Gregory Booth
The University of Auckland, Anthropology, Faculty Member
- Ethnomusicology, Anthropology of music, Organology, Popular Music, Indian Music, Film Music And Sound, Ethnomusicology, Tabla and Classical Music, and 7 moreMusic, Film Studies, Popular Culture, Historical Ethnomusicology, World music-Ethnomusicology, Music Industry, and Intellectual Property Lawedit
Focusing on one aspect of Hindustani classical music, this participant-observer research presents the qualitative and quantitative results of a study of the pedagogical practices and thoughts of many of the greatest tabla players of India... more
Focusing on one aspect of Hindustani classical music, this participant-observer research presents the qualitative and quantitative results of a study of the pedagogical practices and thoughts of many of the greatest tabla players of India in the mid-1980s. It examines orality, partial-orality and transitional orality as a cognitive as well as cultural process, and as a process under constant change in response to changes in technology and culture. It also considers the table repertoire in terms of its cognitive properties.
"Since the 1980s, the Indian popular music scene has come to encompass much more than the Mumbai cinema hit parade. More than Bollywood presents a ground-breaking and illuminating set of essays which collectively broaden our... more
"Since the 1980s, the Indian popular music scene has come to encompass much more than the Mumbai cinema hit parade. More than Bollywood presents a ground-breaking and illuminating set of essays which collectively broaden our understanding of Indian popular culture." -- Peter Manuel, ethnomusicologist, Graduate Center of the City University of New York
“When the history of Indian popular music is finally written this collected volume will form its foundations. Its contributions are wide-ranging, and include discussions of the mighty Hindi film song, whose hybrid nature adapts and transforms other musical genres and styles, and is seen as dominating all forms of Indian popular music. Especially welcome are the chapters on non-Hindi film songs, non-filmi music, and the recording industry itself.”-- Rachel Dwyer, Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema, SOAS, University of London
This is the first book to tackle the diverse styles and multiple histories of popular music in India. It brings together fourteen of the field’s leading scholars to contribute chapters on a range of topics from the classic songs of Bollywood to contemporary remixes. The chapters in this volume address the impact of media and technology on contemporary music, the variety of industrial developments and contexts for Indian popular music, and historical trends in popular music development both before and after the Indian Independence in 1947. The contributors also address the subcontinent's historical relationships with colonialism, the transnational market economies, local governmental factors, international conventions, and a host of other circumstances that shed light on the development of popular music throughout India. To illustrate each chapter author's points, and to make available music otherwise not always easily accessible, the book features a companion website of audio and video tracks.
“When the history of Indian popular music is finally written this collected volume will form its foundations. Its contributions are wide-ranging, and include discussions of the mighty Hindi film song, whose hybrid nature adapts and transforms other musical genres and styles, and is seen as dominating all forms of Indian popular music. Especially welcome are the chapters on non-Hindi film songs, non-filmi music, and the recording industry itself.”-- Rachel Dwyer, Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema, SOAS, University of London
This is the first book to tackle the diverse styles and multiple histories of popular music in India. It brings together fourteen of the field’s leading scholars to contribute chapters on a range of topics from the classic songs of Bollywood to contemporary remixes. The chapters in this volume address the impact of media and technology on contemporary music, the variety of industrial developments and contexts for Indian popular music, and historical trends in popular music development both before and after the Indian Independence in 1947. The contributors also address the subcontinent's historical relationships with colonialism, the transnational market economies, local governmental factors, international conventions, and a host of other circumstances that shed light on the development of popular music throughout India. To illustrate each chapter author's points, and to make available music otherwise not always easily accessible, the book features a companion website of audio and video tracks.
Beginning in the 1930s, men and a handful of women came from India's many communities-Marathi, Parsi, Goan, North Indian, and many others--to Mumbai to work in an industry that constituted in the words of some, "the original fusion... more
Beginning in the 1930s, men and a handful of women came from India's many communities-Marathi, Parsi, Goan, North Indian, and many others--to Mumbai to work in an industry that constituted in the words of some, "the original fusion music." They worked as composers, arrangers, assistants, and studio performers in one of the most distinctive popular music and popular film cultures on the planet. Today, the songs played by Mumbai's studio musicians are known throughout India and the Indian diaspora under the popular name "Bollywood," but the musicians themselves remain, in their own words, "behind the curtain"--the anonymous and unseen performers of one of the world's most celebrated popular music genres.
