They say music flows in the blood of Goans.
Goan musicians have made a name for themselves all over India and abroad. They
were the mainstay of the Bollywood music business and used to perform in
western music orchestras across Asia. The Goa Philaharmonic choir conducted by
Fr Lourdino Barretto was the first choir in Asia to be invited to sing at the
Vatican. They achieved all this and more using only their reputation, built
mostly on word of mouth and recommendations from other musicians.
In Goa, music and musicians thrived as
music concerts, fetes, beat shows and parties were found at every nook and
corner of the state. This used to be a time when music and sound levels weren’t
an issue for the courts to rule on or something that had to be policed. These
events used to begin at 9 pm and carry on into the early hours of the morning.
The newspapers were filled with advertisements for shows and events
highlighting the names of the bands and performers, banners and posters were
hung and pasted on everything from coconut trees to lamp posts and sign
boards. There were ample avenues for
publicity and public performance for musicians.
Along came sound restrictions and with it
the steady decline of public shows to the point where it is now down to a
handful of traditional shows and a few fetes in December. Most of these shows
have a traditional line up of bands which perform there every year. This
greatly limits the options for musicians to perform, to be heard and to get
known. Musicians now have to look for other avenues for publicity. Performing
at niche restaurants and clubs helps connect with people and build a following.
Releasing your own music and having it played on the radio helps too.
The internet has opened up a whole new
world for everyone. We now upload our lives and relationships online via
Facebook, Twitter and other social media, helping us connect with friends and
family across the world. This worldwide connectivity and instant feedback
greatly benefits our Goan musicians as well who take to Facebook to promote
themselves through artist pages, Youtube to feature videos of their
performances, Soundcloud for audio clips of their songs, Twitter to keep in
constant touch with their friends/fans and a website to keep it all together in
one place. Quite often, an artist is judged not by how good his music is but by
how many followers he has on Facebook and Twitter which I think is the wrong
way to go about it because as I type this, Justin Bieber has 59.3 million of
them. From an organiser’s point of view though, it makes sense since the more
the followers the more people will know about the event when the artist posts
about it.
All this can be rather overwhelming for a
musician to handle along with his performing
and music production as well. Some hire PR firms to handle online content and
yes even their Facebook and Twitter posts. Today as a musician I post pictures
and statuses online about my shows, I have a website with my band Purple Rain
and I can be found on Youtube in assorted fan-made videos of the band. My
friends tell me I need to tweet more often to stay relevant so tweet me your
thoughts to my twitter handle below and I’ll give it a go..
