The Sound of Music

This post has nothing to do with the movie of the same name. I remember seeing the movie as a kid, but I never really liked it too much. I could never get my head around musicals, and to this day if I ever end up watching one, I am always disappointed. 

Anyway, what I actually wanted to write about was music. Music is one of my greatest interests, and although I have absolutely zero talent when it comes to playing an instrument or singing, I love it when it comes to a past time, and I can spend hours on end listening to something from my playlist.

I believe music is one of the very rare entities that have a universal appeal. I am yet to come across anyone who has absolutely no interest in any form of music. Of course, just clubbing music into a single generic category is extremely unfair, as it is too broad and diverse a category in itself. I am not an expert but there are hundreds of genres and subgenres of music that are known and almost every artist that exists normally tries to create an individual and exclusive classification for their particular brand of music.

Music has existed for centuries and something that I did not know was that it is assumed to have existed for over 40,000 years based on discoveries that date back to the Palaeolithic age. Music has existed in different form across different cultures and has been mentioned in religious and ancient scriptures like the Vedas, the Bible and many other Greek and Chinese texts. Enough of the history lesson though.

One thing that I realised was that music, despite having a universal appeal is a very individualistic indulgence and everyone has their own specific tastes, choices and opinions on it. Trying to educate someone on music or telling them about how your choice is better than theirs is a wasted exercise. So, I am not going to try to convince anyone on what they should listen to, but I will talk about my particular choice of music.

My earliest memory of listening to music was the collection of my parents, which were the classics like Abba, Bee Gees, A-Ha and BoneyM. I remember growing up listening to, and in the process destroying many of the audio cassettes that my parents had. The chaos had started when I and my brother discovered the record button on our two-in-one. My family was never too interested in Hindi movies, so I never really got into Hindi music, and most of the popular songs of the 90s passed me by without leaving a mark.

I strongly believe that music is a constantly evolving interest, and just like evolution involves a few failures at the start, some of my early tastes in music were not what I am proud of when I think about them now. Unfortunately, I could not escape the pop revolution in totality. There was a phase when I was in school when I would love to listen to the popular songs that had a generous overdose of ‘Baby’ in their lyrics. I have to admit that a decent number of cassettes of these artists can be found lying in my room even to this date.

I grew up at a time when MTV wasn’t a Hindi music channel, and English songs would be played at a reasonably high frequency. When I was studying for my class 10 boards, my interest in music rose significantly and I developed the habit of listening to songs while studying. Even at that time, English music could be found on television in the late night shows which were a good activity whenever I took breaks while studying.

The pop phase of my life didn’t last too long as it was interspersed with a spattering of pop-rock by the likes of Bryan Adams and Bon-Jovi. These artists left a much deeper impact and I stall have their songs on my playlist, even though I almost never listen to them now. My first exposure to metal was when I heard Enter Sandman by Metallica. I ended up buying that album when I was in class 6, but I would listen to it once in a while for the first couple of years. I believe the turning point was when my brother bought an Iron Maiden album titled Best of the Beast a couple of years later. I always considered myself good at picking up the lyrics of the songs that I would listen to, even if I didn’t have a method of verifying if I was correct or not. There was a particular song in that album that forced me to go through the lyrics. It went:

“The White Man Came, Across the Seas,
He Brought us Pain and Misery,
He Killed our Tribe, He Killed our Creed,
He Took our Gain, For His own Needs,
We Fought him Hard, We Fought him Well,
Out on the Fields, We Gave him Hell,
But When it Came, Too Much to be,
Will we Ever, Be Supreme?“

Now, this was a British band, singing against colonisation. I was intrigued, and I decided to go through the lyrics of the rest of the songs on the album and it was a revelation to say the least. Iron Maiden is my favourite band, and the main reason for that is the lyric of their songs. Not long after that I bought their album "Brave New World" and my outlook on music changed forever. I can honestly say that I have not come across a better collection of music in my life. I cannot count the number of times I have heard every single song on that album. One particular song remained my ringtone for more than 4 years till the phone conked off. Me and my brother love to listen to music while driving, and whenever Brave New World would find its place in the car music system, it would stay in there for a couple of months before it got a break for a few days.

Metallica, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Megadeth and Anathema are all phenomenal bands with very meaningful songs that I love to listen to, but nothing comes close to Iron Maiden in my opinion. MP3s helped the cause much more as I was able to amass more songs during my final years in school. During my class 12 boards and subsequent competitive exams, I decided to listen to heavier music in an attempt to stay awake while studying. This failed miserably as I ended up memorising every single song and started falling asleep. My appreciation for Metallica grew as I paid attention to their lyrics as well. There are certain songs by some of these bands that just blew me away and forced me to sample more of their works.

