Amadergaan.com came from humble beginnings. In the early part of 21st century, it was merely a chatroom on the IRC network! It served one simple purpose - as a place where people would gather and talk about music. From there came a site with a forum in 2002 (or a bulletin board system or BBS as it is usually called), and some downloads of bangla music. These combined to make a pretty good recipe for success for Amadergaan.com which to its loved ones would later be known as 'AG'. After 6 years of existence, it still holds some of its first generation members, plus has hoards of new ones who are keeping the forums alive with its members' camaraderie, banter and most of all, love of all kinds of music. Hence it boasts the fitting tagline of "From Baul to Rock".
The founders of AG are Safwan and Faysal. Faysal first started the IRC chatroom while he was a student in Canada, and it was there he first met Safwan, and this is the start of the history of the site we see today. From chatroom, to a social site, they transformed AG finally to become an enterprise.
Let us first go over what AG offers its guests and members. Go to www.amadergaan.com to face the site's homepage, and there, you get an account of news from the world of music, which can consist of the new albums releasing or being worked on in a studio somewhere in Bangladesh or abroad, to news of concerts, interviews of artists, etc. Its does well to deliver on the world of music when there is not really any other source as well organized as AG.
There is a wave of a different kind flowing through the world of music in Dhaka and other urban cities for variations of rock and heavy metal music, which is classified as 'Underground' music due to its lack of support from the mainstream music industry. For the followers of such music, there was really only one option at a time, which was AG. AG is thus home to a lot of musicians now pretty well known to bigger circles, like members of the alternative rock band Arbovirus, or the now very famous producer Fuad Al Muqtadir. So, AG is also a place to keep up with the offbeat trends in urban Bangladesh, which now even includes 'Electronic' and 'Hip Hop'.
In the 6 years of its existence, one could say that AG went through a transition into adulthood, replacing its free music download section with an online shop for Bangladeshi music. This stems from a realization that our local artists need the support we can provide them by popularizing their works. That does not happen until their CD sales go up. AG has placed itself in partnership with almost all the big music production organizations in Bangladesh, e.g. - G Series, Ektaar, Sound Machine, Rage Records, Bengal Music etc.This partnership allows AG to bring these music to the audience outside who do not readily have the opportunity to pop into a local music store and buy the CDs. Locally, we are not able to purchase music online due to a lack of availability of credit card services necessary to do so, but stopping the free downloading at least forces us to visit our local stores to get the CDs. To help us make our minds up, AG provides previews of tracks from upcoming albums in their Media section. You can actually still find some free stuff in their Downloads section of Media, where there are the items not holding any copyrights restrictions. The Audio section loads a music player with a play list that has previews or teasers you might call them, of upcoming albums, and sometimes, even Demos of songs as they are being composed. The Video section is scarce, but still holds a collection of rather interesting clips, one of which if you visit soon enough is Babna (of Warfaze fame) playing some enchanting flamenco in a studio somewhere! There is a section for Articles also where you can find reviews of shows, albums, and articles from actual music reporters.
AG had another ambitious project, which was to create and host websites of a multitude of music artists. Though this didn't see the light of day fully, it was a noble effort and I hope someday we'll get to see these sites in their full glory.
AG's two creators live and work in Canada, and the level of information you see on AG would not have been possible without the team working on the grounds here in Bangladesh. This team also, was selected from none other than the forum of AG. If anyone needs proof that man is a social being, I'd welcome them to this forum. This has been an active place of communicating with Bangla music fans scattered all around the world, since its inception. And over the years, it has spread its premise from music, to culture in general, technology, to user contributed content like poetry, blogs, artworks and recordings. The best way to go about the forum would be to browse through the categories on the forums' main page. One would have to become a member and log in to access all the sections of the forum however.
Apart from the reviews of albums, and concerts in the Articles section of the site, the forum has its own section for reviews of this kind, but contributed by its members. There is also a section where concert organizers announce upcoming shows, and the members can respond to the selection of artists to perform, or the venue and other such detail not possible without a forum of this kind. Also, artists (or their friends) can come and announce upcoming releases. It’s not uncommon for member artists to upload demos to gather early comments or just for the purpose of sharing. As mentioned before, some famous and semi-famous bands and artists are part of this forum. Probably one of the most public figure to have become a member of this forum is Maqsoodul Huq AKA Mac, an artist and once the singer for the very famous Feedback (remember 'Melay Jaire'?). Here members found out how articulate and passionate this man is about music, and writing. Also among the public figures who are members of this forum is singer and TV presenter Alif Alauddin who takes feedback on her TV shows from the other members. So the forum is home to artists from the famous end of the spectrum to the obscure end of it, all using a common platform to voice out their opinions, experiences and dreams.
Debate is also one thing that happens frequently on the forum. So, the social interaction is not just on a level of entertainment and fun, but also intellectual; and it gets edgy at times. Issues like copyrights, and whether the artists actually benefit from the sales of CDs, to whether adopting western music styles lead to the tarnishing of one's own culture, to much more serious topics of local or world politics, or social issues. On occasion AG's members have even gathered themselves for social action. The most successful of this was organizing a concert in 2003 to raise funds for the then ailing great artist Abdur Rahman Boyati. Meetings were arranged from discourses within the forum, which later translated to physical meetings and then a massive line up of artists performed for a whole day playing 3 to 4 songs each to honor and help Abdur Rahman Boyati at the Shilpakala Academy.
Amadergaan today through its partnerships play a huge role in promoting music related events on the web. Next time at a concert, you should check the event banners or the ticket to the event to see if you spot the AG logo, with the saying Web Partner above it. Sometimes, the artist's Thank you note inside the album sleeve has a mention of Amadergaan. This goes to show the rising level of significance of this entity which was once just a chat room. AG in its 6 years has risen to great heights, and I wish it success in continuing its rise to provide its guests and members even more things to enjoy and hold dear.
