Introduction:
Everyone would have noticed that in countries like the US where independent music artists such as Billie eilish, Taylor swift, Weeknd, Martin garrix, and Marshmello are getting more attention than the rest of the celebrities. On the contrary, in India where most of the population predominantly listens to film music, it did not give proper recognition to the independent artists of our country. But the pandemic changed that completely and the rise and popularity received by the new indie artist have raised the standards and expectations of the Independent music industries in India. This has led many Sound Engineering Colleges In India to also provide music production courses for this new and wonderful form of music. Hence in this article, we are going to discuss how the independent music industry in India has boomed in the year 2022.
The Revolution:
To understand the boom of independent artists in Tamil one should definitely know what makes a person an independent artist. An independent artist is someone who is not backed up by any record labels or production houses. In the old days, this industry was predominantly occupied by classical or devotional music. Even then those artists would be dominated by film playback singers like S.P. Balasubramaniam, Yesudas, and L.R.Eswari. But people didn’t call them independent artists since they are all very successful playback singers. The term independent artist came into play in the early 2000s, when musicians from various backgrounds came to produce music in their own style.
It all started with the emergence of Yogi B with his song “made thiranthu” which made a huge impact on Tamil music listeners. Hip Hop is an unknown genre for most of the people on the other side, people who listened to songs of Tupac, ice cube, and dr. dre, it was so refreshing to listen to a rap song in Tamil. Many youngsters were so inspired by the success of that album that they joined Music Production Courses In India. This led to the birth of many independent artists such as Kavithai Gundan, Lady Kash, Blaze, and Boomerang.
This was at the time when there is no streaming platform for music, even though there is YouTube it is not accessible to most the people. Independent artist’s songs have not received a record release; their only way to release a song is via the internet. In some cases popular independent songs bought by a music TV channel will be telecasted on the television. This was the only to reach the tamil audience. Even then all these independent artists came into the Tamil film industry and sang for the A list music composers of Tamil Industry.
This all came to a halt for many years and there no albums of the well independent artists were getting the mass appeal. This all changed in the year 2012 when an artist named Hip Hop Tamizha released his first song “Clubulla Mubulla” which became a big hit and went viral on youtube for nearly a month. This made the independent industry to stand again and enter into the mass market. Just like the other artist Hip Hop Tamizha also entered the film industry and still continues to produce music.
The Emergence Of Streaming Platforms:
After 2012 many artists came into the independent playground and with people having more access to the internet than the past. When everyone thought this was the peak of the music industry and then came the streaming platforms which changed the music industry completely where people can listen to any music freely on their phone with the use of the internet.
This was also a huge opportunity for independent artists to release their songs on these platforms. This time everything was different the songs directly reached the people without any big corporation negotiating for its telecasting rights. By seeing the reach of these new independent artist record labels themselves backed these independent artists to produce and release their songs. With their professional backing these artists were offered Sound Engineering India to make their song even more professional.
In the year 2021 the most popular Indian film composer A.R.Rahman created Maajja, a record label for young independent artists to release their songs. This is where the Tamil independent music industry went to its peak. Where artists like Arivu, Shan Paul Vincent and Vaisagh, became a household name in the Tamil music industry. The reach of these independent artists are unimaginable. With the wide reach of Maajja, magazines like Rolling Stones mentioned these new tamil Independent artists who are taking over the global music industry.
Conclusion:
The thing which made these artists special is that the songs that they create are not about romantic love or hero introduction. They were songs about the general public which made these songs more relatable than anything. Even the Music Production Colleges In India are also providing classes which help many independent artist to pursue their career in the field of music.