In school, I was never able to find too many friends who shared a similar taste in music, but this changed during my engineering. My friendship with one of my closest friends kicked off when I heard him humming one of the Metallica tunes while we were sitting together in class. I read that in the US, Band T-Shirts are the best ice breakers for university students and I understood why it was that way.

I entered Engineering with a collection of 700 songs and left with a playlist of over 6000 songs. All of them were not rock/metal though. Some of my close friends used to listen to House/Trance and I developed a taste for it. I even started listening to instrumental songs of a completely different kind.

I strongly believe that music transcends the barriers of culture and language. I have songs in multiple languages like German, French, Italian and Spanish on my playlist and although I don’t know what they mean, the sound and the subsequent moods and emotions they induce ensure that words in some cases are quite meaningless. I don’t normally believe in different music for different moods, but I definitely feel that some songs induce certain emotions in me. Even the songs that lack words altogether can sometimes have a significant impact.

In my bucket list of things that I want to do in life, one thing that I was able to check off was attending a concert of one of my favourite bands. If I could, I would have picked Iron Maiden, and I actually got the chance to do that during the third year of engineering when I skipped college and went to Bangalore to watch them perform. The experience of watching a band perform amidst thousands of fans, chanting and singing along is unreal. The heat, sweat, congestion and inhuman discomfort just disappeared as the band performed amidst tens of thousands of screaming, chanting fans. This was the day that India lost to Bangladesh in the 2007 cricket world cup, but that became irrelevant for me at that point of time.

There are a lot of different genres of music that I never developed a taste for, but I am very happy with my current selection, as I believe is every individual. I like to appreciate the effort that goes into the songs, which is why I like rock bands, as you can actually see them perform with their instruments and not use computerised techniques for voice modulation or beats. One of the biggest advantages of music is that it gels perfectly with driving, enhancing my love for the automobile even further. There is one big risk with the power of music, which is that the first song that one listens to everyday gets stuck in your mind the whole day, which makes it an important decision at the start of the day, and for me a bad song can indicate a bad day.

I really regret not being able to play any musical instrument, especially the guitar, but I guess it goes with the entire package of not having any marketable skill. I cannot imagine a world without music and I shudder to think of how I would have travelled if I wasn’t able to carry my music along with me. I currently have over 7000 songs that can play non-stop without repetition for over 20 days, and I would love to get the opportunity to listen to them like that, but life doesn’t always work out that way. Till then, I will just keep listening to my playlist in a random order and take things as they come along.

mu·sic [myoo-zik]

–noun

1. An art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.

2. The tones or sounds employed, occurring in single line (melody) or multiple lines (harmony), and sounded or to be sounded by one or more voices or instruments, or both.

3. Musical  work or compositions for singing or playing.

4. The written or printed score of a musical  composition.

5. Such scores collectively.

6. Any sweet, pleasing, or harmonious sounds or sound: the music of the waves.

7. Appreciation of or responsiveness to musical  sounds or harmonies

Whats in a Name?

Before I begin, let me make my stand clear. I have never read any piece written by Shakespeare, and if things go according to plan, I never will. Also, I am not really sure which of Shakespeare's works had this quote, but I am quite sure someone will make it a point to enlighten me. My education was in a course where English literature was not considered to be of prime importance, so I was able to escape from the agony of reading page after page of texts written in a language that vaguely resembled English but was something I could never quite comprehend.
 
Anyways, I digress from the topic. This particular quote has always been something that got on my nerves, ever since I came across it. I could never agree with anyone who feels that a name is not important. Sure, I get the point that a name is immaterial as the innate characteristics of a person/object would remain the same no matter what it is known as and the whole look at the bigger picture etc. But, at the same time I believe that a name is immensely important and that it needs to be given its due priorities.
 
I am obsessed with my name, and as far as I know, most people I know are very attached to whatever they are called. A name is a part of one’s identity and in most cases is the first thing used to refer to any person. Names of important people transcend a simple identification method and become an adjective/brand. Most brand names that exist are actually named after people or their families. Since cars and weaponry are a couple of things that I am very interested in, most of my examples will be of those two products.

Names form a lineage, and you start associating certain characteristics with them. Most large brands are named after their founders. Most car companies like Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, Porsche, Toyota etc are named after their founders. A Ferrari is not just a fast car, it can be anything that is fast and has a very high performance. Almost all designer brands are named after their founders, and the name now stands for something. Recently an advertisement (a very sad one at that) used the name of a demi-god like cricketer as an adjective. ‘Beejon ka Tendulkar’. (I say Demi-God because living people cannot be gods).
 
