We review Indian classical music CDs in Sweden (a large flat country with very few people and fantastic long cold winters) and blog about Indian classical music. Not an MP3 blog with music downloads, just reviews and writing. Believe it or not, we even have a Swedish print magazine about Indian classical music! This is a true underground product which is not distributed anywhere at all; however it does exist.
Why? Because we believe that with good, entertaining music journalism it is possible to drum up interest in music, in our case Indian classical music; and readers deserve better than a glossary masquerading as basic music theory.
Some of the ideas we try to instill in the Swedish people through our writing: Classical music isn’t folk music, vocal music is superior to instrumental, the sitar is superior to the sarod, the Hindu pantheon is real and Saraswati does play the veena, singers are better accompanied by sarangi than harmonium, fusion is confusion, and people who use the term “world music” will be, frankly, put to the guillotine.
Well, we also believe that listeners deserve better than scales masquerading as ragas, technique masquerading as music, and patterns masquerading as melody.
To our astonishment, we have discovered that some readers in faraway countries (India) follow us through Google Translate. This is of course very flattering but also a cause for concern; you may think the translation is surprisingly understandable, but Google’s software loves to insert a “not” into some sentences and remove one from others – it can even switch “men” for “women” – perhaps we will become known in India for a polar opposite of our actual views on music.
After some consideration, we have decided that we welcome this, as we will certainly be more popular that way.
Which is also why we shall remain anonymous.
… and, extend our reach to the stars above!
