Poetic Discourse in the Songs of Tapta¹

USHAM ROJIO

The present article is a preliminary attempt to examine certain aspects of the Manipuri popular songs – particularly that of Tapta, pseudonym of Loukrakpam Jayenta, as a text of social dissent. Let me share some considerations that have guided my explorations in this paper. First, though I listen to and enjoy Tapta’s song extensively, I am interested chiefly in the problem of how protest songs function in its setting; what it means, not so much to the scholar or cultivated audience, but to those who sing it and listen to it in its natural habitat. Second, the current paper seeks to look at Tapta’s song as a text of social dissent.

Tapta refreshes the field of cultural studies and modernism because his performance is the axis of so many media which critical orthodoxy used to segregate. The success of his art depends wholly upon such a confluence. Discourse analysis has served to remind us that reading is not confined to the letter or field of letters. The text is still one of the elements in the chain of interconnected media that represents Tapta’s act. Tapta’s art humbles the status of the text as it richly rewards anyone who decides to reflect on the texts that have emerged from his recordings and performing activities. I am not prepared to argue that the interrelation of music, word and gesture makes it invalid to judge rock music and lyrics qualitatively, or what a literary critic might find bad poetry can be turned into a great art with the assistance of flair musicianship and electricity.

Tapta has gone through a number of musical styling changes: topical and political songs; symbolic and expressionist songs ranging from folk to Hindustani classical to rock “n” roll, folk rock in genre. This mixed genre reflects the plurality and complexity of Manipur society as a whole. Music is a language, a language that becomes significant not only by cultural initiating, but also through bodily and emotional responses. Tapta can be studied more through his song writing ability than through his prowess as a singer. His lyrics, which are subversive, make his songs unique and thought provoking.

I have listened to the sessions of Tapta several times now, but still the intensity of his screaming is overwhelming. When I listen to the tape recordings for the first time, I am tempted to ask: Why don’t they comfort him? As I listen on to the rest of the tape, it seems to herald a singular capability of Tapta – to play and to communicate. From this vantage point, the second question pops up: Is it significant that they don’t (comfort him)?

Cries and screams are a type of expression that perhaps is the most pure semiotic expressions we can think of. The screams normally occur in situations where strong emotions are involved and it is connected with strong feelings of pain, anger, grief or anxiety, but sometimes also with strong feelings of joy and relief. The scream is the most powerful dramatic expression of distress.

LYRICS, MUSIC AND SCREAMS

The power of Tapta’s lyrics and screams can be judged from the reception of the same at the popular as well as the discerning levels. Some called him the “protest singer from the protest land” and others termed him a “radical reformist.”² However people may brand his kind of music, one aspect is clear: that, he is deeply swayed by the social, political and economic insecurity and turmoil in Manipur and his understanding of the political processes in the state is overtly expressed in his lyrics. Tapta has always reacted to the insensibility of the state and hegemonic political games of the central government that caused the bloody uprising of 18th June, 2001, through his songs. Blatantly, Tapta’s Pruck series and 1958 are clear depiction of the discontent that the people of the state have over the political insensitivity of New Delhi.

Songs like “Eigee Abok” (My Grandma), “Revolution,” “Neihatpikhraba” (Oppressed), “Umaibi” (Eagle), “Thabaton” and “Meira” (Torch) from Abok series are remarkable political songs about the human rights violations and political turmoil, particularly in Manipur and Northeast India in general. Tapta’s album 1958 and many other songs from other albums can be texts of discourse study of the draconian act called Armed Forces Special Power(s) Act, 1958. John Lewis’ statement “a singing army is a winning army” is archetypical.

Social dissent becomes a force in his lyrics and his fundamental purpose of music is social protest. The lyrics of songs are reflections of our culture. Through these words we can see ourselves and our younger generation, in a new light. Popular lyrics sometimes challenge firmly held beliefs. These same lyrics can also help us examine our common social heritage as well as specific events in Manipur history. Some songs are highly philosophical, stressing universal human concerns about war, freedom, equality, brotherhood, love, and justice. Many popular songs, however, relate directly to specific historical events (murders, massacre, protests, tsunami and conflicts) or to continuing social and financial problems (economic instability, corruption and irresponsible political leaders) that evoke strong public feelings. Although it may seem obvious that some songs are retelling of folktales (like Pebet, Lai Khutsangbi), Tapta’s narratives and sources are more ubiquitous, brief and often political; and continue to trouble our imagination and intellect. The characters from these tales are translated into a story setting that is suitable for a four to five-minute vocal recitation. Once converted, the story is told – not by a loving grandparent, a mother, a father or a baby sitter, but by a commercial recording artist. These narratives are altogether different texts inviting plurality of reading.

