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Impact of TFM on other communities

Topic started by Nirupama (@ 209.153.226.35) on Fri Jul 24 00:46:10 EDT 1998.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Ravi: Thanks for your prompt response. With your suggestion, I am starting this new thread.

Hi Friends,

I'm Nirupama from Vancouver, Canada. Since I visit this site quite often and have found out your passion for tamil film music, I thought this bit of information will be interesting for you.

With a help of a friend who hosts a hindi show on radio, I started my own radio show for tamil film music. Since there are no other tamil radio shows in Vancouver, I thought tamils living here might appreciate this. But to my surprise, I received many calls from non-tamils(White Canadians, etc) inquiring about this strange yet wonderful eastern(or fusion, rather) music. The show is only three-weeks old, and every week I've been getting these phone calls. I've described this type of music to the best of my abilities, but still their curiosity is overwhelming.

Some of their comments in their own words are:
"Hey, I love this music! What is it called?" , "This is great! Where is it from?" , "I like traditional Indian music, but what you're playing sounds very interesting!" Some even asked me for the film and song names.

In order to find out more about their music preferences, I tried playing songs from different periods, styles etc. What do guys think about this? Any guesses on whose music style or what type of tamil film music they like?? I'll talk more about that later.....

Nirupama

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Responses:

• From: peesoo (@ horus.erlm.siemens.de) on: Fri Jul 24 01:08:42 EDT 1998
  
  Hii,
  
  Its really thrilling to know that our music mesmerizes people of other lands too and its a pleasure to realize that our music has got 'something' which is beyond the culture and tradiion of any paritcular land.
  
  And its really a wonderful oppurtunity to get statistics about the preferences and I beg you to record everything to make it a history.
  
  Any guesses on whose music style or what type of tamil film music they like?
  
  hmmn... I have wild guesses! but still keep us updated with your experiences and the trend!
  
  Expecting further pleasant surprises from you!
  
  Cheers!
  
  
  
• From: rjay (@ 204.220.167.184) on: Fri Jul 24 04:57:17 EDT 1998
  
  First, great job of doing something to spread
  the word about TFM to new audience. Best
  wishes. Please feel free to ask any help you
  may need from us.
  
  Regarding your findings, Let me make wild guesses!
  
  G.Ramanathan and KVMahadevan - not quite probable!
  
  ARR - Too obvious and contemporary world music style. But quite a good chance.
  
  VR and IR are very likely to catch attention
  for freshness (if you leave out songs of
  predominantly lyrics or song situations and leave
  in songs rich in melody and orchestration)
  
  Anywhere close?
  
  
  
• From: bull (@ horus.erlm.siemens.de) on: Fri Jul 24 05:39:01 EDT 1998
  
  Hi,
  Wow! This is a great thing you are doing promoting TFM at Vancouver. I am not able to guess what kind of music they would exactly have liked because from MS Subalakshmi and GNB singing in "Shakuntala" to Suresh Peters and Swaranlatha in "kaadhalan" almost the whole range would be new to them except probably obvious lifts from Snap, Enigma, Bob Marley etc. in recent times.
  And MSV, VR and especially IR would probably strike the right balance if you look at TFM over the years, I suppose.
  I heared from a friend who had been to Toronto and Ottawa that there is a TFM programme on their FM as well as one TFM programme on TV every Saturday from 1 a.m to 3 a.m. or something like that. He says it is because of the large Sri Lankan Tamil population there.
  Keep up the good Work!
  Cheers!
  
  
• From: Shankar (@ webgate0.mot.com) on: Fri Jul 24 08:50:34 EDT 1998
  
  Great work. VAzhthukkal.
  
  
• From: Madhan,Goa. (@ 202.41.117.100) on: Fri Jul 24 10:05:26 EDT 1998
  
  KUDOS TO YOU MS.Nirupama -
  
  KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK -
  
  AS an ardent TFM fan, I give my total cooperation in divulginh information of any kind to you regarding TFM -
  
  in fact, it is my most sincere suggestion that you take technical advice/guidance from people like D.SRIKANTH, SRINATH, LAKSHMINARAYAN SRIRANGAM RAMAKRISHNAN( he is not a TFM DF surfer, but he has contributed 15 odd in - depth articles entitled "CLASSICAL ILAYARAAJA" series), BADRI RAGHAVAN, Ms.GEETHA ,NITIN SREEDEVAN etc.,who are very well versed in various aspects of music, and go ahead and make this radio show a smashing success.
  
  In the near future, this might also help in popularising Indian classical music, since much of the TFM is classical music based..
  
