It’s 2002, but Tagore still tops

So you thought it’s Bangla Band that’s dominating the city’s music scenario? A state-wide survey conducted in the music industry has revealed different facts though.
According to the survey, Rabindrasangeet is the most in demand. That too, at a time when there have been quite a hype about the city band Parash Pathar’s version of Rabindrasangeet and Nachiketa’s latest album Ekla Cholte Hoi, a post modern subversion of the Tagore classic Ekla Cholo Re.
Despite such hype about the works, the albums lag behind in popularity to the good old styles of presentation.
Till date, there are 12,000 titles on Rabindrasangeet available. The sale of an album is categorised in two different sections — cassettes and CDs.
In the year 2001-2002, the sale of Rabindrasangeet cassettes have increased by around 6,000 units while that of CDs by 7,000 than 2000-2001.
"Around 40 per cent of the listeners of Rabindrasangeet are youngsters. The same boy who buys a Joe Satriani, also picks up a Rabindrasangeet album," said sources.
The sale of Bengali music albums have also increased over the last year. This year though there has been an overall slump in the cassette industry, sale of Bengali music cassettes have increased by 16 per cent.
The overall increase in the sale of music CDs is 26 per cent, while that of Bengali CDs is 64 per cent.