Music is an essential part of our life. It serves different purposes to different people. Some listen to it for entertainment and relaxation. For some, it is an art that they pursue alone or in combination with other activities like dancing. For some, it is career. And it is a way to seek salvation for some mystics like Sufis. Music touches us at one or more dimensions of life.
It is impossible that we remain untouched by music during our lifetime. Today’s music is fast and based on western style whereas music of the past was based on classical rhythm and folk tunes. Music is an art where people always make some experiments. There is nothing wrong in mixing classical and western music. If it is good, people will accept it, but if it is not good, it will be rejected by listeners.
Preserve classical music
As I said that music is an art, it keeps perpetuating itself and we do not need to preserve it because, if people like to pursue it they will instinctively adopt classical music. However, we can promote classical music at international and national level to increase its popularity.
To support this objective, government should encourage classical music as a subject from the school level. They can also give some awards and honours to those who excel in music because these artists are the only live medium through whom the art of music can be spread and imbibed to the next generations.
Importance of traditional or folk music
The purpose of traditional music is not entertainment. It actually carries the knowledge and heritage of our cultures and traditions. Traditional music that we enjoy on festivals, seasons and ceremonies is a medium to remind us about our cultural history.
The interest in traditional music is certainly increasing because these days, we can see that even regional and vernacular artists have also started introducing their music albums. Most of them are based on folk music and many of them are getting success in the market. This fact suggests that the interest of people in folk music is in fact increasing.
