Samiul Bashar Samin
If someone ever said that music has the capability to revolutionize generations, I doubt he/she was aware of the grave understatement that was being made at that moment. Like it or not, music brings about irrefutable change in the way we talk, the way we walk and the way we dress. And you don’t really need to travel far from home to see that.
For the sake of context, first let’s just focus on how a plethora of bands in Bangladesh have changed the lifestyles of people in Bangladesh in order to narrow it down. At a point when Bangladesh was a closed and gated community of eastern music, pioneering bands such as as Souls, Uccharon and Spondon broke into the scene, making an instant mark on the Bangladeshi people. Little did they know that they were on their way to spark a musical revolution.
Flashback to the 70’s in Bangladesh when your parents probably had the “polarized on side” retro haircut. These bands helped the mainstream Bangladeshi listeners ease into pop and rock as they released a steady stream of albums and started doing live shows that influenced an entire generation of musicians. Suddenly, Bengali pop, folk and eastern classical weren’t the only genres available to people and they embraced the change with finesse.
But of course, as stronger winds blew the listeners wanted more and were given all that and more as bands such as Warfaze, LRB, Miles and Nagar Baul rushed into crowds with their blazing guitar solos and immersive songs. And here is what started the change that has bled into what you see today. Suddenly, all the cool kids now had long hair and wore black t-shirts occasionally. Rock was the in-thing and boy was it in. The myriad of Scorpions, Guns n’Roses and Iron Maiden posters were in every kid’s room and everyone flocked to the tape stores to get a copy of the latest album.
But the biggest change had yet to come then as Cryptic Fate, Aurthohin, Black and Artcell were about to step into the music scene. And as heavy metal and new age rock was introduced, so was a new way of being yourself. The kids that wore black t-shirts sometimes started wearing those shirts everyday and the old posters were replaced by posters of Megadeth, Metallica and other influential bands and people started growing their hair out a few inches longer.
Which bring us to today, when the number of “aspiring” musicians in Bangladesh currently is way too high for the amount of people who actually want to play and listen to music wholeheartedly. Listening to “different” music has become the in-thing now and there is no stepping out of it. But to say the least, people have recognized the beauty in being versatile with the kind of music they listen to. With all things said and done, we all know the power music has in revolutionizing behavior and it isn’t about to stop soon.