Career in music: The BTS of singing

“You’re very lucky, your parents allowed you to do a Bachelor’s in Music,” told my trainer on my first day of office. I knew that getting to study music academically was a privilege, but to me that came as a consequence of my parents’ inhibition of my interest in music. Even today, considering music as a career raises eyebrows until someone goes out of the grain and succeeds. However, music is mostly considered synonymous with singing, and this absolute narrative daunts people from seriously diving in as success for a vocalist is a result of volatile competition, trends, and sometimes talent.

While Lata Mangeshkar , the legendary Indian singer was initially called out for singing in the movies, it’s no surprise that our society has much to unlearn and relearn about the glory of music. It’s the same society that classified the folk musical heroes, the Gandharvas , as low castes, while even the so-called high castes sang hymns and tales from the epics in the form of music. Gandharvas in Nepal are musical figures who not only kept the folk tunes alive but their music told the stories of the society, monarch, nature, awareness, news, information, and much more. Thus, the hypocrisy in art seems to have had a rebellion as none could remain untouched by the taste of music, as of today.