Rockstars vs. Musicians:
Rockstars and Divas are the modern day role models of the youth of the country. They become more than music they play, they become symbols of certain lifestyles, movements and missionaries of certain school of thought. Both are either made or arrive on the mainstage by the propulsion of their own work. These branches though convergent source from very different roots. One being a formal institutional route and another, a more underground and informal one. These paths also intertwine, with underground musicians joining major record labels and established artists opening labels of their own.
Indian Music has consisted of members of both paths working together since ancient times. Though historically, the formal way of reaching stardom has propelled more artists into stardom than the informal ones, in the recent past it has usually been a case of mixing of both in varying levels. Generation of talent from certain organisations has made people associate them to beacons of quality music.
Today the scenario is more diversified, conglomerated and segmented than even before. One school of thought is of the opinion that this is a natural evolution towards the development of music. Hence there are several spheres of music co-existing simultaneously today. Music performances today have gone beyond a purely sonic treat. A whole host of supporting activities go into making a Rockstar today. From Marketing agencies\PR activities to Merchandising and World Tours.
These activities, though aim at propelling talent to instant stardom across regional or national boundaries, the funding gone behind such activities has increased their ability to influence which musicians would be promoted and what they should portray increasingly over the past few decades. This has spelled various advantages and disadvantages for the music scene. Such a scenario has made it crucial for musicians to be aware of all these avenues and act accordingly as otherwise it would be someone else making these decisions for them.
Let us consider a band called Agnee which consists of lead guitarist Koko, drummer and percussionist Varun Venkit, bassist Rushad Mistry, drummer Jai Row Kavi and Michael Pereira as rhythm guitarist. Apart from making music and doing events, a major part of the band’s revenue comes from providing support to other activities such as t.v.shows, films, etc. The idea behind catering to such platforms was to showcase their music to a larger and more diverse audience. Recently, the band got the opportunity to contribute a Hindi theme song “Hello Andhero” for the Hollywood movie “The Avengers”, which is releasing on April 27th .
Certain music genres have not yet been able to achieve the popularity and revenue that engulf mainstream artists. Irrespective of whether by choice or not, Rockstars exist here too, just that they form a different strain of the same tree but pioneers and virtuosos in their own regard. They are looked upon and celebrated by their niche audiences. Hence, today a Rockstar can be a family man with two kids or a bald Buddhist monk, there is no limit to what they can be. Infact, it is they (musicians) who define what Rockstars are.
