List of questionnaire
What kind of music do you prefer?
What should a good song have?
Do you like to hear folk music, if yes why?
What do you get by listening to music?
How often do you listen to music?
At what time do you listen to music?
Do you think that the new trend in music have affected the folk or other types of music you hear?
Do you get the quality in music you hear?


"Music: In the opinion of today’s youngsters"

"Music is an art form that involves organized sounds and silence. It is expressed in terms of pitch (which includes melody and harmony), rhythm (which includes tempo and meter), and the quality of sound (which includes timbre, articulation, dynamics, and texture)". "People of age group 10-29 are youngster."
As everyone has his/her own choices for different things but the group with similar characters and age mostly have common type of choices. Being a youngster it is sure that I would prefer mostly the things that other youngster of my age group usually prefer.
Regarding the music, basically elder people have always been accusing that the youngsters don’t like and have forgotten as well original, national and folk music. Actually what is the truth? This essay deals with the likes, dislikes of youngsters regarding the music and their opinion about it. It would be helpful to know the truth about the topic if we take the actual view of the youngsters rather than just predicting about it.
The survey was done in order to study about the kind of music the youngsters like and the reasons for them to like that kind of music or songs. The elder people have accused the song that they hear, of destroying the original Nepali music. Overall the research is about what the youngsters think about folk and their views about the other music that includes "pop, hip hop, rap, rock, disco, metal, jazz". The whole essay is based on the opinion of the 25 people of Kathmandu University on whom the survey was done. The survey was done among the people of age group 17 to 26 who were asked to answer the number of questions orally as well as in the printed question paper format and even via emails and telephone. Most of the people among whom the survey was done were very excited and interested. Dividing the age group into two categories 17 to 21 and 22 to 26 where there were 67% and 33% of the respondant respectively .
When the people were asked what kind of music do they prefer then it is interesting to know that people didn’t like to choose the particular type of music. About 73% of the people of age group 17-21 said that they mostly like rock, hip-hop, rap and pop. Almost all of the people of age group 22-26 prefered to hear all kinds of songs.
When they were asked about what a good song should constitute then 87% of the participant of the survey said a perfect song should have combination of good music, lyrics and vocal. While 13% of the people said that they first like to hear the good music and then only comes the role of good lyrics and vocal. There is no such difference regarding the age group for this question.
But when asked about the folk music whether they hear it or not, there were some differences regarding the age group .40% of age group 17-21 said that they don’t listen to folk music by their own but listen during picnics, parties and in public places. Remaining 60% told that they don’t like to hear folk songs because of the bad quality and the similar kind of music used in every folk songs, which irritates them.65% of age group 22-26 liked to hear folk music sometimes. But the remaining told that they don’t have any interest in listening to folk music.
43% of all the respondents said that the music provide them relaxation, refreshment, enjoyment and happiness, when they were asked what they get by listening to music. But there were only 15% who said that they take it as enjoyment and the remaining took it as refreshment. Some were so passionate about listening to music that they involve music to every part of their life. That is even in happiness, sadness and in romantic situations.
75%of the people said that they couldn’t imagine themselves a day without music. But 12% said that because of their hectic schedule they were unable to listen to music. The remaining told that they listen to music depending on mood. Some of them are so crazy about music that even while practicing practical subjects they listened to music during night
68% of them said that they do not have any specific time to listen to music. They listen it whenever they have leisure time. Even people enjoy listening to music while doing household works like cleaning rooms, washing dishes and even bathing. There were respondents who said that they listened to music when they were alone, during nighttime and while traveling.
About 72%of the total respondents didn’t agree in the statement that the new trends in music has affected the folk or other kind of songs. They said that each and every kind of music has their own kind of listeners and fans. Each kind of music had their own importance. But one of the famous and great musicians, "Alokshree" says, "The remix songs, which are popular these days, have totally changed the meaning and the concept of the old songs. It is more preferable if new artists come with their own creativity not with the already existing songs." But this has been disagreed by new artist "Mausaumi Gurung". She thinks "remix helps old songs which are already out of mind from people to come back. It provides opportunity to new generation to hear that same old song but slightly in new taste." These days some of the artist has started experimenting with the songs. They have started singing by crying, laughing and by having dialogs in between the song. Though the audience to some extent likes these songs but these types of songs are reducing the quality of song compare to the old ones.
It was a very good thing to know that most of the reapondents were conscious about the quality of the music they get from the music industries. They not only focus on sounds but also on the lyrics and the vocal. 32% people said that they did not get the quality in music they hear.
From my own study it was also revealed that the folk songs had trends to repeat the same kind of thing if it is once a hit. Using of common words like ‘mobile’, ‘internet’, ‘gate’ etc has also to some extent affected the quality of the folk song. The songs are so similar that one cannot distinguish between the original folk song and the other new ones. There is a trend of copying the hit number and releasing the similar kind of songs, which is deteriorating the quality in folk song.
Almost all agreed that the folk music is the reflection of tradition and culture and should conserve it while pop songs were defined as the songs of ones feelings and expressions towards something. Most youngsters said that the new kind of songs should include national theme not only topics related to the youngster, romance, dancing numbers. This is why most of them preferred new trends in music. While some of them said that youngsters are themselves new and they wants something new and that was the reason for youngsters to like pop and new kind of songs.
Besides writing lyrics, arranging music and giving vocal by the same person might not give good quality of songs and music. Finally different queries regarding the choices and views of the youngsters towards music was completed. And the final conclusion was that the youngsters don’t get the quality music they hear through they said that the new trends in music have affected the old ones. These days’ youngsters are also affected by the music videos that have been shown in the televisions. So to become a hit songs should have good music videos. Previously the songs do not have music videos and if they had they are not of that quality too. So old singers have started making music videos of their old songs by themselves to update their songs.
It is just our prediction that the youngster don’t care about the folk songs and old Nepali songs. Even the youngster seems to be liking the good and entertaining folk songs like "Sasuralima", "eka dashai bazzarma". They also have the attitude of conversing the old ones though they couldn’t depend on it only. The youngsters of today take music as part of their life more than it used to be taken by their parents when they were young.

Works cited:
Music portral. www.wikipedia.com 6 APR 2007<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/music>
Youngster and music. www.wikipedia.com. 6 APR 20007
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/youngster>
Types of music. Google.com 4 APR 2007
<http://www.clearleadinc.com/site/music/types.html>
Dahal, Monoj. "Sangeet Guruaama". Samaya, 1 Sep 2005:56-7

Name: Jyoti Koirala
Address: Kathmandu, Nepal
Email: get2koiralajyoti@yahoo.com

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