How earworms help in marketing businesses? →

June 29, 2014 by Soumya Radhakrishnan

In one of my earlier posts, I had written about how music can help increase sales in businesses. In this post, I will write about how music can help in marketing businesses.

If we are very familiar with a name, it means that the name has been marketed well enough to stay in our memories. That's what jingles do - they create a repetitive loop a.k.a an earworm in our brains and this repetition makes the jingle-associated-brand name familiar to us. That way the brand name stays in our memory for a long time. Some of the jingles that I grew up listening to include those of Jungle book and Hamara Bajaj, to name a few.

I got an opportunity to sing jingles too, for the UAE based radio channel called Gold FM. Here are the two jingles I did along with Suchitra Lata and Gokul Abhishek of Music Mint, Bangalore and Harish Sivaramakrishnan and Ganesh Ram Nagarajan of Agam. The jingles were originally released during Onam, 2010.

What's your favorite jingle/earworm track and why do you like it?

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Local yet, global - It's World-music day! →

June 21, 2014 by Soumya Radhakrishnan

Isn't the title analogous to the phrase, "think globally and act locally"? Yes, the genre, world-music is no different than that. A local flavor of music available for a global audience is what it is all about.

Globalization and the internet has reduced the knowledge gaps considerably and has shown how powerful common man's ideas/thoughts are. They have helped several local artists attain global fame as well. Truly, we're blessed to live in an era where technology has made lives easier and the internet has helped common man identify his calling and achieve success in many ways.

Here's an original composition from my home production, The Cocoknot Theori. The track has both local and global flavors and has traces of raag Sumanesa Ranjani in Carnatic music blended with progressive rock and heavy metal grooves.

Outlived by The Cocoknot Theori from The Cocoknot Theori on Vimeo.

Who's your favorite artist and what's your favorite track in the world-music genre? Share them in the comments below.

3 reasons I like unplugged singing →

June 15, 2014 by Soumya Radhakrishnan

I've always been a fan of unplugged style as I believe its the purest form of singing. Here are three reasons why I like this style of singing:

1. It's very much real and natural.

2. It's a highly beneficial voice culture technique for singers.

3. It's easy to identify improvement areas while singing in this fashion.

Here's my unplugged version of the song, Saawre Tore Bin from the movie, Bandit Queen.

Do you enjoy singing/listening to unplugged music and why?

Some fond memories about the 'young king' (literally) of music →

June 08, 2014 by Soumya Radhakrishnan

The musical maestro, Ilayaraja, celebrated his birthday last week and this post is a tribute to the 'young king' of music. Here are some of the fond memories I have about his music:

1. I grew up listening to him and he played a significant part in shaping up my musical tastes.

2. When we got our first tape recorder in our home, we played his song first and since then every audio equipment that we bought had gone through a similar process.

3. I was born in the 80s and the very first Raja song I heard (if my memory serves me right) was 'Thooliyilae' from Chinna Thambi, which still happens to be one of my all time favorite songs.

4. My 'chithappa' (dad's younger brother) introduced me to Raja's music when I was a kid and I'm extremely thankful to him for doing that.

5. I have always thought (sometimes, I still think) that the raagas Mayamalavagowla and Keeravani were meant for his compositions. Ilayaraja must have milked out the essence of both the modes till the very last drop.

6. I covered one of his compositions which was liked by many. The song is 'Kaatril Varum Geethame' from the Tamil movie, Oru Naal Oru Kanavu composed in the raaga, Kalyani. Check it out:

What are some of your memories about Ilayaraja and his music? Did his music influence you in any way? Share them in the comments section below.

Do you still have your very first resume/demo CD with you? →

June 01, 2014 by Soumya Radhakrishnan

The other day I was de cluttering my hard drive when I came across my very first resume, the one I had prepared during my under grad days for the job placements. I had a hearty laugh when I read the contents. Clearly, then I had no idea as to what to include and what not to include in it.

This reminded me about my very first music demo CD. I had once compiled a list of songs that might come handy when I network with other musicians for potential collaboration opportunities. Now, I just carry my business card that has my website on it. Yet, another reason why you should have a blog or a website. You never know when it might come handy.

Those days it was a big deal to get yourself recorded in a music studio. Just like any other aspiring musician, with a heart full of dreams I entered into my very first studio recording. Anil of Madcat music studio in Bangalore was my first sound engineer. I told him that I am preparing my demo CD to make it big in the music industry some day and he was happy to help me out. I had butterflies in my stomach when I recorded my first song. It was the first time I sang with a huge headphones in my ears in a small console and I was ecstatic. Now, I have a small studio in my home but, that euphoria is not there anymore. Thanks to commoditization.

Anyway, here's the first entry in my official demo CD, which was liked by many people. It's a cover version of the popular Malayalam number, Yamuna Veruthe from the movie, Ore Kadal composed by Ouseppachan in Shubha Panthuvaraali raagam.

Do you still have your first resume/coverletter/demo CD with you? How much have you changed since then?