Report of events from April-November 2020

The Western Music Association alongside the United Conservation Movement (UCMA), collaborated with the Rap & Beatbox Collective (a division of the WMA) during the end of the previous academic year and posted on June 2, 2020. This music project consisted of four (4) multi-lingual Rappers and one (1) Beatboxer, along with the UCMA’s members for a wholesome video that addressed the Western Ghats situation with the help of music to put forth its message. With the project aiming to spread awareness of environmental dangers and human impact on our surroundings, the video gained various promotions from different organizations & forums through Instagram. To raise the project up further, the WMA worked in association with the Josephite Choir to create a complete, fully-fledged song within the month of February. This marked the WMA’s first experience in collaborating with fellow college-led associations.

On June 7th, 2020, the Western Music Association set out to release a one-of-a-kind initiative called, “The Artist’s Corner.” This platform spread across two segments showcased stories of the journeys of budding, talented artists and musicians of the college, sharing videos of performances, to give all students of St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous) an opportunity to showcase their musical talent on the WMA’s Instagram page. These hand-picked musicians were selected based on their abilities in instrumentals, vocals, rap and beatboxing. As the first segment of budding artists came to an end, TAC received much love from supporters all around, waiting to see who would be featured next. The second and final segment ended on July 20th, 2020, making the WMA’s followers anticipate the Association’s next set of TAC to pop up.

The World Music Day was celebrated by the association to commemorate and celebrate the greatness of the culture and art form that music has become to this day. The WMA released three appreciation posters (mood boards), on June 21, 2020. The three posts contained some of the greatest artists of the 70’s as well as the 2010’s. Dedicating the page for the day to a universal cause like this, the Association celebrated not just international but local artists who have thrived through with their music. Whether it is Jazz, Rock, Pop, Indie or Metal, the WMA showed their appreciation and support for all Musicians and Artists who created a legacy for themselves or for those who are budding.

The WMA is known for their diversity, dimensions and music styles. With Beatboxing being one of the many divisions of the association, the Beatboxers of the association came together for a first-of-its-kind Beatbox Cypher. With their varied technical & musical styled routines, the group culminated various stylistic elements and sounds, providing a fresh experience apart from tamed singing and soulful instrumentals, for the audience. The Collective saw to it to present their best beatboxing routines through the cyphers, each being two weeks apart. With the first divisional Cypher released on June 12, 2020, it only seemed apt to leave supporters/viewers listening for more, as the second video released on the 24th of the same month. This not only showcased the existing talent of the Beatboxers in the Association but also, set the bar high for upcoming expectations of this division and ultimately the college’s Beatboxing culture.

On July 8, 2020, the WMA launched a collaboration with the Center for Molecular and Computational Biology (CMCB). This initiative included a series of videos discussing scientific research (for CMCB) while about musical inventions (for WMA), their histories and fun facts that may have been unknown to many. The Association provided instrumental tracks for the CMCB’s videos through Instagram; the WMA was given information by the latter, to achieve videos on the same platform making it a full-fledged collaboration. As it was heavily yet beautiful attached to instrumental tracks, the Instrumental division of the WMA took charge of the project getting into the music scene to showcase their skills. This marked a successful completion of six (6) videos on the Association’s page on September 12, 2020.

On July 21, 2020, the Western Music Association launched a project for all music-lovers called, “Music Speaks.” This platform was curated to share what music means to individuals and the impact it has had on their life. The open, free space project worked to operate for all students of SJC to express their opinions along with their favorite go-to-song while being featured on the WMA’s Instagram page. It consisted of two segments; one inclusive of all students whereas, the other exclusively for the Student Council of St. Joseph’s for exposure to the Josephite’s about their leaders. The initiative was taken to give voice, express and feature Josephites regardless of their abilities was well-appreciated by the audience with the project continuing for 40+ posts, to successfully end on August 24, 2020.

The WMA’s 6-member Acapella team created a cover of Frozen’s Vuelie on August 13, 2020. This was the first online project that the Acapella team produced. It received 2.7k views on Instagram and much appreciation from reputed colleges and music forums around Bangalore. Fascinating supporters it also left them wanting to listen for more to come from the Acapella division and the association.

Fresher’s Day is very important for everyone at St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous). With the Student Council looking to showcase every association for the freshers on their Instagram page, the WMA was an addition for all freshers to see. The video was the first of its kind for the WMA, a full-fledged project ever made in the history of the Josephite Music Culture. It was a culmination of the Association’s many divisions and members, who came together to create one continuous piece. An initiative was taken to let freshers explore all parts of the association. It was also a gateway for Josephites who would like join the association for this year, by showing them what the WMA is known for.

