The song, not the singer

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">"when the cacophony clears up, pure mysic, clear as crystal will emerge," says shibani kashyap. she''s talking about the big boom in the music industry and it seems like an odd comment for an indipop artiste to make. but shibani, who was in bangalore to promote her latest album nagmagee, says she wants the gimmickry to be cut back."how many songs and singers you see on the various channels do you remember?" asks the singer who hit the charts in ''98 with <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">ho gayi hai mohabbat.</span> shibani''s mother is a classical singer. "i guess all the notes i heard while my mother did her riyaaz helped me," she says. "this is also why i value my music more than its marketing." this student of western and indian classical vocal as well as the guitar says music is a form of self-expression which helps her to communicate with music lovers. even though she herself is a pop artiste, shibani concedes that there''s a certain frivolity attached to this genre. "there are lots of wannabes in the business," she says. "but i don''t want to be in the fast lane. i am not in ahurry to churn out songs." why, then, is she seen as a glam girl as well as singer. "all this dressing up and looking good are just adornments," she says. "behind all that i am dedicated to my music and true to my art." she adds that the test of a true singer is the ability to sing and no amount of effort or money put intothe video or dressing up the singer will help. "the song is the star, not the singer," says shibani. while playback singing takes different skills altogether, she feelsnon-filmi music is where the real challenge lies. "we don''t have a film as a back-up. i am the representative of my sound. my ability to connect and communicate with the audience is all i have to depend upon." she''s not too much in favour of overexposure through music channels. "if people stop depending too much on the electronic media it will help. for a singer, performing live is the ultimate high," she says. </div> </div>