Muse about Music

We play music in schools. We play music in important occasions like weddings, birthdays, etc. we play music in religious ceremonies. If music is everything; peace, love, and salting away of boredom, if music acts as an antidote to aggression and hostilities, if music is the mastery way of educating people and upholding cultural heritages, then it is worth knowing and understanding it.  

Music is part of our lives. Music is the friend and the comforter of one’s life. A piece of influential

tuneful music has arisen towards curbing disruptive and abusive behaviors. It entertains us. Many juvenile people in and around the world are going to musical concerts and are glued to iPods, tapes, and TV shows. They memorize and hum songs, oldies too do; inside the bus, in the bathroom, and many other places music humming can be heard.

Music is part of every culture on Earth. Many people feel that music makes life worth living. Music gives us pleasure. It can cheer us up, excite us, or soothe us. It is a form of communication to human beings. It is a form of beautiful expression.

Yesterday, I heard one of our Dzongkha Lopens, blaring inside the school toilet, the song called, ‘Zamling Nang Gi Atsara Nga.’ In fact, he was making a racket. He was shaking his voice as if he was doing some kind of exercise inside. Anyways, I love that song. It talks about how unstable our minds can be at times. How we play the role of the Atsara, a fool clown. I like the song.

Taking this into account, many countries value music, whether pop or jazz or country. They have, therefore, music awards for the best singer, the best lyrics, and the music. People are rewarded for their toils. Music is grade according to the sales of copies. The most marketed records are considered the finest. So they have top ten, top twenty and etc.

We have shows like Druk Superstar, which enhances Bhutanese music. Looking at the organizer, and the way it’s being organized looks like that show like this is hard to stand on its own feet without good support from the people. First, they have to force people to vote, second, they have to look for sponsorships, which may be very meager. And the third, participants are given less than what they have been working tirelessly; to learn three genres; Boedra, Yungdra, and Rigsar, and to uphold them. Is it the prize for trying and spending lots of time?  Is there scope for them to survive? I didn’t hear people getting rich in Bhutan because of singing, or dancing. If so, he/she must leave the country and start a career in other musically rich countries.

Society as a whole think that music is insignificant, and we, therefore, take it for granted. Even though every region has rich folk songs, compositions, etc, we are not aware of our own pieces. We tend to copy and reproduce other songs especially that of Hindi. In Bhutan, the music industry is growing, music fans are waiting for the best and fresh type of music. A different genre, and an uncommon one. Who can satisfy?

We must explore.

At present, we lack music. If you haunt and look at any household in Bhutan there may be one Bhutanese cassette/CD out of twenty or more Hindi and English cassettes/CDs. Who can encourage our own kind of music in the Bhutanese population?

I personally feel we can upgrade music by establishing musical halls in the country, and doing a musical competition and placing them in the top ten, and rewarding them. They must be rewarded frequently from different areas?  How about Bhutan’s monthly top ten? TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines could help them to promote and widen Bhutanese music in Bhutan. In this way, we can encourage Bhutanese music, and in this way, we can make every Bhutanese hum rich Bhutanese song.