Now, Gregory D. Booth offers a compelling account of the Bollywood film music industry from the perspective of the musicians who both experienced and shaped its history. In a rare insider's look at the process of musical production from the late 1940s to the mid 1990s, before the advent of digital recording technologies, Booth explains who these unknown musicians were and how they came to join the film music industry. On the basis of a fascinating set of first-hand accounts from the musicians themselves, he reveals how the day-to-day circumstances of technology and finance shaped both the songs and the careers of their creator and performers. Booth also unfolds the technological, cultural, and industrial developments that led to the enormous studio orchestras of the 1960s-90s as well as the factors which ultimately led to their demise in contemporary India.
Featuring an extensive companion website with video interviews with the musicians themselves, Behind the Curtain is a powerful, ground-level view of this globally important music industry
Now, Gregory D. Booth offers a compelling account of the Bollywood film music industry from the perspective of the musicians who both experienced and shaped its history. In a rare insider's look at the process of musical production from the late 1940s to the mid 1990s, before the advent of digital recording technologies, Booth explains who these unknown musicians were and how they came to join the film music industry. On the basis of a fascinating set of first-hand accounts from the musicians themselves, he reveals how the day-to-day circumstances of technology and finance shaped both the songs and the careers of their creator and performers. Booth also unfolds the technological, cultural, and industrial developments that led to the enormous studio orchestras of the 1960s-90s as well as the factors which ultimately led to their demise in contemporary India.
Featuring an extensive companion website with video interviews with the musicians themselves, Behind the Curtain is a powerful, ground-level view of this globally important music industry
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The brass bandsmen of modern South Asia play anything from early 20th century regional wedding songs to the latest rap-inflected Hindi film hit as they accompany wedding processions and other festive events throughout the subcontinent.... more
The brass bandsmen of modern South Asia play anything from early 20th century regional wedding songs to the latest rap-inflected Hindi film hit as they accompany wedding processions and other festive events throughout the subcontinent. Almost every Indian has, at some point in his or her life, listened, processed, or danced to the music of a brass band, as have a majority of Pakistanis, along with many Bangladeshis and Nepalis. Collectively, South Asian brass bands are by far the largest commercial brass band tradition in the world; they offer a distinctive view of India’s ability to transform things foreign into symbols of Indian identity. This is the first study of this important component of Indian culture. It looks at the life of music in India from the everyday level of the street where and examines connections between social status and music performance. As a history of South Asia’s assimilation of a colonial music tradition, the work questions notions of musical change and puts current studies of globalisation into historical and musical perspective.
I have uploaded a pdf version of this book because it appears that it will remain unavailable from the publisher. This version is not citable. Further, the font I used for the Hindi-language words in the text is no longer available. Words entered using that font come out as junk. Hindi speakers will be able to work them out.
I have uploaded a pdf version of this book because it appears that it will remain unavailable from the publisher. This version is not citable. Further, the font I used for the Hindi-language words in the text is no longer available. Words entered using that font come out as junk. Hindi speakers will be able to work them out.
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... Entertainment has decided to scrap its ambitious project, Vande Mataram, set against the back-drop of the 1971 IndoPak war" (Bhattacharya... more
... Entertainment has decided to scrap its ambitious project, Vande Mataram, set against the back-drop of the 1971 IndoPak war" (Bhattacharya 2004:2). Representations of internal Hindu-Muslim tensions have not been com-pletely absent from the Hindi cinema, but the images ...
