On a roll with Baul and Floyd

Home-grown Bengali rock bands are sweeping the music market not just in Bengal but all over the world.

If contemporary Bangla music became revolutionary when bands like Chandrabindoo, Bhoomi and Cactus first appeared on the stage in the early-mid nineties, then today it is a phenomenon.

At Symphony, the music store in downtown Esplanade, albums by home-grown bands are bestsellers in the Bengali-music category, doing even better than the golden oldies, or the revered Rabindrasangeet.

Since its launch in 1995, Paras Pathar's Ajo Ache, which had hit songs like "Bhlolage", has sold 6,00,000 copies to date; Chandrabindu's Chaw, which was released in 2001 has sold 4-5 lakh copies, while the first album by rock-band Fossils has done some 2 lakh copies.

The numbers speak for themselves, especially in a scenario where even new albums by established Bengali singers do not cross the 5,000-CD mark.

And it is not just the local crowd or expat-Bengalis who are lapping up the heady medley "" a mix of pop, blues, rock and elements of local folk forms like Baul, Shyamasangeet and Bhatiali. Bangla bands are a hit with college crowds in cities like Bangalore and Delhi as well.

While Chandrabindoo went on a musical tour of American cities in 2004 and 2005, this year Cactus flew for a similar mission. In fact, Bhoomi had a performance at the Dag Hammarskjold auditorium at the United Nations headquarters on July 12 this year.

Why are home-grown Bengali bands becoming a rage? What's making them click with listeners, not just in Bengal, but all over the world?

Mahua Lahiri, proprietor of Asha Audio Company, says, "The quality of Bengali film music has gone down so much that it no longer finds takers. In fact, film music is composed strictly keeping the suburban and upcountry masses in mind."

Lahiri could be partially right in her observation and though film music, according to her, is made for the suburban crowds, Bangla bands are getting increasingly heard even in those markets. This year's Band-e-Mataram, a popular Bengali bands contest, saw 130 bands participate "" and all but one were from outside Kolkata.

Sanjay Ahmed, programme director of Aamar FM, the Bengali-only private FM makes a point. "The bands," he says, "and especially their lyrics, have been able to connect with the masses, especially the college-going crowd. The slick presentation is also a definite plus."

Band music today comprises almost 30 per cent of Amar FM's play-list. According to Ahmed, the demand for this brand of music is growing.

It's not just on radio, but even on dedicated Bengali television music channels like Tara Muzik and Sangeet Bangla, that Bangla bands are becoming increasingly popular.

Videos of hit music have become the norm with Asha Audio, whose catalogue comprises Bangla bands largely, getting ready to release the first Bangla band VCD, Fossils' Apadartha, at next year's Kolkata book fair.

And it's not just music channels and radio and music shelves displaying the talent of various Bangla bands. On mobile phones, ringtones and caller tunes are becoming a rage too.

Chandrabindu's "Doodh-na khele" and "Gaan bhalobeshe gan" and Bhoomi's "Baranday roddoor" are some of the popular tunes one hears on mobiles. In fact, some of Bollywood's music directors are having a field day as they rehash some of the popular Bangla bands' songs for films and present it to audiences.

"Prithibi-ta naki", a track by Mohiner Ghoraguli (the pioneering band from the seventies headed by Gautam Chattopadhyay), which is also a popular ringtone/caller tune on phones, is today better known as Gangster's hit song "Bheegi bheegi".

Then there are websites offering online music and downloads. At the moment, there's only http://mybanglamusic.com which offers paid downloads, but the trend's catching on. "Bengalimusiconline.com, launched last year, offers free listening to hit tracks and is extremely popular, especially with non-resident Bengalis," says Ayon Baidya, site administrator for bengalimusiconline.com.

"We have around 200-250 people accessing the site now, but we're working on advertising the site to drive traffic up to 1,000 hits a day," he adds.

Says Lahiri, "With Bangla band music finding exposure in new generation media, the ratio of receipts through non-physical formats such as Internet downloads, ringtones, caller tunes, copyright payouts from FM radio and TV, as compared to the sales of CDs and cassettes is around 60:40."

And though there's always the classic case of piracy rising due to non-physical formats, the point, however, is that it works out very well for audio companies and music-makers.

Says Lahiri, "We incur high costs while hiring sound studios. Post-production, distribution and marketing reduce the margins in selling cassettes and CDs. Most times, it is not more than seven-eight rupees."

Receipts from non-physical formats then are more than welcome, especially since they do not entail any additional costs. Most experts feel that this will become one of the major avenues for Bangla rock bands.

"With the number of FM stations rising, we are looking at annual revenues of Rs 50-60 lakh from radio alone," says Lahiri.

Pradhan is confident that the strains of Bangla bands will be long-lasting. "Unlike film music, non-film music continues to do well over the years. This is true especially for Bengal which has always had a thriving tradition of non-film music."

The truth, if one hears a majority of these rock bands, is that an increasing number of listeners are connecting with the rock sounds that most of these bands offer.

The rise of these bands signifies a new shift among the listeners, listeners who grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, on the one hand, and Purnadas Baul and Utpalendu Choudhury, on the other. It's an exciting time for both bands and audience.