In 1890, just a few months before he shot himself and commit suicide, Vincent Van Gogh was invited to a show in Brussels, where he sold one of his paintings. His first and the last one before his death . He received 400 francs for it. Roughly US $ 1600 in today's money. He could have lived on those funds for a month or so. That painting Red Vineyard at Arles, proudly hangs in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Today however, his paintings are regularly snapped up for over hundred million dollars a piece. Amazingly; in terms of adjusted to inflation price actually realized for a work of art ,Van Gogh comes out ahead of such colossal giants of the art world as Titian, Rubens and Picasso. If you were to make a list of ten most expensive paintings ever sold, Van Gogh will figure twice on it. That's surprising for me too! His entire life's earning however was those 400 francs.
It all started with Jesus ; maybe even before that . But Jesus was a very despised individual most of his life. Romans hated him so much that they nailed him to a cross alongside two common criminals. His own community pegged him as a presumptuous upstart and an insolent trouble maker. Very few among them would give him the time of the day much less listen to what he had to say. Till he died that is; rest of course is history. Later on Christ's follower and regent Pope Urban VIII nearly hanged Galileo but mercifully stopped at incarcerating him. Till death! All of Galileo's theories and propositions were junked as hearsay and falsehood. Pope learnt nothing from the life of Christ and Galileo was right about his theories. After his death Galileo got anointed the father of modern physics and you probably had not even heard of Urban VIII. At least I had not.
Michael Jackson was no stranger to fame and fortune. Reportedly he had an expensive life style that ensured that a lot of month got left over when his very substantial pay ran out. He was living on debt when he died not very long ago in 2009, in pretty strange and hazy circumstances . Since then his estate has earned over a billion, yes over a billion US Dollars by his music and other investments. MJ made more money dead than alive. It is the kind of serious money that would have repaid all that he owed a couple of times over and still allow him to live a life of splendid splendour till the end of time! But Dang it ; had he lived he would be in debt still.....
I like to imagine that I have an ear for music. I mostly prefer classical kind. "Gazal", is a classical genre of music which is based on Indian "raga" system. The music is set to lyrics which are always powerful, mostly mystical and very meaningful. A good Gazal must start with strong evocative poetry and sweet soulful music. Its final rendition by a singer is its crowning glory. It is said that you need to sing a Gazal with your heart and not your voice. Recently two of its greatest exponents passed away. Jagjit Singh died not too long ago after a brief illness and Mehdi hassan last week, after a long illness. These legendary gentlemen command an undisputed iconic status for the connoisseurs of the genre.
Now we have a couple of local radio stations. One proudly declares that they are about "more music and less talk". Nevertheless one has to send in several requests before one of the show host would play a number sung by these artists. Even when they do ,it is played partially. I understand that invariably these songs tend to be of a longer duration and the radio hosts have to cram as many songs as they can into their allotted time slot . Time that is left over after playing ad jingles and this makes them very reluctant to play a full number. Additionally they prefer to play catchy, new and flashier songs with a lot of beat and rhythm .This they honestly believe will appeal to a younger demographic . Not the classical stuff ,mostly liked by old fuddy duddies. I do not agree with them but it does not matter too much since there is internet and I have my own collection but still...
I like to imagine that I have an ear for music. I mostly prefer classical kind. "Gazal", is a classical genre of music which is based on Indian "raga" system. The music is set to lyrics which are always powerful, mostly mystical and very meaningful. A good Gazal must start with strong evocative poetry and sweet soulful music. Its final rendition by a singer is its crowning glory. It is said that you need to sing a Gazal with your heart and not your voice. Recently two of its greatest exponents passed away. Jagjit Singh died not too long ago after a brief illness and Mehdi hassan last week, after a long illness. These legendary gentlemen command an undisputed iconic status for the connoisseurs of the genre.
Now we have a couple of local radio stations. One proudly declares that they are about "more music and less talk". Nevertheless one has to send in several requests before one of the show host would play a number sung by these artists. Even when they do ,it is played partially. I understand that invariably these songs tend to be of a longer duration and the radio hosts have to cram as many songs as they can into their allotted time slot . Time that is left over after playing ad jingles and this makes them very reluctant to play a full number. Additionally they prefer to play catchy, new and flashier songs with a lot of beat and rhythm .This they honestly believe will appeal to a younger demographic . Not the classical stuff ,mostly liked by old fuddy duddies. I do not agree with them but it does not matter too much since there is internet and I have my own collection but still...
So these two fine artists are with their maker and suddenly the airwaves are clogged with their numbers. Long forgotten songs and the ones I did not even know existed , have been put on air endlessly. I am of course besides myself with joy. No complaints but a question begs to be asked - Were you waiting for them to die? Either they are great singers , or they are not. Either your target audience likes their music or it does not. Nothing has changed. Their music is as before , your audience is as it was and the commercial constraints are exactly the same. Only thing different now is that the artists are dead. Why did they not merit a fraction of this attention before now ?
What does it say about our human society ? We shot Gandhi thrice before we declared him to be an 'apostle of peace' and we insist on placing fresh flowers on the graves of individuals who did not merit a piece of stale bread from us, when they were alive!
They must die first. They have to ; especially artists . Seriously!
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