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Bollywood and The Life of Music in 21st Century Mumbai Gregory D. Booth This case study of six contemporary musicians and composers working in Mumbai examines modes of entry into the music profession, professional-musical roles and... more
Bollywood and The Life of Music in 21st Century Mumbai
Gregory D. Booth
This case study of six contemporary musicians and composers working in Mumbai examines modes of entry into the music profession, professional-musical roles and practice, socio-musical-industrial networks, technological infrastructure and the physical and cultural environment in which these musicians operate. The study based on ethnographic research and interviews with the subjects and others in Mumbai’s music industry and focuses on the changes to musical work emerging from a globalized urban and media Indian context. Most importantly this study considers these musicians’ engagement with music production for India’s hegemonic popular culture, the Hindi film industry known as Bollywood. Important themes that emerge from this study include the atomized socio-professional life necessitated and enabled by the increasingly difficult urban environment and improved technological/digital infrastructure, the growing importance of live performance (outside Mumbai) for musician revenues and of “live” recording in studios, new and often blurred professional roles, the impact of the trend in multi-composer film soundtracks, and the importance of non-film or independent popular music (largely western-based rock and pop), especially as a performance genre, both as an entry point to the film music line and as a musical basis for compositional practice in film song. The study finally engages with the renewed ambivalence felt by these leading Bollywood musicians about the demands and constraints of the film music industry on which they all depend.
Gregory D. Booth
This case study of six contemporary musicians and composers working in Mumbai examines modes of entry into the music profession, professional-musical roles and practice, socio-musical-industrial networks, technological infrastructure and the physical and cultural environment in which these musicians operate. The study based on ethnographic research and interviews with the subjects and others in Mumbai’s music industry and focuses on the changes to musical work emerging from a globalized urban and media Indian context. Most importantly this study considers these musicians’ engagement with music production for India’s hegemonic popular culture, the Hindi film industry known as Bollywood. Important themes that emerge from this study include the atomized socio-professional life necessitated and enabled by the increasingly difficult urban environment and improved technological/digital infrastructure, the growing importance of live performance (outside Mumbai) for musician revenues and of “live” recording in studios, new and often blurred professional roles, the impact of the trend in multi-composer film soundtracks, and the importance of non-film or independent popular music (largely western-based rock and pop), especially as a performance genre, both as an entry point to the film music line and as a musical basis for compositional practice in film song. The study finally engages with the renewed ambivalence felt by these leading Bollywood musicians about the demands and constraints of the film music industry on which they all depend.
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The Indian government’s policies of economic nationalism affected the shape and structure of the Indian music industry and its relations to the global music economy. Based on archival and ethnographic research, this study traces the... more
The Indian government’s policies of economic nationalism affected the shape and structure of the Indian music industry and its relations to the global music economy. Based on archival and ethnographic research, this study traces the commerce and industrial structures of recorded music production in post-colonial and global India. It considers the position of the Gramophone Company (of India) during the remarkable period of the ‘License Raj’, when the Indian music economy was largely cut-off from the world music economy, its relations with other music companies, and the impact of the technologies and processes of globalization on the company and on the Indian music industry more broadly. Technological change in music commodity format enabled market growth, an almost continuous and sometimes extreme growth in the revenues generated by the sale of recorded music commodities through the early 21st Century. The simultaneous processes of economic liberalization and subsequent globalization, abolished monopolist production model of post-colonial India; it led to multiple, unregulated producers and to radically different structures and behaviours in India’s music industry.
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This study examines a small sample of song scenes from Indian lms produced between 1931 and 1935. It considers the impact of the technological constraints imposed by the absence of post-production technology for sound editing and for... more
This study examines a small sample of song scenes from Indian lms produced between 1931 and 1935. It considers the impact of the technological constraints imposed by the absence of post-production technology for sound editing and for sound-image synchronization. That impact included the common practice of simultaneous sound and image recording (to ensure synchronization of sound and image) and of lming song scenes in single takes (to ensure musical continuity). The study traces the evidence available in cinematic texts suggesting that lm-makers recognized the cinematic limitations of scenes lmed in these ways and sought technological solutions based on the use of the continuous sound track as the ‘master’ track for a song scene and other musically and technologically inventive ways to produce cinematically (as well as musically) interesting song scenes. The implications of early lm production practices for the relationship of song scenes to the diegesis are also considered.
