Singing through the Screen: Indian Idol and the Cultural Politics of Aspiration in Post-Liberalization India (original) (raw)

This dissertation examines how discourses and practices of aspirational self-transformation are circulated, consumed, and materialized through sites of popular music practice. Focusing on reality music television shows, such as Indian Idol, and the new music schools that are emerging around them, this study combines nearly two years of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Mumbai with close analysis of musical and visual media texts. I argue that popular music practice has become a privileged medium for imagining and cultivating new kinds of selves in the aspirational economy of globalizing, liberalizing India. Simultaneously, I show that these sites of aspirational musical practice re-inscribe social hierarchies based on class, caste, and gender, even as they espouse a meritocracy grounded in talent. iii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Anaar Desai-Stephens received a B.M. in Violin Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and an M.A. in Ethnomusicology from Boston University. She has studied Hindustani violin with Kala Ramnath, and Hindustani vocals with Warren Senders and Rajeshree Pathak. Her doctoral work has been supported by the Howard Mayer Brown Fellowship from the American Musicological Society and the Randel Fellowship from the Cornell Department of Music. Anaar has an article forthcoming in MUSICultures, and she has presented her research at national conferences in the fields of ethnomusicology, anthropology, and South Asian studies. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where she is teaching courses on music and colonialism, film music, and South Asian musical culture. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work emerges from a lifetime of travel to India; more than a decade of studying, living, working, and researching in Mumbai; and out of a journey from being a professional musician to being a scholar of Indian music. As such, it is made possible by intellectual guidance, emotional support, and artistic mentorship from innumerable individuals. Woven through with insights enabled by so many, any mistakes are, of course, my own. In India, I am fortunate to have a large and loving family. In Ahmedabad, my extended family-Shrutimami and Falgunmama, Chitramasi and Maulibhai, Vijaymama and Hetalmami, Tikumama and Keyurimami, and all my cousins-have always welcomed me back to 38 Jawaharnagar at a moment's notice, nourished me with the tastiest Gujarati food possible, and enthusiastically supported my burgeoning interest in Indian classical music and then my research in reality music TV shows. Thanks, in particular, to Vijaymama and Hetalmami for thoughtful conversations on changes in Indian music and for introducing me to their musician contacts. In Mumbai, the Mehta-Vakil clan taught me how to navigate and love that crazy city; you, quite literally, kept me alive. My special gratitude goes to Jagumasi: from teaching me how to cook Indian food to offering a practitioner's rich perspective on the world of Indian performing arts and aesthetics. Your home has always been a place of great care, learning and reflection for me. This dissertation research was enabled by a network of informants whom I often met through the most improbable of circumstances. Many have subsequently become good friends v and, often, creative collaborators. For your insights and friendship, my sincere thanks to