in the songs of the album? Does the album augment negotiation and difference, which would make it a third space? And most importantly, is the folk music elements in the album conserved or do they remain as a residue of hybridization? In short, this is an exploratory research which focuses on the primary objective of understanding if folk music elements in the album Jag Changa are conserved or remains as a residue through hybridization. The exploration will be done at two levels, region as well as text. In Chapter two, the first core- chapter, the researcher will examine the region of Bengaluru in order to understand if it is conducive to the process of hybridization. This is in preparation for chapter three, which will analyze the text Jag Changa by Raghu Dixit Project, a band situated in Bengaluru. The researcher will engage in genre, form and text analysis to locate the album as a third space. All the eight songs of the album will be examined to understand the acoustic design that enables the conservation of the folk sound elements. To conclude by providing more depth to the exploration, the researcher will also examine the role of marketing strategies adopted by Raghu Dixit Project in augmenting the conservation of folk elements of the album. CONTENTS APPROVAL OF DISSERTATION _____________________________________________ II DECLARATION __________________________________________________________ III CERTIFICATE ____________________________________________________________ IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ___________________________________________________ V ABSTRACT ______________________________________________________________ VI CONTENTS _____________________________________________________________ VI1 LIST OF FIGURES_________________________________________________________IX CHAPTER 1 _______________________________________________________________ 1 INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW ________________________________ 1 1.1 FOLK-ROCK FUSION MUSIC CULTURE OF BENGALURU _________________ 5 1.2 FUSION, COLLABORATION AND HYBRIDITY ___________________________ 8 1.3 SOUND AS A MEDIUM AND ITS POSSIBILITIES _________________________ 11 1.4 EXTENDED LITERATURE REVIEW ____________________________________ 12 1.4.1 Hybridity and Third Space ___________________________________________ 12 1.4.2 Region __________________________________________________________ 14 1.4.3 Text_____________________________________________________________ 15 1.4.4 Sound ___________________________________________________________ 19 1.4.5 Marketing and Branding_____________________________________________ 19 1.5 OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS _______________________________________ 22 WORKS CITED ___________________________________________________________ 23 CHAPTER 2 ______________________________________________________________ 26 EXPLORING BENGALURU AS A CONDUCIVE SPACE FOR HYBRIDIZATION ___ 26 2.1. UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC CULTURE IN THE MULTIPLE CITY ___________ 26 2.2. BENGALURU’S CULTIVATED TASTE _________________________________ 28 2.3.THE RISE OF AN URBAN MONSTER ___________________________________ 29 2.4 INFERENCE ________________________________________________________ 31 2.5. CONTEXTUALIZING THE MUSIC CULTURE IN BENGALURU ____________ 32 2.6. INFLUENCE OF MTV ON BENGALURU________________________________ 34 Kumar 2 2.7 INFERENCE ________________________________________________________ 36 WORKS CITED ___________________________________________________________ 40 CHAPTER 3 _____________________________________________________________ 43 ANALYSIS OF THE ALBUM JAG CHANGA _________________________________ 43 3.1 GENRE ANALYSIS __________________________________________________ 43 3.2 FORM ANALYSIS ___________________________________________________ 45 3.3 TEXT ANALYSIS ____________________________________________________ 47 3.4 PREVIEW, DESCRIPTION AND CONTEXT ______________________________ 48 3.5 ANALYSIS OF THE SONGS ___________________________________________ 54 3.5.1 Parasiva _________________________________________________________ 54 3.5.2 Rain Song________________________________________________________ 57 3.5.3 Jag Changa _______________________________________________________ 60 3.5.4 Yaadon Ki Kyaari _________________________________________________ 63 3.5.5 Amma __________________________________________________________