Shouvik Roy
Guest Article

<font color="#ff0000">Guest Article: </font> Shouvik Roy on the rise of Sufi influence in Bollywood

Why do we connect to Sufi music now more than ever before?

The recent popularity of Raja, a Zee TV singing sensation, was totally unprecedented. His voice connected with millions and many were left heartbroken when he lost a hard fought reality show battle to another extremely talented singer. Raja, nicknamed Raja Hindustani, with his unmistakable Sufi style of singing, has probably been the most “loved” singer in any reality show for a long time.

Sufi music has made a remarkable re-entry in Bollywood, and we have had more than a dozen super hit songs from this genre. Songs like Allah ke Bande, Jiya Dhadak Dhadak and Mitwa have captured the imagination of Indians across geographies and classes. About a decade ago, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Abida Parveen were heard by a handful of music enthusiasts. Today, singers like Kailash Kher and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan have been excellent evangelists of this music and have taken it to people who have had no exposure before to it.

<font color="#ff0000">Guest Article: </font> Shouvik Roy on the rise of Sufi influence in Bollywood
Shouvik Roy
Even in the non-mainstream music scene, we have seen the emergence of Rabbi Shergill, whose music is totally entrenched in Sufi sentiments.

Is this just a passing phase? Why do we connect to this music now more than ever before? These were some of the questions I have been grappling with for some time now. I have evolved a strong hypothesis which is based on my understanding of contemporary Sufi sounds as well as contemporary India. These two dots have many possible connections. Here is one such.

By definition, Sufism is a mystic tradition within Islam that encompasses a diverse range of beliefs and practices dedicated to divine love. In the 15th century, Sufism was defined as “a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God”. Sufi music is a true reflection of this thinking. These sounds have a tremendous ability to touch a deeper chord within you. Sufi music connects with the heart. It is a music of submission and surrender that bonds humans with God and transcends all religious boundaries.

So, does this mean that we have more people in India who connect with these values? This was my first guess till I started probing deeper into how people connect with music, particularly alien forms of music (music that has not originated around us). Influence of different genres is an integral part of the evolution of music. Every society adapts to sounds that are “ear friendly”. Most Indians don’t connect to pure jazz based compositions. Many have tried and failed. However, elements of jazz can be found in many music directors’ compositions, not just today, but as far back as in the 1970s. Adapting sounds from the world over is now a norm, but these sounds get adapted to popular music and are not played in their true format.

<font color="#ff0000">Guest Article: </font> Shouvik Roy on the rise of Sufi influence in Bollywood
But this is not true for Sufi music in Bollywood. The dominant part of a popular Sufi based composition at best experiments with non-Sufi percussions, but the format is relatively pristine. Why is that so?

Two reasons: One, the Sufi style sits well with our culture – you can see reflections in homegrown Punjabi folk and distant Bengali Baul. So, it is not really alien. Two, the music directors have kept the listeners’ percussion orientation in mind.

Now, that may explain why Sufi music connects to some, but still does not explain the rapid proliferation of this music across the country.

To answer this question, I turned to consumer segmentation to understand what drives such behaviour. There are many ways of looking at consumer cohorts – most of them use a two by two matrix. Usually, consumer cohorts occupy one quadrant or straddle two quadrants in a matrix. I have always wondered if there was a cohort that existed bang in the middle of the matrix.

Recently, this question was answered when I read an article about consumer cohorts across the world (not defined by geographies) by Crispin Reed, who is the founder of Sterling Brands in the UK. To my delight, Reed had put a cohort bang in the centre of the matrix. This cohort was labelled as Eclectic. According to Reed, this segment is a balanced mix of collectivism and individualism and is equally outer/inner directed. Luckily for me, this offered a possible solution to the Sufi question at hand.

According to Reed, “Eclectics are into everything and constantly connected. They are mix masters combining vintage, modern and homemade styles. They display diverse musical choices – from 1980s rap to jazz to rock and neo sounds. Their behaviour is complex and extremely difficult to predict.”

I believe that the size of this cohort has grown rapidly in the last few years in India and if we stop to think, many of us would identify with it.

Indians today are brash and spoilt for choice. Their need to experiment far exceeds that of earlier generations. Rapidly rising incomes and the potential to get whatever they want is fuelling their passion to experiment. Their vast exposure is leading them to try different things and experience variety. Are there any recent trends that prove this?

Let us look at two recent examples:

1. FM radio started with AIR FM Stereo, which played multiple genres of music, but Bollywood hits predominated. Then there was the first wave of private radio stations, Radio City, Red FM, Hit 95, all of which played the same music – Bollywood hits and Hindi pop. There were a few Western music lovers like me who stuck to AIR’s 8-10 am slots!

The second wave of private FM hit us earlier this year when we had Fever, Meow and some others take off. This is when the stations realised the need to position sharply and realised that they could not all survive by playing music that appealed to the largest segment. That was when Hit 95 and Fever began focusing on the English listening audience; the likes of Red FM remained more mass.

This may point towards the fact that there is now a sizeable audience in India which is more experimentative and wants to listen to multiple genres – people like me who have a core music passion, but are not averse to any other “good music”.

2. Siri Fort is probably one of the largest venues for live concerts in the country. The great thing about Siri Fort is not its audio quality, but the fact that it hosts musicians from multiple genres. It has L Subramanyam and Buddy Guy playing back to back, or Anoushka Shankar, Herbie Hancock and Amjad Ali Khan playing in the same month. But what struck me the most when I went for these concerts was that the people who cue up for these concerts are more or less the same people. Are they not the Eclectic lot as Reed defined in his worldwide study?

Sufi music is here to stay. It is not a fad. It has all the ingredients to be a mainstream sound for a large population, relevant to a growing segment that is ready to experiment with almost anything.

What this hypothesis also points towards is that tomorrow, if we find a music director adapting Afro jazz sounds from Madagascar (which is truly inspirational), we will surely find takers – provided it accounts for Indian musical sensibilities and is “ear friendly”.

Shouvik Roy is partner at Alchemist Brand Consulting and the co-founder of Sonic Audio Branding.

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com