Performing arts comprises Music, Dancing and Arts. If we take all of them into consideration individually, in Sri Lanka all of them are very well known and immensely grown. There are highly skilled artists. People love artists as they present their inventions/creations often.
Well… consider only Music with compared to other arts, these is a huge empty and vacant area. most of Sri Lankan’s do not see this. Not because they don’t but because they actually can’t. Do not blame the people. It’s the education and the culture which has done this.
We are proud of ourselves, as we have a great nation, a rich culture, had ancient kingdoms which are architecturally brilliant, have an exclusive and rich language (Sinhala) and etc. All of these are unarguably true and we should be proud of them. But there are some things that we haven’t been doing all the time. That is, Adoption of new things and Alterations to the ways of thinking. The thinking patterns haven’t been changed of many people.
Most people see things as it is and when something is done differently they think that you are Braking the Rules. This problem has affected almost everything in the country. Development of a country is based on the people’s thinking patterns; not the Economy that many think which affects.
Anyway, since the topic here is Music, Better try to stick with it.
There are many categorized music roots in Sri Lanka. To list some of major one’s down;
- Eastern Classical Music
- Light Music (POP music)
- Western POP/Rock/Hip-hop Music
- Band type music (Mostly 6/8 beat and Baila)
1. Eastern Classical Music
Mainly performed by artists who have mastered South Indian Classical Music. Unfortunately considerable numbers of people out of them are not much skilled in Music, though they have higher qualifications in Music. The dark side of this situation is that some of these low skilled artists are not even having actual qualifications of respective institutions (mostly Indian) that they say they do have. It’s a shame that this has happened to the Music industry as it’s already happening to most other industries.
2. Light Music (POP music)
You will hear this type almost 60% if you just listen to the radio or watch TV. Description of the categories would be as follows;
i) Some are made relative to so called (proudly presented) our own music (most of them are Mix of Sinhala Jana gee and Indian classical ragas)
ii) Some are made relative to classical music (Indian classical ragas)
iii) Some are made relative to Bollywood music (Indian film songs)
iv) Some are made relative to western (POP) music (recent Hip-hop style adaptation)
If you name any popular artist in the island, he/she has some hits of any/many of above kinds. If you take the category (i), there are relatively small numbers of artists and songs are produced. The reason is, these types of songs can only be produced and performed by a one who has a good knowledge and skill of both Indian Classical Music and the patterns Sinhala Jana Gee (Sinhala Music).
Category (ii) is also not so well produced. Time to time we see some songs which are so close to Indian film songs. There are some song albums that have Indian film songs sung by local artists in Sinhala (Sinhala lyrics to original melody).
Category (iv) is growing and has hit the urban industry (market). People in urban cities are working as if they were machines. They have become used to work like that and that has made them more westernize (in terms of Culture and Living Styles). The category (iv) fits with them without a problem.
3. Western POP/Rock/Hip-hop Music
There are 2 types of artists who try to do creation of this kind.
i) Those are Artists already famous
ii) Younger generation newbies.
i) Artists who have become stars and who want to be super stars try on this music. Most of the songs are played with the same orchestra which they use in “2. Light Music (POP music)”. It’s because they just trying to plug in more to the industry by identifying the market trend, but not my releasing any quality or good music.
ii) Newbies trying this as a weapon. Trying to hit the market like ka boom! Here we are. The thing you’ve been waiting for… Naah! It won’t last long son. Most new groups and individuals out there and were tried and failed (sadly). The reason is they do not have enough skills and qualifications to produce a quality production.
4. Band type music
(Mostly 6/8 beat and Baila) No need of describing. You might have heard these if you have ever gone on a bus. The worst profiled/ worst quality /mostly unacceptable songs that one can ever hear in a life time. Wonder how much people still loves these songs.
Music should be presented to people as a medicine, but not as a service for a demand or a business.
We occasionally see eastern classical music performances as stage performances. In public media (Television, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines and etc) we do not see any at all. This has mainly helped falling of music industry in Sri Lanka. National media is the drive of a nation. It shows the path that people should go.
When media becomes less in quality, the people certainty follows that without knowing that they actually going down. Humans have memory gaps in their amazing mind. They try to fill them in from different sources that they find. What most find as the main source is the so called public media. When main source injects rubbish, people’s heads get filled (injected) by wrong and inequality information.
Quality of a song mainly depends on the vocalists singing ability and skill. If this is not there, production is (should be) failed. The melody, lyrics carry the next equal importance in a song and the quality of instruments played in background music is always adds more and more plus points to a song.
In Sri Lanka there are skilled and unskilled artists are recognized equally as very good artists. This should be avoided. Otherwise people cannot identify who are the real talented artists.
This is a list of THINGS TO DO to DEVELOP MUSIC INDUSTRY in SRI LANKA
- Education of music in Sri Lanka needs critical improvements.
- Top personnel in higher studies institutes and body’s (all music/ dancing/ arts related) of government should be re-evaluated and should be expelled immediately if they fail to show their ability in their qualifications
- New music schools/academies should be started which provides students a gateway to start off in music which leads to a successful career.
- Island wide ranking of artists should be carried out by non-bias representatives or foreign personnel.
- Music production and artists related/friendly laws should be introduced and strengthened, in order to clear off the current fishy industry.
- Music production standards should be introduced and closely monitored.
- Total music production solution facilities should be implemented and sponsored to help making international quality music productions.
The people’s skills, knowledge, enthusiasm and feelings on music cannot be controlled by any of these. But lack of these has been caused the current state and quality of music in Sri Lanka. It works as a cycle. When we correct the mistakes, the new generation always adopts the good things and start from there.
Finally, there’re some advises to all parties.
- Hello popular artists, please try to deliver good quality productions and inventions without just answering to current demand.
- Hi new comers, first of all identify your skills. study the subject well. Try to explore into new dimensions in music without just remixing old melodies with a groovy loopy beat.
- Hi all Reviewers/ Writers and Media personnel, please try not to lift up big names in industry. Stop building false personalities. If they are actually superb, they don’t need any help from you. People will make them superb. Try to compare the industry with international scope. Do not trap people in the good old Frame. Out of the box thinking is what we need from you.
eXtremes of Truth 