The Beat Nation

symphony stirs your soul

Free-Spirited Individualism Of Alternative Rock And Sub-Genres

August 18, 2019
Vaishali Adwant

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What is your worldly view? 

Is the sin of being too real your sinew?

Alternative rock rings the bell of your soul?

You are so undone, 

Originality is the religion you dole?

Show your flaws without fear…

Is your inner self, you wish to hear?







The Spirit And Legend of Elvis Presley, His Iconic Style And Rock-N-Roll

May 6, 2019
Vaishali Adwant

Elvis Presley, the king of rock-n-roll, had developed a distinct musical style so uncanny, that it still has an impact on masses. Think of a retro or a rock-n-roll theme and the hairstyle or costume of Elvis Presley would come to your mind. Every rock star is endowed with a disturbed personal life, so did Elvis Presley. If you were meant to be an artist, your personal mayhem lets you soak yourself in the depths of your soul to create beauty through art, music, and all the creative fields. Elvis grew up in a broken home, that skewed his emotional well being. Gifted that he was, he got his musical talent from his mother, Gladys who was known to have musical and dancing skills.

You don’t always have to get talent from the genes. But, Elvis did, and sensationalised the rock-n-roll genre that is now synonymous to his very name.  Thinking of how talent in the current times is shallow, picking up personality traits from someone else to create a public image instead of developing something on their own, says a lot about how the essence of originality has gone a few notches down. In current times you have to prepare a personality for an artist and serve it to them, that’s the sad reality of reality shows, music, and all the jazz of showbiz works ( kyoun ki business to chalana hai bhaiyya, ethics, originality jaye bhaad mein). It has all the condiments to cook up personalities with almost no calibre and present them to the world.

In times like these, all that made Elvis Presley for what he is, is truly inspiring. If you listen to the discography of Elvis Presley, you can see that his style, musical arrangement, and singing is unrivalled in every aspect. A slow, romantic number, “can’t help falling in love,” is unlike any other romantic track. With a leisurely, uncomplicated musical instruments playing together, this is a track that never gets old. Looking at the distinct variety of tracks that Elvis Presley gave us in the rock-n-roll genre, it makes you wonder if today, artists have even an iota of dedication and passion like the legends of the yesteryear did.

Today’s music is hurried, like it wants to get instant fame and gratification using electronic gimmicks and call it a composition. There is no love for maths that blends with the art and science of music, that you see in most of the tracks of Elvis Presley and his contemporaries. Music is beautiful, when it sounds unhurried, like its taking its own course of time to evolve into something eternal and beautiful that stays in the heart of the people forever.

Elvis started exploring the music scene as young as a ten year old and participated in a contest at that age. He listened to many styles and especially, explored the rhythms and blues, which is a major influence on most of his tracks. He invested in developing a musical style as well as his appearance. He experimented with fashion as much and created a unique style that he employed through-out his career. His clothing had become as iconic as his hairstyle and music. This is what a true artist does. They develop themselves, not borrow traits from others and promote themselves as original using PR gimmicks.

If you are truly talented and have originality, you do not need a PR telling you what traits to show and what traits to develop. A gifted artist has their own thinking and it is original in every aspect. That is how legends are made. Elvis made bell-bottoms, and flared pants with chunky belts iconic to his style. A shy child as a kid, he brewed his own personality and taste creating a stupendous image of himself is role-played even today.

When you have passion, grit, hours of dedication to master your craft, you do not need a PR gimmick to develop a personality, like the humbugs do it today and only see business more than art. Elvis Presley knew what he loved and created a style for himself, his personality is from his own gumption, not borrowed from someone else. That is what makes him Elvis Presley who has given music our hearts and senses celebrate.

Elvis made movies, and acted in them, 33 of them. The hilarious bits are when you see the king of hoax, Andy Kaufman imitate him. Elvis composed musical tracks with various stories and themes, like the Dog’s life, Adam and Evil, and so forth. Elvis takes you to his laid-back era, where everything took time to create with beauty, thought, and soul. Those where the times when you see a man put his soul to work and create masterpieces, over and over. Those who we call old, are legends, and good at everything. Studying them we learn, the essence of life and all that makes creating so soulful and euphony personified.

The Legendary Kishore Kumar had Trees as his Best Buddies

July 20, 2018
Vaishali Adwant

The humans of Bollywood and creative fields are a separate species altogether and function at diverse and complex emotional and mental levels than you can imagine. Loneliness is a creative paradox that every creative genius suffers from and Kishore Kumar was no different. With an extraordinary success as a celebrated musician, he was always a loner at heart coz nobody was capable of  understanding the depths of his tumultuous personal life that he told the journalist that his only best buddies are his trees.

A common heartache which most of the people in the industry share and yet swallow the pain despite its  being a common place reality that it is hard to find true friends in the industry. Which is such a painful reality to experience, given the fact that the industry binges on creativity, and expression, and to express yourself creatively only to be further misunderstood and get stashed in the web of desolation.

Kishore Kumar married 4 times, created evergreen dulcet music that you can never get bored of, that’s why its called evergreen. Nobody can bring quality and life into music that he did in most of his songs. This comic, eccentric legend for the rest of the world had sadness in his heart. Paranoid about not being paid, he also worked for free for Rajesh Khanna and Danny movies. He also sent money to the family of Bipin Gupta, actor-producer after his death. A host of eccentricities, made him a difficult person to deal with yet loved for his dedication and devotion for music. Who could guess what his heart was missing, not even the 4 women he married.

