Chennai’s tryst with music over the years

Chennai’s association with music goes way back and has matured a lot over the years. Stepping out of the traditional music concerts at sabhas, our city, which is hailed as the Carnatic music capital of the country, has also given refuge to musicians practising different genres of music and a multitude of formats. On the occasion of World Music Day, marked globally on June 21, we throw light on different facets of Chennai celebrating music in their own unique ways. From tiny stores housing and protecting thousands of vinyl records to youth groups taking music concerts to unconventional spaces like terraces and holding open mics for Carnatic music, breaking away from decades of tradition.

One would not imagine that a cramped up corner shop in the city could be documenting a large portion of the world music history. Starting from the golden era of The Beatles and Elvis Presley to Tamil icons like Ilaiyaraaja, this tiny store, named Rhythm, in Moore Market has more than 60,000 vinyl records. “We have been dealing vinyl records for the past 40 years, making us one of the oldest stores in the city. Over the past 5 years, vinyls are back in trend, which is allowing us to sell nearly 100-150 records a month. Chennai has many music lovers, who do not mind spending a little extra to hear the original sounds through records. Even in this day of electronic music, several Chennaiites come to us to buy MS Subbulakshmi and M Balamuralikrishna’s Carnatic records,” the store’s proprietor L Mahesh tells us.

City’s youth are not confining to the traditional music setups, but are instead working towards making music accessible to all. For instance, concerts earlier mostly meant going to a venue to listen to a popular band after having paid an exorbitant amount of money. Instead, initiatives like Motta Maadi Music (music on the terrace) are allowing even amateur musicians to perform for an audience, while opening up the possibility of turning even a terrace into a performance venue. “We wanted to encourage independent musicians and create spaces for them to perform. Motta Maadi Music is all about inclusiveness. We see people who love music — right from 6 to 80 year-olds coming together through our platform. At our gatherings, we see Chennaiites celebrating music, irrespective of the language and genre of music,” the initiative’s founder Badhri Narayanan Seshadri asserts.

Another youth-led initiative that is trying to break the conventions is Carnatic Network, that has introduced open mics for classical music. Founded by a part-time standup comic Balaji Vijayaraghavan, who noticed the lack of free performing spaces for Carnatic music in the city, the network allows musicians and singers with no experience or training in the classical music form to learn and perform even aalapanai. “Despite Chennai being the Carnatic music capital of the country, there aren’t enough platforms for upcoming musicians. People have been inhibiting because they find the traditional sabhas inaccessible. Over the past few years, I see there is quite a bit of disruption in music scene in the city,” adds Balaji.