Mysore/Mysuru: Mysore Artistes Association has urged the Superintendent of Police (SP), Mysuru District and Director of Kannada and Culture Department not to give permission to Karaoke programmes during the forthcoming Dasara cultural programmes.

The artistes, led by Association General Secretary Gurudutt, who submitted a memorandum to SP Seema Latkar, said: “By permitting such Karaoke songs rendered in the backdrop of music track, it will be a blot on the rich Dasara music tradition of Mysuru that has a history spanning several hundreds of years. Any style of music concerts like Hindustani, Karnataka classical, light music, folk, orchestra, tala vadya, singing, devotional songs, devaranama, dance-drama, bharatanatyam, theatre songs, raitha geethe, Nada Geethe (State Anthem) are rendered along with percussionists. Most of the artistes are dependent on such events, backed by the constant encouragement of crores of music connoisseurs. The erstwhile Maharajas of Mysore have made enormous contributions to the field of art in Mysuru considered as the ‘Native of Artistes’.”

So, the Department of Kannada & Culture and Department of Tourism should work towards conserving the rich tradition of music rather than spoiling the same by allowing Karaoke singers. Such kind of musical renditions are already banned in Madikeri Dasara and Government programmes in Mangaluru and Shivamogga, added Gurudutt.

Association President Raghunath said: “Music should be practiced in a prescribed way that is integral to fine tuning the nuances. Nobody is against amateur artistes organising the programmes as per their benefit but Karaoke should not be allowed in Government events and those conducted by professional artistes, including Dasara cultural programmes. The District Administration and Kannada & Culture Department should sit up and take note, as several professional artistes have lost the opportunity to perform due to the onset of Karaoke events.”

If such a trend continues in Government-sponsored events too, the professional artistes will fade into oblivion in the coming days. It will also affect those budding artistes looking for a career in music. On the flip side, hundreds of artistes have been bidding a good bye to the field of music, rued Raghunath.

Artistes Roshan Surya, Rajesh Padiyar, Harsha Prabhakar, Ravikumar, Pradeep, Ravikiran and Hanumantha were present.