A millennial soundtrack
How social media is helping young musicians score the first round of applause
Remember Clubhouse, the app that rose to popularity during the pandemic and offered those of us in lockdown the comfort of listening to another human’s voice? It was packaged as a by-invitation-only social media outlet with supposedly premium, iOS-only access and threatened to shift the social media hierarchy for a while.
My go-to on ClubHouse were the Indian music rooms run by second-generation children of immigrants living on the West Coast of the US, and in Canada. These were mostly non-Hindi speaking 20 and 30-somethings who may have never lived in India, but had picked up a bit of our culture second-hand from their parents who had moved reluctantly for a better life.
Early in the mornings, India time, when it was late evening in California, these rooms sprung to life, with accented Hindi voices making sure not one raga was out of place. More beautiful than the songs was the attitude: there was sensitive encouragement, order and joy. Quite the change in the world of social media where trolls play a starring role.
It is in one of these rooms that I chanced upon Rishab Sharma, 23: the leather jacket-wearing sitar player from NYC whose disposition was as much a hit with the audience as his music.
I would later realise that Rishab belonged to the Rikhiram family of music instrument makers, specialising in the sitar, amongst other things. I had not only been to his store in Delhi’s Connaught Place, but also to his uncle’s home.
Rishab found his audience on social media, but his talent and training is what continues to keep him going. He has just concluded an Indian tour of his “sitar for mental health” series and uses his ease with social media to interact with a fledgling audience. His approach, I reckon, is not something that traditionalists like very much, but they’re not Rishab’s audience, and he knows it.
Mayur Jumani, 30, from Mumbai, shot to fame for his sense of humour as much as he did for his music. His Donald Trump scrub made him the HT Brunch Social Media Star, but it is his ability to identify a “hook-moment” and exaggerate it using music and beats that made him amass his 1.29 million followers, that continue to grow.
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“ALL OUR THREE COVER STARS REPRESENT A NEW BREED OF MUSICIANS WHO DON’T NEED THE BACKING OF BIG RECORD LABELS TO FIND THEIR FEET”
27-year-old Aksh Baghla from Chandigarh is the star of the moment. He grew his social media following singing cover versions and mash-ups of popular songs and collaborating with other YouTubers. But his intentions surfaced just a few weeks ago, when his 3.5-million following was treated to Aksh’s first original single. The song Kabhi Kabhi had amassed 304K views in just a few days, rivalling it to a Bollywood song release.
All our three cover stars represent a new breed of musicians who don’t need the backing of big record labels to find their feet. Social media validation does, in fact, have some good to it, after all!
Also in this issue, the British monarchy’s #1 chronicler, Tina Brown gives us an exclusive interview: is it royalty or a reality show? Our “Try Guy” Sergius Barretto drives the “driverless car,” and writes out his experiences. And Vir Sanghvi tries risottos in Italy, but misses the humble khichdi!