After being initiated, the members of the Instrumental division collaborated to produce a first-of-its-kind Lo-Fi track which was appreciated by the instagram followers and students of the college. Though it was produced on an online platform, it was marked as one of the many achievements of the division receiving the support from most associations across the college.

The online seminar was collaborated between the Department of Psychology’s Association, SUMANA and the Western Music Association to bring out the connection between Music and Mental Health and to expose the Josephites and outsiders with the same. The Guest Speaker for the event was Mr. Kamal Singh, a Clinical Music Therapist, who works with multiple learning and developmental disabilities, Alzheimer’s, Autism spectrum and other Mental Health disorders. He interacted with almost 130+ students who attended the webinar through YouTube live-stream consisting of nurses, teachers, psychologists, budding enthusiasts and school/college counselors. The webinar ended with a Q&A session in which the resource person answered participants’ questions that included audiences from reputed institutions of the country.

The WMA created an appreciation post and original composition for Teacher’s Day, on September 5, 2020. Throughout the day, the appreciation video was posted to thank teachers for their hard work and dedication in making students all around, better versions of themselves. Along with this, the newly-created Acoustics team composed a heartfelt song called, “Guidance,” (written by Trina Dutt, 3BVC and performed by the team- Vocals by Trina Dutt and Marea, Beatbox and message by Kevin Noel Sequeira, Guitar and Keys by Kenneth Moses and Aadhithya KR respectively) to let every teacher know that their students appreciated them to the fullest. This received most love and appreciation from the teachers across college.

While the first round of auditions was viewed through sent in recorded videos from September 10, 2020, the WMA also held registrations for their first-ever Music Community. In this community all music loving Josephites, regardless of their musical capabilities, were allowed to join and be part of the same. The formation of this community was to involve all Josephites inside the domain of Music Culture and be one with the association. As decisions were finalized for the community, a second round of live auditions was held from September 14th to the 16th. Results are yet to be announced for the finalized Western Music Association team of the year, 2020.

The WMA’s weekly Trivia session began on the 15th of September, 2020. Being an interactive session with their followers on Instagram, the Association’s followers get to take a quiz and answer a few music trivia questions keeping the game on. This interactive practice will continue to take place every Tuesday to encourage the audience to know more about the unknown histories/cultures of the fundamentals and pioneers of Music.

The Association in order to spread music culture and make the students aware about new music on a global and local level posts a selection of six songs for the top-6 songs of the week that students can benefit from. These songs are also curated in our playlists that are publicly available on spotify.

The inauguration ceremony of The Western Music Association was held on Monday, October 5, 2020 at 6 pm. The event was held online through YouTube Livestream and led by Jyothi Bendala (Vice President) and Nabeen Bhusal (General Secretary). There were a variety of performances by members of the Association. It started with a small introduction, during which viewers were briefed about the Association. Following this was the first performance for the day by Trina Dutt who sang, You Are Beautiful by Christina Aguilera. Soon after the melodious execution, information was given to viewers regarding the various divisions within the WMA. This was in light of recent auditions that took place previously, for Josephites to become a member of the year-old team. This was followed by the next performance by Prithvi Saggar, an alumnus of the Association who amazed the virtual audience with an original composition, who also said a few words regarding his love for the WMA and the opportunity he was able to grasp while being a part of the fun.

A sneak-peak to upcoming workshops was given, whereby various potential workshops were discussed for the audience to grasp. This was followed by a performance of Kevin Noel Sequeira (President) who performed a routine of Beatboxing and fascinated the crowd with his techniques of the hard-earned skill. Transitioning to the instrumental field of the Western Music Association, Aadhithya K.R. then displayed a mind-boggling musically produced track consisting of various instruments. To tie the knot, upcoming playlists that were soon to be released on Spotify (a music platform) were shed light on, along with the Rap & Beatbox Collective’s upcoming Mental Health Cypher. The Inauguration ceremony finally came to end with the Vote of Thanks by Nabeen Bhusal.

The Western Music Association took to social media once again, to spread their love and awareness of music. In the month of October, 2020, the association set out to produce three playlists through Spotify, a music listening application. The first playlist, “Lokal Sounds” was released on October 4th to appreciate and uplift all local Artists and Musicians within St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous) and Bengaluru. The second playlist, “Mainstream Sounds” released on October 9th, to provide all listeners with chart-topping ‘pop’ tunes. The last playlist of feel-good and healing music for the soul called, “Mental Health” released on October 20th. It gave students and individuals an optimistic and heartfelt cluster of songs to dive into. All three playlists were taken well by Spotify’s audience as many Josephites tuned into the trio, allowing for more support for future WMA projects and playlists.