Blog Posts by Deepak Gopalakrishnan

  • Rock Elitism and Us

    By Deepak Gopalakrishnan | The Turntable – Fri 21 Oct, 2011

    A few months ago, aging pop/rock star Bryan Adams came down to Mumbai for a show. I was excited, having been a huge fan of his music during my school days and thought I'd pay tribute by attending his show and generally indulge in some nostalgia.

    Hoo boy, nothing had prepared me for the backlash that was to follow when I told some people I was going.

    They ranged from taunts to point-and-laughs, even phone calls to see if I was serious, and a very short, sweet SMS, simply containing the monosyllable, "Thoo".

    "But you listen to Dream Theater and Karnivool", observed one gent. "I also like Carnatic classical. What's your point?", I replied.

    Apparently, you can't listen to stuff like Bryan Adams when you 'graduate' onto music that speaks about ripping flesh and suicide. Ah, yes.

    Rock elitism. One of the worst sorts of snubbing in our little society of delusion.

    You know how you're at a concert waiting for some 'metchul' band to play, and the PA system plays a riff that sounds familiar? You

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  • Why Piracy is Important to Music

    By Deepak Gopalakrishnan | The Turntable – Tue 11 Oct, 2011

    (Thank you for your order — Flipkart.com)

    Recently, I fulfilled a promise I made to myself when I was a college student — that one day, I would start buying original music CDs. And through the next decade, I kept saying that one day, when I had money, I would actually pay back the artists that I'd stolen borrowed from.

    It was then, with some sense of excitement, that I finally decided to start going legal in October 2011. Truth be told, I could have done it long back — I started earning my own money almost 5 years ago — but like the old saying goes, better late than never. Close to three quarters of a terabyte and torrents of torrents (heh) of FLACs and MP3s later, I finally hit the 'confirm order' button for two CDs that I'd heard in and out on my Cowon.

    I can guarantee you one thing. The respective artists wouldn't have benefited from that 'confirm order' click if it weren't for those illegal downloads in the first place. Oh, no. If a friend of mine hadn't discovered that Australian

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