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Is music an art or science? This question constantly pops in
my mind when I hear today’s music. Earlier I use to think that music is the
purest form of art. People can create music with various kinds of musical
instruments. Not only instruments, music can be naturally created from the
sounds of nature.
But nowadays when I listen to music, I find it more of a
science then an art. Today we do not need any musical instrument to create a
music. The music has become a creation of technology. The natural music has
taken a back seat and replaced by the science.
I think this revolution in the music was brought in the
industry by A.R. Rehman. He introduced the technology into the music. And
frankly the music that he created was loved by everyone. His music could be
easily recognized from the other lot due to the use of technology in his music.
Today, all the music composers have started the use of
different technologies in their music. Hence the music has not remained an art
any more. Lot of science and technology is now used to create music.
Not only the sounds have changed, but the voice has also
changed. Do you remember the yesteryear's singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore
Kumar, Md. Rafi and many more. Their voice was their natural singing talent.
They did not need any use of technology or sounds to enhance their music. It
was their art to sing such beautiful songs and give us the best music India has
ever had.
But today, technology has not even spared the voice. The singing
has not remained natural any more. Today any non-singer can also sing a song
and appear as a professional singer. We see so many actors and actresses
singing various songs. They are not natural singers or trained ones. But with
the help of technology, their singing is enhanced with all sorts of mixing and
made to look like a song sang by professional singer.
Also, the sounds have dominated too much in today’s music. The
music that is created today, is more of sound effects and less of music from
musical instruments.
Another thing that I see that is missing from today’s music
is the Ragas. Earlier the musicians had that talent to create some fantastico
music based on different Ragas. People who know the music could easily understand
the raga on which the music is based. But now, since technology has dominated
the music, musicians so not focus on the ragas any more. They are more focused on
creating different sounds and music with the help of technology.
Thus the debate that music is an art or a science has a
clear cut conclusion. In the olden days, music was truly an art, but today the technology
has dominated the music and it has become more a science.
