In sync with contemporary music

2014 was a year of many things, one of which was the city’s conspicuously intensifying music scene. After seeing a slew of performances from renowned artists, it is safe to say that the music scene in the city is set for an upping this year

It is a given, the contemporary music scene in Hyderabad is pitiful in comparison with that in Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Goa and Bengaluru. With many international artistes playing gigs in those cities, music lovers in Hyderabad definitely felt left out, until the fag end of 2014.

With many renowned artistes and bands visiting those aforementioned cities that have the better music scene, music lovers have always had to book travel tickets and accommodation along with tickets for the show, or at the least wait for someone to upload videos of the concert on YouTube. Bands such as Metallica and Iron Maiden, for which India isn’t a propitious destination, chose to play at two or three cities, casually ignoring Hyderabad.

In March 2013, the city’s prospects of becoming a hub for concerts seemed wildly enthusiastic, as engineering colleges from the city had managed to rope in big names like Romanian dance pop act Akcent and Punjabi rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh for their annual cultural fests. But the rest of the year was left relatively cold, with only a few artists playing gigs to small crowds at nondescript venues.

In 2013, Shreya Ghoshal chirped away hits at Shilpakala Vedika and Indian Ocean enthralled a sizable crowd at Leonia Resorts in December. While Ghoshal didn’t return to the city in 2014, Indian Ocean was here in November to perform at a bigger event, the Windsong MusicFest, which catered to a crowd of diverse musical tastes and was a major contributor to the city’s music scene last year. While the Fest brought to the city the multi-talented Farhan Akhtar, who crooned hits from his films, it was also instrumental in giving rock aficionados their dose of musical euphoria through Bengaluru-based Swarathma and Chennai-based Junkyard Grooves. YouTube sensation Kanan Gill, whose film reviews manage to tickle more than a few ribs, also played at the festival along with his band NYEH.

The number of international artistes who have visited Hyderabad can be counted on the fingers. A look in to the past will reveal that the city’s brush with international artistry began with Bryan Adams playing at Hitex back in 2011. 2014 had Australian hard rock band Wolfmother descending on the city of Nizams to perform to a packed audience at BITS. It came as a welcome surprise that while EDM artists like Martin Garrix and David Guetta, among others, saw no potential in the land of the Nizams, Dutchman Afrojack gave Hyderabadis a reason to rejoice. He flew in to the city in November to administer a shot of his adrenaline-infused dance music at Sunburn’s debut in the city.

Other acts like ace drummer Sivamani, guitarist Leslie Lewis, gospel band Hillsong United, F16s, Raghu Dixit, Bollywood singers Mikha Singh, Arijit Singh, YouTube sensation Shraddha Sharma, etc, made the city groove last year. Speaking about the increased number of concerts in the city, Sardar Patel, an organiser of the recent Arijit Singh concert, said, “After the formation of the new State, the government has been taking various initiatives to support such events.

The Telangana tourism and the Happening Hyderabad initiatives have played a major role in bringing class acts like Arijit and Afrojack to perform here in the city.” “The number of concerts we had in 2014 was unheard of before the new government came into power. It is too early to comment on what 2015 will have in store, but seeing the way things were, the city will see a lot of action on the music front,” Patel added.

By:Kishore Eppalagudem