My cultural environment has shifted a lot during my travels in India. But I would say it has consistently pointed towards one thing: that Art is divine and it passes through the lens of cultural boundaries. All the artists I have interviewed have explained to me how cultural context is so important to understand their creation. However, they also ultimately ended up confessing that timeless music doesn’t need cultural context. Often what we refer to as ‘Songs’ is much more than just ‘Music.’ They have lyrics rooted in a specific language, visuals portraying a story based in that culture, and rhythms that are familiar in a community. However, if we remove all the cultural lenses from these creations, we are left with art – that doesn’t need a cultural context universally.
My concept of community was shaped around the definition that art is divine. All the musicians and producers I met were moving in very different directions from each other because of the very experimental nature of the Independent music scene. However, they all devoted their creation to something bigger than all of us.
HSF House Blogs 