Blog Archives

Some more reflections on Sinhala pop music-By Uditha Devapriya Source:Island The pioneers of the cultural revival which materialised in countries like Sri Lanka in the early 20th century laid the groundwork for the evolution and modernisation of the arts in the region. Yet many of these pioneers were traders and merchants, commercial capitalists or in other words practical men, who sought profits from the very revival they patronised. How is one to view this? As Tissa Abeysekera has pointed out rightly in the context of the cinema, it’s all fine to deplore the commercialisation of the arts, but if the arts are to be revived in countries like ours, we need to recognise the fact that they include a significant commercial element. It is against this backdrop that we must view not just the theatre of John de Silva, but more importantly the pop music revival of the 1960s. In ...