he Grammy Awards have been under the spotlight this year particularly in this region. A vocalist/ composer of Pakistani origin, Arooj Aftab was given an award. Meanwhile many have been not that happy by the sidelining of artistes like Lata Mangeshkar.

It must have been a surprise that a vocalist of Pakistani origin was acknowledged for her work. Though from Pakistan, she was born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents, who like so many others, shifted there in search of better economic prospects. Then in her teens, she went to the United States where she has lived since. But, she did not sever her links to her mother country and had been featuring in music videos released here and has kept up her exposure to the Pakistani music listeners.

In any case, the digital age has made remoteness a thing of the past. It is everywhere from all over, the presence on the digital media is immediacy once removed. The distance and the away-ness is now not nearly so total that a person when away is completely lost and the memory erased. It is now constantly refreshed as it would be with a local artiste.

One does not know what the criteria in judging an artiste in the Grammy scheme of things are and how a person is chosen over another. A critical factor always is the availability of the work or the easy accessibility of the artiste for it is difficult to judge a person whose work is not accessible or is too remote and localised even in today’s world. It is thus convenient for all those who are in touch, constant touch with the mainstream music industry and show business and close to the world centres of such production.

It is obvious that the musical expression these days is much more eclectic and one should not be surprised because the flow of musical ideas and finished forms is so easily transferrable through the digital media and sources. The time lag too is a thing of the past and what is happening thousands of miles away is simultaneously open to viewing and listening. So, some of it remains or is retained. This postmodern approach and understanding too may be in violation or at cross purposes with the formulation of critical criteria that are more rooted in the land and the region.

The Western show business has always been accused of not giving enough time and space to the other films industries of the world. It has been Hollywood, followed by European cinema possibly Japanese and then, a long distance away, cinema of Third World countries. Some performing arts personalities became the West’s darlings but largely the criteria against which standards were formed originated from there. The other film forms were accepted by them as curiosities. Even in that it was usually the niche expressions or forms that were given precedence over the popular ones. Akira Kurosawa and Satyajit Ray were always preferred over Mehboob and Chopra because the popular film expression was considered to be pandering to the lowest common denominator. In judging Western cinema this distinction did not exist nor it was cast in stone. The good was also the popular and not necessarily excluded from it. Because the binary was not bridged. much of the popular cinema and music in Third World countries were excluded or blinded out in favour of the prototypes of Hollywood and Europe. The Indian and the Chinese cinema suffered greatly because of that. Lata Mangeshkar too was a victim of that civilisational blind spotting.

Lata Mangeshkar was and is hugely popular in the subcontinent and as the diaspora expanded and settled in other parts of the world, South and East Africa, the Far East, Untied States and Europe, the demand for Indian music too became greater with the passage of time. As the numbers swelled, films from very off beat locations too started being screened closer to the mainstream venues. The music too becomes more popular and was heard among the various musics of the world.

The subcontinental music is very particular and well-wrought, extremely so because it flows from one of the oldest traditions of high music. Its traditions have been documented and supported by a civilisational spread that was significant for being inclusive and absorptive. It remained a living tradition over hundreds of years. To the uninitiated, as indeed the first colonisers it appears to be unmusical due to its use of the shrutis.

Ustads Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Ravi Shanker and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan made their presence felt over the great divide and it appears that the watertight boundaries are being eroded. It is hoped that more options would be available in the future for a judicious outcome.

The author is a culture critic based in Lahore