Hi Sahil, Really enjoyed your analysis what makes ARR music different from others. Almost my sentiments.
However, I would like to add a frequently forgotten point about his degree in (English Classical) music from Trinity College, Oxford, England, UK. This degree may (in part) have given him greater insight into music outside India. It appears to me (and I could be totally incorrect) that ARR then using his greater knowledge merged the two, i.e. western and Indian music in his compositions. We have seen a lot of western classical fused with indian classical in many of his compositions, especially the recent ones, including Water (which he composed a while back)
Neena.
ST <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 1) What makes A R Rahman's Music different from
> others. It would be better if you could tell me in
> terms of the instruments he uses etc.
>
I don't think his choice of instruments is what "really" sets him
apart although it is crucial, instrumentation is only one component
of a good soundtrack. We all know he is a technophile when it comes to
musical production, and probably adds more synthesized sounds in his
tracks than any other composer in India. Rahman and his troupe have
mastered this technology superbly. Yet I don't think his success can
be attributed to his sound engineering skills. He would have been just
as successful in the time of - now revered - musical masterminds,
Mozart, Beethoven, etc. - in a pre-technological age where choice of
musical instruments was also quite narrow.
What does make his music different, to me, is the nature and style of
his melodies.
Conventional music composers had mastered a set of techniques to
convey a small set of emotional boundaries with little variance. Think
of it as mapping a continuous space, the universe of emotional
conveyance U, into discreet valued subsets S, where S << U. Clearly
there was much room to expand, and no doubt other people were trying
to do so this is what the society considers true artists; those that
bring novelty into their productions.
The only problem is (by some measure) human beings are not very
creative thinkers we feed off ideas of others, and we make progress
one stepping stone at a time. One of the clearest indications of this
premise is the way research community works each person's
contributes a fairly small set of - typically subtle - ideas that in
retrospect are a simple and obvious extension to previous work, but
may have gone through a long ride to get there. We can extend the same
general argument to the field of music. Genres have formed because
people repeatedly conceived similar style of musical compositions. We
keep complaining about lifted tunes by copy-cat musical "wannabes".
And how often have we listened to a catchy pop-style tune that fades
away swiftly.
The point of this little digression is that Rahman has demonstrated a
clearly superior creative ability in music and through this he has
been able to step outside the narrow discretized range of ideas of in
his field, and prove that indeed the established set of emotional
properties were not discreet subsets, but a wide spectrum of
experiences. He can create an ambience that runs across portions of
this spectrum. His every track (almost) is as unique and creative as
the first we know he has the ability to roam farther in the universe
of all possible emotions that can be conveyed than just about anyone
else in the business. And because the explored states are much smaller
than its universe (S << U), there is plenty of room for further
exploration.
Put simply, he has the unique ability to convey "unexplored" and of
course divine emotions through his melodies that is what sets him apart.
As for a more complete argument, we'll have wait for neurological
studies that identify how we react to different properties of sound.
(It's not going to happen in our lifetime)
> 2) (This is like the more impotant one).Why do you
> think It is only A R Rahman tha has been so succesful
> internationaly while his indian counterparts have been
> trying to capture Indian Markets.
>
Much of the previous answer can easily be substituted here. I'll just
add few more comments.
Music is a purely emotional experience regardless of the
demographics of the audience, the genre, or the language. While people
from a given culture may have been attuned to particular styles of
music, what the melodies and rhythm try to convey can be experienced
regardless of the cultural boundary, and certainly appreciated when an
inconceivably unique tune falls upon the ears. It's true! Even we
Indian fans hear portions time to time, despite listening to him all
these years, which we simply could not have imagined had it not been
for ARR's genius.
Now, since ARR has far greater musical creativity and an ability to
churn out complex, unheard of, and yet emotion-arousing notes, it is
no surprise that he has maintained a strong hold on the Indian market
(we'll among his original fans at least) while venturing out
internationally. Put bluntly, his Indian counterparts don't have as
much inherent musical talent. His (super) success internationally will
not come because there is any shortage of musical composers in the
international arena, but because there is a clear void in the market
for a talent as fluent and expressive through the language of music as
of Rahman.
I don't think personality factor plays as much role here because his
work is behind the curtains showbiz. Though, from what we hear, his
humble and warm nature, and a pure heart, must have inevitable played
a role in him being accepted into the international circle of
prominent musical artistes.
> 3) What is the Profile of people Outside India who
> love A R Rahman music.(how many are of Indian Origin
> etc.)
>
Those that hear him with an open mind are addicted just like we are.
Unfortunately 99.99% of the people have never even heard of him, let
alone listen to his work. Hopefully that will change with LOTR.
I would say 99% of international crowd that loves ARR music is of
Indian origin.
Bombay Dreams and WOHE havecertainly put him out there in the
international crowd, but that is nowhere close to the critical mass
for him to truly explode as he did with Roja.
Sure, you can use my name in your report, and feel free to correct any
typos.
- Sahil
--- In [email protected], vishwakant malladi
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I am a student from IIT Bombay and have been a member
> of this ofr quite some time now.As a part of Human
> Science course(which we have to take), I am supposed
> to do a project on a media personality and I being an
> ARR fan had to choose him.Anyway, as a part of this
> project I have to ask people about the man and what
> better place to ask people about A R Rahman that a
> group of hia die hard fans.SO It would be really
> helpful if you could answer the following
> questions.(Please,there is no bar on how technical you
> can get and how "unspecific" you can get)
>
> 1) What makes A R Rahman's Music different from
> others.It would be better if you could tell me in
> terms of the instruments he uses etc.
>
> 2) (This is like the more impotant one).Why do you
> think It is only A R Rahman tha has been so succesful
> internationaly while his indian counterparts have been
> trying to capture Indian Markets.
>
> 3) What is the Profile of people Outside India who
> love A R Rahman music.(how many are of Indian Origin
> etc.)
>
>
> It would be really helpful if you could answer these
> three questions.Please feel free to reply that way you
> want.I think any comment, suggestion and opinion will
> be useful.
>
> Thanks and Regards.
> Malladi Vishwakant.
>
> P:S . Would it be O.K if I use your name in my report?
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________
> Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your partner now. Go to
http://yahoo.shaadi.com
>
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