Rigsar
Encyclopedia
Rigsar is a music genre
, the dominant type of popular music of Bhutan
. It was originally played on a dranyen (a kind of string instrument), and dates back to the late 1960s. The first rigsar song, Zhendi Migo was a copy of the popular Bollywood
filmi
song "Sayonara" from the film Love in Tokyo
. Rigsar songs can be in several languages, including the Tshangla (Sharchop
kha) language.
The traditional dranyen, a kind of folk guitar, has been updated into the rigsar dranyen for use in popular music. The rigsar dranyen has 15 strings, two bridges and an extra set of tuning keys.
Rigsar's popular grew steadily in the 1970s, when the genre's modern form developed; Dasho Thinley, a schoolteacher, composer and performed a song called Dorozam which was very influential. Rigsar became very popular by 1981, when Shera Lhendup became a pop icon with the song Nga khatsa jo si lam kha lu; his 1986 Ngesem Ngesem was also very popular, and was the first to use keyboards. By the end of the 1980s rigsar was declining in popularity until the arrival of Norling Drayang
, a very popular and prolific record label which has released more than 130 albums. Norling's breakthrough release was the album Pangi Shawa, which set the stage for future developments. In the early 1990s, the rigsar industry grew considerably as Drayang repopularized the genre, adding more electronic elements. Modern rigsar recordings often use electronic approximations of drum
s and guitar
s.
Suresh Moktan released an album, New Waves, in 1996 that is the highest-grossing Bhutanese album in sales. However, he has now begun criticizing rigsar as unmusical. Others dislike the genre because it is repetitive, simple and generally a copy of Indian popular songs, or because rigsar is not influenced by traditional Bhutanese music.
Music genre
A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...
, the dominant type of popular music of Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
. It was originally played on a dranyen (a kind of string instrument), and dates back to the late 1960s. The first rigsar song, Zhendi Migo was a copy of the popular Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
filmi
Filmi
Filmi is Indian popular music as written and performed for Indian cinema. Music directors make up the main body of composers; the songs are performed by playback singers and it makes up 72% of the music sales in India....
song "Sayonara" from the film Love in Tokyo
Love in Tokyo
Love In Tokyo is a 1966 Hindi film that became a hit at the box office. It was written by Sachin Bhowmick and produced and directed by Pramod Chakravorty. The film stars Joy Mukherjee, Asha Parekh, Pran, Mehmood, Lalita Pawar, Asit Sen and Madan Puri. Hasrat Jaipuri wrote the lyrics.-Filming:The...
. Rigsar songs can be in several languages, including the Tshangla (Sharchop
Sharchop
Sharchop is a collective term for the populations of mixed Southeast Asian and South Asian descent that live in the eastern districts of Bhutan.-Ethnicity:...
kha) language.
The traditional dranyen, a kind of folk guitar, has been updated into the rigsar dranyen for use in popular music. The rigsar dranyen has 15 strings, two bridges and an extra set of tuning keys.
Rigsar's popular grew steadily in the 1970s, when the genre's modern form developed; Dasho Thinley, a schoolteacher, composer and performed a song called Dorozam which was very influential. Rigsar became very popular by 1981, when Shera Lhendup became a pop icon with the song Nga khatsa jo si lam kha lu; his 1986 Ngesem Ngesem was also very popular, and was the first to use keyboards. By the end of the 1980s rigsar was declining in popularity until the arrival of Norling Drayang
Norling Drayang
Norling Drayang is a popular and prolific record label in the Kingdom of Bhutan. Since its establishment in 1994, Norling Drayang has released more than 150 music albums and 4 feature films. With the release of its first music album "Pangi Shawa", Norling Drayang was acknowledged as the first...
, a very popular and prolific record label which has released more than 130 albums. Norling's breakthrough release was the album Pangi Shawa, which set the stage for future developments. In the early 1990s, the rigsar industry grew considerably as Drayang repopularized the genre, adding more electronic elements. Modern rigsar recordings often use electronic approximations of drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s.
Suresh Moktan released an album, New Waves, in 1996 that is the highest-grossing Bhutanese album in sales. However, he has now begun criticizing rigsar as unmusical. Others dislike the genre because it is repetitive, simple and generally a copy of Indian popular songs, or because rigsar is not influenced by traditional Bhutanese music.