His lyrics are restricted to generational conflict. For the adolescent, his music is opposed to the “romantic” compositions preferred by parents. Using narrative styles, the songs document many of the areas of discord in Manipur in emotionally charged terminology while stressing the notion that, unless the people became aware and involved, the problem would continue. The following lyrics from the track “Problem” is illustrative:

Problem tana thallaba punsise
potthapham khanghandraba punsise
chaneinana hingliba punsise
chamamnana hinglakliba punsise
kanana karigi thokhanbano?
kari maramdagi thokhanbano?

(Life, full of problem
restless life,
living a jumbled life,
living a mystified life
who is responsible?
Why it happens?)

Some music critics might object and question the use of mixed genres to communicate social protest. But that would be missing the trees for the woods. For, Tapta’s mixed genres must be analysed in terms of how effective is the packaging in imbuing popular songs with socio-political messages.

POPULAR MUSIC IN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Social movements arise not only in response to conditions of inequality or injustice but, more importantly, because of changing definitions of these conditions. Those involved must recognise and define their plight as an injustice, and one that is intolerable to live with, rather than just passing it off as a result of luck or a cruel twist of fate. In addition, participants in such a movement must come to believe that “an alleviation of these intolerable conditions is possible and that their efforts will be important in obtaining the desired changes in political and social conditions.”³ Music and popular songs can play an important role in this process of symbolic redefinition and the creation of a social ideology for social movements. Parenthetically, there are symbolic aspects of the music of most protest movements that help to both define ideology and develop solidarity that are not contained strictly in the lyrics of the songs themselves. “The musical forms chosen by protest musicians usually involve elements drawn from the traditional music of the oppressed group. These elements usually involve the use of traditional melodies, transformed by the use of new lyrics, but which are recognised by most participants as deriving from the people’s music.”⁴ Thus, familiar forms of musical structure may be used, such as rhythm patterns or traditional instruments that are a part of the specific cultural heritage of the oppressed group, to symbolically define the music as that of the people. One clear example of this in Tapta is his track “Problem” where he initially begins his song with a rhythm of folk dance of Kabui, a dash of Manipuri sankirtan and then shifting to a popular Hindustani classical as filler.

In considering the presentation and performance of protest songs, one has to take note of the ritual nature of music, and the effect of this ritual in creating feelings of identification and solidarity in the audience. “Once an individual has been brought into the sphere of a movement’s activities, the use of music in gatherings can, unquestionably, reinforce the feelings of communal belonging and social solidarity.”⁵ This function of emotionally charging the interests of group members is more effectively done via music than it is via speeches, pamphlets, or other rational, language-based means. Thus, as Durkheim suggested in the context of religion, musical events can provide the sorts of emotional, euphoric, vitalizing and integrative experiences that more rationalistic appeals cannot. This function of music is “doubly important in the context of social movements, when one considers the high proportion of the non-literate in most oppressed population, for whom rational, language-based arguments are, at the most, non-effective and, at the least, totally inappropriate means of communication.”⁶ Thus, in summary, music is an especially unique and effective force in mobilising the oppressed population. The function and social effect of popular music has drawn considerable attention. In juxtaposition, an increasing number of writers have come to see popular music as an opinion formation device. Reisman in treating popular songs polarizes listeners into a majority and a minority. The latter unit is one “in which certain socially rebellious themes are encapsulated.”⁷

Some critics hold that protest songs appeal to only a small segment of the so-called “Big Sound” audience. In juxtaposition, an increasing number of writers have come to see popular music as an opinion formation device. The Beatles, particularly, have been described as “hypnotizing” and “brainwashing” American teenagers.⁸ A handful of social scientists have portrayed popular music as evocative of a new “social ethic” while at the same time rejecting the “old order.” A cursory examination of these discussions finds much disagreement upon the sociopolitical effect of popular music. One interpreta-tion sees popular songs as a form of “background noise” which has little meaning if examined as a total entity. “It would have understood that the specific study of forms does not in any way contradict the necessary principles of totality and History. This is the case with mythology: it is a part both of semiology inasmuch as it is a formal science and of ideology as it is a history of science: it studies ideas-in-form.⁹ In sum, the impact of sociopolitical songs appear somewhere between the Reisman position and the position that art must be “a cry for justice” in the Brechtian tradition. Given the novelty of this area of research, there is still many problems, both qualitative and quantitative, to be resolved.

