reply to Ashu?s econd post contd? Your point about ratio of successful to unsuccessful albums is well taken. Only thing to note here is that this is a universal rather than a Nepali phenomenon in the music industry. Making albums that click with the people/market is no easy feat. Of all the cds that are released by big labels, only some end up making money for the companies. Many don?t. This trend may be even more pronounced in Nepal because it is relatively inexpensive to make cds and a lot of mediocre individuals and groups insist on cutting albums. In lok geet, for example, I am sure over 150 albums come out each year. How many make it? On Bacchu Kailash: I think Bacchu Kailash?s songs were definitely ?modern? and departed from preexisting genres like bhajan and lok, and hence they are subsumable under the ?adhunik geet? category. His songs feature the following: 1) composed (as opposed to collected) lyrics 2) composed (as opposed to collected) music 3) non-traditional instrumentation (guitar, piano, congas/bongo, violin) 4) recording and music arrangements technology of Calcutta before Radio Nepal was set up Because of these facts B.Kailash is most definitely one of the earliest pioneers of ?adhunik Nepali geet.? The lable ?purano Nepali adhunik geet? would be fine. But just ?purano Nepali geet? has no analytic classificatory value (not that things must always be classified). Still, if a compilation of ?Adhunik Nepali Sangeet? were in the offing, I can?t imagine the compilers leaving out B.Kailash (or his other contemporaries like Dhurva KC, Shiv Shanker etc., many of whom also fall under "purano" nepai geet ). Ashu believes that ?adhunik geet? are ?ALWAYS being about romantic love/loss and longing for love kind of songs? . This is way too categorical a statement. First, lets not lose perspective here. Love, loss, yearning etc.. are the themes of the majority of songs worldwide, not just Nepal. Just in South Asia alone, starting with Amir Khusrao and Ghalib to Gulzar, faiz, and any number of songwriters in contemporary Indian and film, Nepali pop, adhunik, the fact is that the theme of love and loss are timeless. Each human generation rediscovers love and loss, and writes about it in its own way. Love is the looming theme in such diverse genres as opera, jazz, blues, rai, folk, reggae, dohori, Zairian soukous, salsa, samba, ? you name it. So what?s the point in using it as one of the chief criteria to identify ?adhunik geet?? To sing about love is one of the reasons that music was invented to begin with (besides putting babies to sleep! . Also, there are many classic ?adhunik geet? that have little or nothing to with the kind of simplistic love themes singled out by ashu: examples?.. Ma ta lali guran bhayechu (n.gopal) Pokhi year gham ka jhulka (n. gopal) Mero geet merai pratibimbha haina (n. gopal) Kun mandir ma janchau yatri (Robin Sharma) Pir ma ooninu tyo euta kura (d. Shrestha) Gaon ma shayad pairo gayo ki? (d. Shrestha) Mero behoshi aaja (n. gopal) Aja bholi harek sanjh raksina thalechha (n. gopal) Aljhechha kyare pachhyauri timro chiya ko bootama (gopal yonzon) Ma dor bhayera ke bho (A. gurung) Sabai le bhanthe bagera ek din (aruna lama) Ma maunatama aljhi raheko (om Bista) Khutta tandai gara (k. moktan) You get the drift?. And yes, many ?rastriya? geet are more properly understood as ?adhunik rastriya geet? ? the whole genre of national/ist songs is itself a modern phenomenon, from red china to independent India. In Nepal the Panchayat period produced the greatest # of national songs, most by the same composers who composed the secular adhunik geet (gurung, yonzon, nati kazi, shiv shanker, ganesh raski etc.). Rastriya geet is rastriya geet in terms of the theme of the lyrics. But in terms of musical geneology they fall very squarely under ?adhunik geet? tradition in Nepal. Songs like: Mero topi Desh le ragat mage Hamro khusi ko lagi Rato ra Chandra surya These have much the same instrumentation as secular songs of the period except they are written and composed purposely to evoke feelings of nationality. A cse of same species, different genus.