Punjab notes: Folk songs: loss of women's creative expression.

Our folk songs are marked by certain distinct features. One, they are simple. Not that they lack depth. The depth whenever they have it, is expressed in a manner that makes them easily understandable and thus shareable at individual and collective levels.

Two, they are invariably meant for singing. They carry inbuilt poetic structures with rhythmic patterns which can be set to music. Thirdly, they deal with common experience, the experience that people experience in real life situations.The experience being concrete is devoid of sterile abstraction which we usually encounter in apparently serious poetry composed in highfalutin language. But there are some popular misconceptions about folk songs that need to be dispelled. It is generally believed that a folk song has no individual authorship. It is somehow mysteriously born, something that grows out of soil or falls from the heaven as if it is manna. It's far from reality. Every folk song is created by an individual - or a group of individuals - gifted with creative power. But the author is not a typical poet and doesn't insist on be recognised as such and is least pushed about his/her intellectual property rights.

Since no intellectual property rights are claimed, it is assumed that a folk song has no individual ownership. Same applies to the tune of a folk song which is enjoyed best when sung. The tunes are produced by professional musicians or immensely talented individuals who have a deep sense of music. They are deceptively simple as they employ only three or notes but are repeated in such a manner that it keeps the listeners spellbound. Such a simplicity is the height of creativity as it conceals within it the complexity of superb craftsmanship. That's perhaps why that music directors and music composers of films have an undying fascination for folk tunes which they get inspired from while making their music in the subcontinent.

Let's not forget that in Punjab like other places in the region we have what we call 'musicians' families', the traditional custodians of our music tasked with preserving and promoting our folk music. But unfortunately they have perennially been at the lower rung of socio-cultural ladder in caste-ridden society that values one's family origins more than individual talent. Thus their creative contribution largely goes unacknowledged. So is the case with anonymous individuals especially women whose role in creating folk songs and music is ignored.

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