Working in a marketing role, I feel that I understand and appreciate the importance of names more than what I did earlier. Whenever a new product is created, a name normally intends to represent the characteristics that it has and/or the characteristics it aims to have. So, if you have a new car being created, the chances of it being called snail or sloth are extremely low. On the other hand a name like Mustang or Diablo makes a lot more sense. Many companies choose a particular naming philosophy and it is actually very interesting to look up the meanings of names of many of the cars that exist. Lamborghini names its cars after famous award winning bulls that have participated in legendary bull fights. This also fits with their logo which is called the Raging Bull. So, Murcielago, Diablo, Gallardo and the latest Aventador have all been very famous bulls. I was curious as to what Estoque, which was a concept that was introduced a couple of years meant and I discovered that it was the name of the sword that is used by matadors in order to sleigh the bull at the end of the fight. Another concept by the same company was called ‘Sesto Elemento’ which means Sixth Element. The concept exhibited a new technology which had extensive use of Carbon Fiber (Carbon being the 6th element in the periodic table).  
Similarly, all weapons that exist have historic and powerful backgrounds. The US Air force arms its helicopters with Hellfire missiles. Some of their famous aircrafts are Raptor, Eagle, Hornet, Warthog and Viper. They use a drone called the Predator and cruise missiles called the Tomahawk. I don’t foresee a weapon called something like butterfly or bunny or a pillow being developed anytime in the near future.
 
The Indian Armed Forces have a brilliant naming system for their indigenous weapons as well that uses our rich cultural heritage and uses names derived from Sanskrit. The missiles like Prithvi, Agni, Nag, Shaurya, Nirbhay and Trishul exude a certain character that is expected from defence equipment. Tanks like Arjun and Bhishma, aircrafts like Tejas and Dhruv, drones like Laqshya are all synonymous with characters and characteristics linked to valour, power, skill and victory. Indian ships have a different naming convention ranging from names of cities, rivers, mountains to hand to hand weapons. One of the best names for weapons that I came across was during the Republic Day parade when an underwater stealth drone was displayed, which was called the Mareech, as it is a decoy drone (Refer to the Ramayan if you don’t understand the significance of this one).

Computer games, another product that I love, use names that give an idea of the type of game they are. So, quake, doom, prey and crysis refer to large scale disasters. ‘Call of Duty’, ‘Company of heroes’ refer to war and organised military. Command and Conquer refers to a strategy game where there is an army at your disposal. Age of Empires, Age of Wonders, Caesar, have a historical backdrop. Need for Speed, Blur and Burnout are racing games. You won’t easily find a game called stuffed panda which would be excessively violent or have a historic backdrop (Well, you could, but you don’t).

Even superheroes use creatures or powers that people like, fear or respect. You have Superman, Spiderman, and Batman etc. But you won’t find characters like Bunnyman or Koala Kid anywhere except in something like Southpark or Whose Line is it Anyway.
 
There is of course another naming system that is used which is purely functional and relies on practicality. An example of the same would be the one used by BMW or Mercedes, which use numbers or an alphabet and a set of numbers which tell you the class, engine type and some other details about the car. This relies on a certain amount of presumed knowledge in order for people to make sense of it.

Almost every religion has an important ceremony whenever a child is named. The event has very high significance and everyone names their children after characteristics that they hope that the child would imbibe or after people who exhibited these traits in religious/historical lore.

Even the nicknames that people assign to their friends, which are generally not supposed to be flattering represent some trait, in case the nickname has some meaning. Of course, most are just an abbreviated version of the name, which can then mean anything at all.

To me, a name is also important for a first impression. In case I meet someone that shares a name with an earlier acquaintance, I tend to assume and associate certain common characteristics with each name. So, if I meet someone who shares the name with a jerk from school, I will assume that the new person could be a jerk. This is not a sensible practice, but a bit of a habit.

All in all, names may or may not make sense, but in most cases a lot of thought goes into the entire naming process. I always feel bad for people who have silly names, as it is something that they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. I love my name as well as my nickname. I can’t accept it if it is not given due importance. So, Mr. Shakespeare, no matter what you write, no matter how much people appreciate your work. You should know, there is a lot that goes in every name. And you can't just belittle it with your blanket statements.


Name [neym]
–noun
1. A word or a combination of words by which a person, place, or thing, a body or class, or any object of thought is designated, called, or known.
2. Mere designation, as distinguished from fact: He was a king in name only.
3. An appellation, title, or epithet, applied descriptively, in honor, abuse, etc.
4. A reputation of a particular kind given by common opinion: to protect one's good name.
5. A distinguished, famous, or great reputation; fame: to make a name for oneself.
6. A widely known or famous person
7. An unpleasant or derogatory appellation or expression
8. A personal or family name as exercising influence or bringing distinction
9. A body of persons grouped under one name, as a family or clan.
10. The verbal or other symbolic representation of a thing, event, property, relation, or concept.