Rock Songs in 'Banglish’

Photo: Faizul Khan Tanim

To Naveed Ahmed I would say that you have totally missed the point of my letter. The evolution of a language, and the changes it undergoes over the years are altogether different issues. Many new words are incorporated and even the spelling, at times, is also changed to suit convenience; and I do not disagree with you on this. But 'accent and

diction' are a different aspect which I was referring to. Talking or singing in Anglicised Bangla cannot be a matter of taking pride in one's 'culture and heritage'. I have come across a few such young upcoming musicians ( who were brought up in Dhaka) who speak very good English but Anglicised Bangla. Now I call that funny, irritating

and pathetic! If you want to support this, please do so and that is your prerogative. As regards the 'countless' English bands who sing in different accents which you had mentioned, I am not at all interested in them. Now to Asifur Rahman Khan, I would say that I am not categorising all the present genre bands and I have no intention of defining 'art and music'. It was only a response to Arafat Kazi who was offended for criticising the underground bands who according to him were 'creating art'. As a matter of fact, there are definitely many good bands in the present music scene. I've also had the opportunity to listen to some of the new genre bands (live as well as their published work) and I have noticed many shortcomings in terms of producing balanced music, meaning there was lot of disharmony in the guitars, drums and the vocals and it appeared as 'noise'. And missing the beat by over enthusiastic drumming is a common phenomenon in these concerts (that's besides the point). I can, of course, relate myself to the example he has given in appreciating the works of Dream Theatre vis-a-vis a heavy metal band. Anyway, Asifur Rahman Khan did agree with me on the 'accent' of Black vocalist (which I had referred) and, trust me, there are many more who sing in 'Banglish' (forgive me for this coinage).

Any public performance is subject to criticism by the listeners, good or bad, and if some of them cannot take it easy then it is better they remain 'underground'.