Two of the most famous Portable Media Players in the History (iPod and Zune) were at war when the dramatic relationship of Youth and iPod by Apple was flabbergasted by the influx of Zune released by Microsoft. It was a turning point for Media Player owners, as iPod has already established Look-I-Am-Cool-I-Got-iPod status. Zune’s First Generation models happened to slump in front of iPod’s Fifth Generation, and all the high hopes of Anti iPod People were vanished.  

With passage of time Portable Media Players are becoming necessity than novelty. As Mobile Phones nowadays provides the basic facilities of media players, yet companies like Apple, Sony and now Microsoft has won their places into the hearts of people as some of the Best trend setting gadget connoisseurs. These Gadgets are not only used as Media players but symbolize a Cool style of living. Two infamous rivals, iPod and Zune have always held a substantial position. And though both have there own positive and negative aspects, they have been leader of the Market since their appearance.    

I have always been a fan of iPod’s looks which lacks badly in Zune. The iTunes provides Podcasts which you can sync to iPod, and even share your own with the world. Podcasts are audios and videos released by People from all over the world to share with iPod owners. iPod’s support to copy righted music, which is often considered a hindrance in sharing music, has always been controversial. Though prices of iPods are quite higher than any other portable media player available in the market, Apple provides a range of models that fits for your pocket. One of the greatest features which I found first time in a gadget like this is touch screen. iPod Touch are totally unique in their design and usage. A person like me, for whom looks matter a lot; it is the perfect pie. With a whopping 3 inches screen in iPod Touch one can enjoy movies and Podcasts with an ease. Built-in Safari Browser lets the user surf through internet by using Wireless connectivity (wifi) and is specially designed to support the YouTube videos.  Even if one goes for previous versions like iPod Classics, its touch Wheel is quite smooth and designed in such a way that one can roam around in playlists by using just one thumb.

On the other side, Zune came with capability of sharing music and images. Microsoft introduced touch wheel in Zune’s new versions (second generation), however it still lacks the style and elegancy which iPod possesses. Both versions of Zune have a screen larger than iPod’s till Generation fifth, yet it looks copy of iPod Classic. Cost effective Zune is, as it provides more storage space in less price. A big score it makes is by large screen display and colorful User Interface and place where it beats every audio/video gadget is that it can be connected to Xbox. Even If one wants to buy music online it takes only $14.99 to buy unlimited music for a month, where as it is a normal cost for an album if one buys it through iTunes to sync in iPod.

These two moved to a generic dimension by releasing new versions of both gadgets. Being music junky, I tried both of the Players and was confused to draw a conclusion for which one is the best. Zune, which brought innovation by providing wireless connectivity between Zune-s and media sharing, was adopted by iPod’s new versions.  iPod has always been in limelight because of it’s touch wheel, which Zune implemented in its second generation models.

Zune yet lacks many of the charms which iPod brings bundled with itself. Third party hardware gadgets like Docks to attach iPod with Car and Home theatre or Video glasses (which we used to dream about back in 90’s) are common for iPod. Zune yet hasn’t come out with a touch screen, and I personally found that Zune has more hanging problem than iPod. No matter how hard Microsoft is trying, one thing is for sure, Apple got style. It took time for iPod to get mature and become a part of today’s Youth’s life, and Zune is moving fast to reach on that. But yet it takes few more versions to outshine iPod. War for winning the market between Apple and Microsoft has always been interesting. This at least promises that in near future we will have some thing genuinely innovative from both sides. 

(Article with certain variations from Published version in The Youth Magazine)

Classical music: this term has always confused yet charmed me.. The Dogma of this genre to be associated with lower-level society members more often with Red District and my fascination towards it has always scared my parents. I myself have had eerie questions in my mind like How we separate one music from the other... What is classical and what is not... how and why something which is called classical is classical... and why the counterpart isn't...  Now that I think of it, my parents had fair reason to be worried about me. :p... Anyway this is not the main reason why I started to type this new post... nevertheless, main reason was I wanted to write what I know about Gharanas and ended up writing from past half hour this only prelude to it.. never mind, this gave me an idea to break the knowledge which I am going to impart :p into several episodes.

Music as whole has always fascinated me, and quite later I found whatever music I like always fall in the category of 'classical'... whether its Baroque, north Indian or Yayue. Music is again on of those fields, about which if we start talking, it may never end. Here it is, share of two cents to it :). We discuss about harmony when we talk about western classical music and about melody when of Indian. But for a long time both indian and western classical music had more or less the same features of sound patterns. The classical music in most of the world origins either from religious music or from folk tunes.. and in turn affects both at several stage of musical evolution either. Indian classical music is considered to be a tool to reach the self actualization ( surely Maslow didn't know about the quick way to zenith of his theory :p) by SAMAVEDA (one of the vedas i.e. hindu scriptures). Classical music of India was later subdivided into Carnatic and North Indian Classical music, in which former maintained its old scale and kept its association with compositions (as in western music) where as later changed its scale to that of Bilawal and improvisation was introduced. North Indian classical music is mainly associated with Muslim era starting from 12 AD in India and influenced by Persian classical music. During 12 AD, Birj Bhasha was considered to be the official ruler language (muslim) and that was the main reason that most of Indian classical music adopted the poetry from this language as written by great poets and musicians like Amir Khusrau and Surdas. Later during 19th century it was changed by Khariboli; of whom's different dialects are urdu, hindi, deccani and few others.. Birj Bhasha and Khariboli sounds similar to listener as I being an urdu can easily understand Birj Bhasha poetry (its again a personal guess, one can deny it). Most of the medieval literature associated with North Indian Classical music was written in Birj Bhasha as we know the amir khusrau who is considered to be the founder of North Indian classical music and later people followed his league. He was the one who introduced zalaf, qawali and brought khayal (created by Nayamat Khan Sadrang) into North Indian classical music. Muslim Rulers' affinity towards Hindu-Muslim culture amalgam made many muslims to involve in practicing music, even some of the greatest and most popular bhajans were written by Muslims during that time. North Indian classical music has the property of improvisation doesn't mean that it was totally cut off from compositions. In fact, compositions and execution was not considered in here two different people's jobs as in western classical music. Perhaps, that was the main reason why Indian Classical music is always considered to be specially associated with impro visations. It is said that the single richest musical stream contribution into indian classical music happened between two periods of muslim sovereignty, the Pathans and the Mughals. Bhagti and Sufi traditions influenced in various ways on classical music at different places of India. with the decline of Mughal empire and emergence of new small states classical music further subdivided into different styles which were later identified by the specific Gharanas.

These Gharanas were for the first time officially documented by Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande who also collected all possible ragas and divided them over Thaats, though still with certain inconsistent categorization. These gharanas with time developed the distinct style and confined the music within the them. Perhaps this was one of the major reason why with time classical music started to vanish because it was not given open air to flourish, grow and shape itself with passing time. Nevertheless, apprenticeship and adherence to a particular musical style kept these gharanas alive too, preserving their very orthodoxy...

next episode will be regarding major vocal genres in Indian Classical music... :) until that time go through my public folder of skydrive to find some of the rarest music pieces ever..