MUSIC AND SYMBOLIC ORDER

Tapta’s screams fit into the tonality of his music. He relates to the musical phrases, and fills in the pauses when screaming. Tapta’s screams in the pauses in a turn-taking manner that is characteristic of the musical interplay as well as the dialogue. We could say that this is a demonstration of his capabilities for protocol conversation. Turn-taking is often regarded as the most basic organisation of all human communication. In musical interplay there is also usually an alternation between simultaneous playing and turn-taking. I would call this wonderful game of turn-taking in Tapta’s songs as a successful dramatic monologue. Foregrounding the aggression and rhetorical power of the speaker has thus tended to allow the effacement of the second-person addressee in favour of exploring the complex political turmoil in the region. Like in dramatic monologue, there is an intra-textual aesthetic communication which shifts into an extra-textual public communication, or, I could say, into an inter-textual public communication.

When this interplay is transcribed to musical notes, it looks like a real composition. I must however admit that I find it difficult to hear this pitch relationship that suggests that Tapta’s screams relate to the tonal key of the music. Another question concerning this is whether this musical interaction is possible only because of his skills for creating the music so that his scream fits into the music. However, the important issue here is not whether this observation or analysis is correct or not, but what significance his screams has as musical interaction and make it a part of the music. At this point, we should ask how such a dominant semiotic aspect as the scream affects the musical expression. The semiotic modality in language “gives music to literature,” says Kristeva.¹⁰ Without the semiotic, or when the semiotic is weak, language lacks life, and becomes empty words.¹¹ The opposite, a language without the symbolic would be chaos, if not psychosis.¹² The semiotic creates the nuances and turns opposites into differences. Screams are also otherwise used in music to create a strong musical expression, for example in hard-rock music screaming is part of the musical conventions. Does Tapta’s screaming widen his potential for musical expressions in a similar way? Paradoxically when he screams his dynamic and tonal spectrum broadens. Although some critics argued that Tapta’s expressions have some aspects that could be understood as the germ of a symbolic. It is his presence that provides the structure and that connects this expression to a music-cultural world.

When we speak about a symbolic aspect in music this can be related to an exclusive musical symbolic order, or to the symbolic order that constitutes all languages, as the Swedish culture researcher Johan Fornäs suggests:

Symbolic orders thus exist within as well as beside the verbal mode. Music and images are no diffuse flows that are given shape and meaning only by the presence of words. They also elaborate logical and meaningful structures even though these differ from the verbal ones.¹³

A musical symbolic order is the set of conventions and rules that consti-tutes a musical genre. The symbolic order is, according to Kristeva, the overall structural and constituting set of rules that determines the categorization of objects into language. The subject has to be posited in the symbolic to make use of the language for expression and communication. The symbolic order is the most fundamental aspect of the organization of society and languages. It is a concept that refers to the categorizing of objects into language.

It is obvious that music does not always have an evidently denoting function such as in verbal languages. But totally neglecting the denoting aspects of musical meaning would be, in my opinion, a correspondingly great mistake. Musical codes have meaning, and sometimes the meaning would be shared by people who participate in the same musical-cultural society. Other times the meaning is related to private memories and experiences of people or incidents. But again, due to the dominance of the semiotic modality in music, the meaning will always be ambiguous. The symbolic aspects in the musical interplay by Tapta must mainly be related to musical conventions, to a musical symbolic order. He improvises according to certain rules that are typical of a musical genre which he himself cannot define. He improvises in a tonality; he presents a rhythmic and melodic theme, and develops this theme as expected in this tradition through augmentation and through harmonic and instrumentation variations.