When you are born to create divine artwork through music and cinema, it unjust to judge a creative genius for his eccentricities and failed marriages. It takes a beautiful heart to create symphonic music that gave lyrics its life. People should stop matching personalities and behavioural traits to talent coz these two are separate things, and a hackneyed way to judge a person by what they see. Creativity is no science, creativity is divine with no structure and method. It takes a genius to dwell in randomness and put your heart on sleeves and be vulnerable knowing the ways of the world and still not lose your inner sanctum of following your divine path and true calling.

The discipline of creativity is an entire encyclopedia not for the logical mind, but for a heart that generates emotions so large than life in their intent, that the entire cosmos settles in them. It takes a genius to understand the bizarre, and the mist of obscure with clarity to create structured artwork through music and cinema.

P.S: People who are too sensible, you do not belong the creative field…..the blend of madness and creative genius is the prerogative of creatives.

Rock Versions of National Anthem For the Young and Dynamic India

June 5, 2018
Vaishali Adwant

National Anthem’s original tune and intent melts your heart, and evokes patriotism no matter in which part of the world you have settled. A.R Rahman came up with his version of Vande Mataram a few years back. The best part of the new era musicians is they explore and come up with tunes and compositions with oomph and dynamism. That is what the rock versions of National Anthem do to you, raise your energy and vibration, and beckon your attention into your very identity and the soil you were born into.

We yap about government and politics mindlessly, and pass away time, without giving a forethought about change starts with us, and our will to bring transformation within. The metal version of National Anthem is bombastic and deep. It connects you with a feeling of solidarity, and the fact that what we are regardless of the urbanisation is still not lost and retained ubiquitously as a reminder of times that people forgot.

Struggle and devotion were divine virtues that time of digital world has forgot. Rock and metal versions of National Anthem delineates a time and values through wonderful renditions and compositions that we still inherit the virtues of this land and through our arms open for a revolution that brings a better change in the very thought of the citizens to open up and explore and yet not forget who we are originally and where we belong.

We as a diverse culture bring variety and traditions in its utmost sweetness and welcome ethnicity from any dimension to expand our consciousness. We as a country are a mass of consciousness and not populace alone. When you hear the scared tunes of National Anthem in rock and metal versions, the folksy inside you aligns with the earnestness of what progress in thought and consciousness.

Enjoy this wonderful version of our National Anthem


Bollywood Music- A Distinct Musical Genre

May 28, 2018
Vaishali Adwant

Most of the Bollywood music over decades sums up to love songs and sad songs with a dash of Indian classical meets urban background score. Bollywood music is distinct and has a unique tonality. A cult in itself Bollywood still needs to explore vast music genres and go beyond love and sad themes, minus the sing-dance songs. What Bollywood has given its audience is a motley of various music genres, yet remains in its nascent stage. Lyrical and poetic in nature, Bollywood lyrics are poetry in motion, sometime deep, sometimes skimming on the surface.

Talking of music of the Hindi cinema, classics were composed without a lot of background score. There was more singing and less of noise. The mainstream music genre that appeals to masses in India has a cusp of qawwalis,pop, disco, folk, and ghazals. Bollywood music relies heavily on poetry.

Lovingly called PanchamDa, R.D Burman composed evergreen retro hits wanting to make you live through that era over and over again. His songs had spunk of the 60’s and 70’s and the element of joy and happiness. The romantic and dance numbers had an urban twist for retro songs pictured in simpatico settings. Using, most of the musical instruments of the Indian origin, he created magic in the retro Bollywood music.

Lakshmikant-Pyarelal duo composed Bollywood music using folk and rock and roll style of composition. Using a mix of western and Indian instruments, they created melodies that can never get old or outdated. One of the distinct styles of the duo was to combine Indian and western stringed instruments and create original melodies in singing and dance sequences. Not as celebrated as other legendary composers, Bollywood songs composed by the legendary duo rocked the 70’s and 80’s era through the 90’s era. Could you ever get bored of Jumma Chumma from Hum movie composed by the duo? Most of the songs played in the popular radio program of the yesteryears- Binaca Geet Mala played most of the songs of this legendary duo.

Bappi Da brought disco to India and reigned in this genre creating a portmanteau of Bollywood meets disco. You can still have some fun listening to his compositions starring Mithun Da and Anil Kapoor. If you are a millennial and still live in the 90’s, most of the songs that remind you of your days of yonder were composed with a western style by Jatin-Lalit, Annu Mallick, and Nadeem-Shravan.

You can learn Indian classical as a distinctive musical genre, but you cannot specifically learn Bollywood style of singing unless and until you have a base of Indian classical music. A.R Rahman has not composed a lot of Bollywood songs, but the niche that he has created has a signature style of his composition. He is a music director, a true legend, who goes beyond Bollywood music, and explores various genres, to create melodies and symphonies that are magic to the ears.

Pritam, Vishal-Shekar duo, Salim-Suleman duo ushered the 21st century of Bollywood music that has been a cusp of EDM, house and pop music. Today what you hear is not the authentic Bollywood music that the legends of the yesteryear’s had created. The compositions today in Bollywood are assorted genres, and lack purity. They sound mellifluous, but lack the purity is apparent compared to the authenticity of music in the 60’s and the 70’s Bollywood music. That was the era of awakening. Music all over the world was awakened taking you to different realms, and so did Bollywood create its mark in music with these celebrated musicians.

Musicians are too limited in exploring musical genres and stay limited to boundaries of safety net that brings them commercial success. There should be no guilt attached to making music commercially viable. But then again, lack of experimentation in music and lyrics in Bollywood is an epidemic without a cure yet.

The only hope remains is with the musicians and composers of the new wave and new generation who I hope still give regard and pay respect to the classics and do not forget to explore.



Turn to Ed Shreen Songs to Comfort You

March 21, 2018
Vaishali Adwant

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Love and Music Heals….

February 20, 2018
Vaishali Adwant

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