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Page 1. Volume XXIIII number 1 DISCO LAGGI: MODERN REPERTOIRE AND TRADITIONAL PERFORMANCE PRACTICE IN NORTH INDIAN POPULAR MUSIC by Gregory D. Booth The working title of this paper, "Disco Laggi ...
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Page 1. Psychology of Music http://pom.sagepub.com/ The Influence of Metre, Mode, Interval Type and Contour in Repeated Melodic Free-Recall Robert A. Cutietta and Gregory D. Booth Psychology of Music 1996 24: 222 DOI ...
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Page 1. http://jrm.sagepub.com/ Music Education Journal of Research in http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/39/2/121 The online version of this article can be found at: DOI: 10.2307/3344692 1991 39: 121 Journal of Research in ...
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Page 1. http://jrm.sagepub.com/ Music Education Journal of Research in http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/36/3/140 The online version of this article can be found at: DOI: 10.2307/3344636 1988 36: 140 Journal of Research in ...
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This article examines technological change, the market economy , and industrial structure and practice through a case study of one of India's oldest existing music companies and its historically and regionally distinctive catalogue. I... more
This article examines technological change, the market economy , and industrial structure and practice through a case study of one of India's oldest existing music companies and its historically and regionally distinctive catalogue. I consider the cultural and industrial results of changes in technology and government policy that forced Hindusthan/INRECO into tactical business decisions that positioned the company to take advantage of India's emergent mobile-download market. The study also examines company sales data (2005–7) and considers the impact of the mobile-phone platform on music consumption.
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This study is based on archival and ethnographic research in the industry producing India’s primary popular music, Hindi film song. It examines the understandings of song identity as intellectual property expressed in industrial, legal... more
This study is based on archival and ethnographic research in the industry producing India’s primary popular music, Hindi film song. It examines the understandings of song identity as intellectual property expressed in industrial, legal and public discourse and in the Indian Copyright Act, between 1957-2012. It traces the unique transformations of laws based on global (western) industrial logics and practices in the Indian industry, where neither sheet music nor music publishing have played major roles, and highlights the global-local industrial tensions arising from these differences. It explains how those tensions have affected India’s Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2012, the “Bollywood” amendments.
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The unique nature of the relationship between popular film and music production in India has defined the nature of popular music as an industry and as a cultural commodity from 1931. This relationship solidified during the first roughly... more
The unique nature of the relationship between popular film and music production in India has defined the nature of popular music as an industry and as a cultural commodity from 1931. This relationship solidified during the first roughly 25 years of
Indian independence in response to specific industrial, regulatory, and cultural conditions; but as those conditions began to shift after 1970, the relationship became increasingly fluid. This study offers an initial understanding of the complex set of industrial, musical and cultural changes in the world of Indian popular music during a period of unprecedented change in film industry personnel, industrial structure and logic, music and film recording and consumption technologies and governmental regulation. I argue that these ultimately resulted in a series of shifts in the ideological and cultural position of film music in India’s popular music culture.
Indian independence in response to specific industrial, regulatory, and cultural conditions; but as those conditions began to shift after 1970, the relationship became increasingly fluid. This study offers an initial understanding of the complex set of industrial, musical and cultural changes in the world of Indian popular music during a period of unprecedented change in film industry personnel, industrial structure and logic, music and film recording and consumption technologies and governmental regulation. I argue that these ultimately resulted in a series of shifts in the ideological and cultural position of film music in India’s popular music culture.
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This study considers the history of the Tanjore/Madras Corporation Band in relation to changes in cultural context: from private processional ensemble in colonial India, to state supported civic ensemble in independent India. It raises... more
This study considers the history of the Tanjore/Madras Corporation Band in relation to changes in cultural context: from private processional ensemble in colonial India, to state supported civic ensemble in independent India. It raises questions regarding cultural interaction in a colonial framework and attempts at the adaptation of foreign cultural elements in India. The article suggests that economic changes after the collapse of the independent princely states and a shift in the location of artistic patronage from the court centers to the commercial hubs of colonial India allowed for the technical, economic, and cultural possibility of wind band performance.