In the poetic language, the semiotic is always dominating, always cynical and domineering. But in the way it is performed it has a character that matches Tapta’s temper. Tapta plays consequently “on top” of the pulse. This “on top” creates an uneasy and intense mood that has a body co-rrelation; it is similar to the heart’s changes with excitement. Tapta’s excitement is audible in the music. Tapta’s tempo is the semiotic expression, but is, at the same time, deeply rooted in the symbolic. When the intensity increases, there is “a strident voice, amplified or natural, which screams to the deaf who can hear and the blind who can see.”¹⁴ Simultaneously this vocalising is connected to a high degree of excitement, as in football matches or in sexual intercourse.

Tapta’s excitement is symbolic, but the symbolic meaning, suggested by musical conventions, is transgressed by the semiotic. These aspects of emotional harmonizing exemplify the semiotic in the music. But the symbolic is never threatened by total destruction. In this way the music is a poetic language. Placing his screams in a musical-cultural world, they achieve a place for him in the symbolic order.

POETIC LANGUAGE: A REVOLUTIONARY FORCE

We have called this musical interaction a poetic discourse, which implies that it is rendered revolutionary. According to Kristiva (1994), the poetic discourse or the poetic language is a sort of communication which is characterised by a strong semiotic aspect. This semiotic modality in poetic language transgresses the symbolic, but never destroys it, to communicate these aspects or feeling that is otherwise unspeakable:

Poetic mimesis maintains and transgresses thetic unity by making it undergo a kind of anamnesis, by introducing into the thetic position a stream of semiotic drives and making it signify. This telescoping of the symbolic and the semiotic pluralizes signification or denotation: it pluralizes the thetic doxy. Mimesis and poetic language do not therefore disavow the thetic; instead they go through its truth (signification, denotation) to tell the “truth” about it.¹⁵

It is this transgression of the symbolic, of the thetic, that provokes change if not revolution. The expressions of the unspeakable threaten the language and the symbolic order from inside. Suddenly a chair is not a chair any more, the significance of the words becomes ambiguous, or less important, and instead the experience of the words depends on the rhythms, the intona-tion, on the semiotic flow in the language. And furthermore the poetic discourse questions the subjectivity, the subject positional in the language, in a manner that affects the common roles of a sender and a receiver, and interferes with asymmetries of the therapist-client relationship. The signifying process of the poetic discourse must include an emphatic kind of understanding that makes the communication to a mutual process of meaning making. When the language between us is poetic, there has to be two subjects communicating. Kristeva calls this emphatic understanding love.¹⁶ In these ways, poetic practices can provoke changes not only in the subject, but also in the language and in the society.

When Tapta achieves a position in the symbolic, this means that it is possible for him to express himself in a way that other people will unders-tand. When Tapta’s scream becomes part of a musical communication, he experiences that some aspects of his inner life have become sharable in social communication, but it’s equally important that this interaction gives him a position in a broader musical-cultural community. He is, from this moment capable of music making. This is the first step towards a music-cultural membership. Such a membership is often seen as an important aspect of iden-tity that people regard musical activities as a way of performing our identities, our sense of ourselves.

To participate in a musical interplay from such a point of view be seen as a way of creating an identity. According to common conventions of musical participation, Tapta does not have an inevitable place in a music-cultural community. Nor do I have any intentions of changing the musical or cultural politics through my work with a local musician called Tapta. But this musical interplay and many other musical interactions, is questioning traditional conventions in Manipuri culture about masculinity and about the abilities required to participate in musical interplay. Tapta has taught us much about how to include children and adults with severe communicational problems and disabilities in musical interplay. Later on, other bands in Manipur like Eastern Dark, Phunga and Imphal Talkies, though in different stratum and different aesthetic, have used this musical interaction in their works concerning integration of disabled people into musical communities, as a way to provide a social network for clients who are threatened by isolation.

Therefore, music can be understood as a reformative movement in music pedagogy. This movement has influenced the policy of music education, towards less elitism, towards more valuation of popular-music, and towards valuation of the musical experience before traditional aesthetic valuation. In this regard, music therapy has really been revolutionary, and has contributed to changes in musical politics. So my answer to my initial questions is that it is indeed significant that they did not comfort Tapta in a usual manner, but let his screams be part in the music. Tapta’s screams are a reminder of a human need to be communicative; perhaps not as famous as Bob Dylan’s scream but certainly a revolutionary force when it comes to music.