Nepali Lok Geet

Emerging in the popular music media of Nepal in the 1950s was a music genre called Nepali lok geet or “folk song,” which drew on and transformed traditional songs from Nepal’s villages. In contrast to village songs, Nepali lok geet heard on the radio and in recordings combined musical elements from various ethnic traditions, supplemented with non-folk instruments, and Western influences. In the 1950s Nepali lok geet (Nepali folksong) collector/singer Dharma Raj Thapa traveled throughout Nepal collecting and learning Nepali lok geet( Folk Songs). In the early days of Radio Nepal he sang the songs based on Nepali lok geet on the air, and later became head of the Radio’s folk music section. Starting in 1965, Jhalakman Gandharwa sang songs of his own caste community which are known as Nepali lok geet, the Gandharwas (also sometimes known as the Gaines) for Radio Nepal. In 1961, Nepali lok geet (Nepali folksong) collector/singer Kumar Basnet began to sing at Radio Nepal and be recorded at Ratna Recording. He became especially famous for collecting and popularizing Nepali lok geet( Folk songs) of the Tamangs, and collected songs from a great many of the ethnic groups of Nepal. His voice and subtle features of his melodic expression retained quite clearly Nepali village singing styles, while the instrumentation became increasingly Westernized (Henderson, “Who Needs the Folk?”)