  
  
• From: Srinath (@ socks15d.raleigh.ibm.com) on: Fri Jul 24 10:07:36 EDT 1998
  
  TELL ME IT'S IR ! TELL ME IT'S IR ! TELL ME IT'S IR !!!! I can't bear the suspense ! Who's music did they like best !
  Here's an anecdote -
  I had a friend working working in the IS of a popular Chit Fund Company in Madras. He was working on AS/400 and the company had a lady from Australia come over for some training purposes. My friend's boss tried to impress her by playing ARR's music on the centralized audio system, pointing out the bass score (?) in "Humma, Humma". Needless to say, the lady (who happened to be an amateur pianist) was not impressed. She felt the bass was repetitive and was rather disappointed that this represented the cream of TFM ! Then my friend asked to play "Anjali, Anjali.." from Anjali and the lady was flabbergasted ! She couldn't believe her ears and kept asking repeatedly if the MD was Indian. She was so impressed that she asked to hear it again and took down the names of several of IR's movies and am sure went back with a pot of gold ! It took my friend quite a bit of talking to convince her that we didn't have the concept of music albums (back then) and that the songs were from movies, though :-)))
  
  
• From: Madhan,Goa (@ 202.41.117.100) on: Fri Jul 24 10:22:04 EDT 1998
  
  Dear Srinath,
  
  SUMMAA MEI SILIRKKA VAITHHU VITTEERGAL PONGA !!
  
  only today morning I was listening to "Sembaruthi poovukku" from DHARMA - first time after buying this cassette, i listened to it very keenly - adengappaaa !!!
  
  WHat astounding layers of music, MAN !! I never even realised these things when I listened to the same song previously - but when I listened to it closely, OH,my goodness!! what beautiful complexity !!
  
  IR fans like me are dying for more anecdotes like the above .
  
  But Srinath, let us not crowd this thread with anecdotes on IR - our dear Ravi will have to enter the thread and make requests to us -
  
  I have a suggestion - why don't we start a THREAD only for "INTERESTING ANECDOTES ON MAESTRO.ILAYARAAJA" ?
  
  If we start one, then even my thread on "IR in GOA" can go into that thread.
  
  
• From: Geetha (@ gatekeeper.oracle.co.uk) on: Fri Jul 24 10:58:02 EDT 1998
  
  Madhan: Excellent idea....a permanant reference thread will be excellent, in order to make compilations of the relevant discussed anecdotes. I've currently mailed Ravi and the gang with some suggestions for permanent threads which saves us going through the numerous archives - like a filinf system. This way, as I often do, one can print all the stuff discussed and read when not surfing and also, share it with non-surfers....By the way, thanks for the compliment.
  
  Nirupama: Wow, what a great achievement. I have a few friends here(English, general European) who have a real interest in TFM. They are normally attracted by ARR's work, as it's very 'international', while some, who like Western Classical fall in love with IR's work. Unfortunately, they don't appreciate G. Ramanathan's work or work from that period of time, where the Carnatic element was heavy. However, playing fusion tracks, like 'Pookathave' which is Carnatic and Western fused, gets a great reaction from them....Hope this helps.....In the UK, we have many stations dealing with TFM. I'll have to ask as to whether English people take a big interest in them....Again, GREAT RESULT....Keep up the good work....
  
  
• From: Srinath (@ socks13d.raleigh.ibm.com) on: Fri Jul 24 11:07:17 EDT 1998
  
  Madhan:
  When my friend narrated this incident to me, I was equally thrilled, but more as a bass guitarist than as an IR fan ! I posted this here because I thought it had some significance to the topic - "Impact of TFM on other communities".
  
  Nirupama:
  I think I speak for most everybody at TFM Page when I say that not only do we appreciate what you're doing, but we are also thankful to you. TFM is too precious to be lost or ignored with the passage of time. From a wider perspective, I think it has, in it's own way, had almost as much impact as the traditional music styles. It would definitely be more than just a past-time or 'amusing eastern music' for people of other communities. A hearty congratulations from all of us here at TFM DF and wishing you all success in your venture !
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Fri Jul 24 13:51:52 EDT 1998
  
  Nirumpama,
  Ungalukku en idhayam kanindha vaazhththukkal. How about becoming a guest writer for the DF? If you could write about the top requests of each week by foreign listeners, then we at the DF would know exactly what is being appreciated by Canadians, especially non-Indians.
  Maybe we can arrange a permanent thread, "Nirupama's top 10 requests" or some such thing? What do you guys think? Ravi, would this work? If this could happen it would give us another perspective on appreciating TFM besides giving us topics to discuss.
  
  
• From: Bharat (@ isdbsd1-inet.ci.mil.wi.us) on: Fri Jul 24 14:08:37 EDT 1998
  
  Nirupama:
  
  My commendations on the enthusiasm and effort on your part, though I'm not surprised at all that your show has attracted such a response. Most of my American friends are extremely interested in other cultures, and my IR tapes (late 70s to mid 80's) have actually made a greater impact than ARR sounds, probably because they sound new to the uninitiated. Good luck, and I'm sure all of us would be glad to help in any way we can!
  
  
• From: Ravi (@ envy.cs.umass.edu) on: Fri Jul 24 14:08:59 EDT 1998
  
  Udhaya: You know how things operate here. It is upto you folks. If the thread proves popular we will make it a permanent thread. :) I think though that it depends on Nirupama's willingness (& feasibility) to compile stats. more than anything else.
  
  
• From: Ravi (@ greed.cs.umass.edu) on: Fri Jul 24 15:49:03 EDT 1998
  
  Madhan: TFM titbits and anecdotes-nnu oru permanent thread ErkanavE irukku. IR paRRiya news kooda angEyE post seyyalaam.
  
  

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