Radio Shadhin

Radio Shadhin 92.4 FM is the newest addition to the FM Radio industry of the Bangladeshi media circle. Our commercial launch is tentatively on this year’s December, and we have already begun a rudimentary test transmission, which can be heard at this very moment by the population of approximately 15 million that reside in and around Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Folk has come to occupy the lives of Bangladeshis almost more than any other genre of Bengali music. Among the luminaries of the different folk traditions are Lalon Fokir, Radharaman Dutta, Hason Raja, Khursheed Nurali (Sheerazi), Ramesh Shill and Abbas Uddin. Folk songs are characterised by simple musical structure and words. Before the advent of radio, entertainment in the rural areas relied on a large extent on stage performances by folk singers. With the arrival of new communication technologies and digital media, many folk songs were modernised and incorporated into modern songs (Adhunik songeet).

Folk music can be classified into several subgenres:

• Baul: mainly inspired by Lalon Fokir and almost exclusively performed by hermits.
• Bhandari: devotional music from the South (mainly Chittagong).
• Bhatiali: music of fishermen and boatman, almost always tied by a common raga (mode), sung solo.
• Bhawaiya: song of bullock-cart drivers of the North (Rangpur).
• Dhamail: a form of folk music and dance originated in Sylhet, Bangladesh. It is practiced in the erstwhile district of Sylhet in Bangladesh and in areas influenced by the Sylheti culture such as Cachar, parts of Shillong, Karimganj and Hailakandi Districts of Assam, parts of Tripura in India.
• Ghazal: Popularity of folk music of Sufi genres: introduction of philosophy and religion in music.
• Gombhira: song (originating in Chapai Nawabganj, in the Northwest) performed with a particular distinctive rhythm and dance with two performers, always personifying a man and his grand father, discussing a topic to raise social awareness.
• Hason Raja: devotional songs written by a music composer by the name of Hason Raja (from Sylhet, northeastern side of Bangladesh near Assam) that was recently repopularised as dance music.
• Jari: songs involving musical battle between two groups
• Jatra Pala: songs associated exclusively with plays (performed on-stage). Usually involves colourful presentations of historical themes.
• Kirtan: devotional song depicting love of Hindu god Krishno and his (best-known) wife, Radha.
• Kavigan: poems sung with simple music usually presented on stage as a musical battle between poets.
• Lalon: best known of all folk songs and the most import subgenre of Baul songs, almost entirely attributed to spiritual writer and composer, Lalon Fokir of Kushtia. He is known to all in West Bengal of India too.(Western Bangladesh, near the border with West Bengal).
• Sari: sung especially by boatmen. It is often known as workmen’s song as well.
• Shyama Sangeet: a genre of Bengali devotional songs dedicated to the Hindu goddess Shyama or Kali which is a form of supreme universal mother-goddess Durga or parvati. It is also known as Shaktagiti or Durgastuti.