Don't get mad, get musical

What does a Taylor guitar worth $3,500 have in common with a pornographic comic-strip Indian bhabhi? The curves, sure, but they both also have songs protesting their mistreatment. In the process, they’ve got the Net buzzing.

Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but a nice little melody and a dose of humour adds up to a punch in the solar plexus, as United Airlines discovered when Dave Carroll, a musician whose guitar had been broken in transit, decided to write a tune about his misfortune. After a year’s worth of complaints failed to produce results, Carroll might have been forgiven for simply giving up and brooding. Instead, he channeled his negative energy into a country-western-style song titled “United Breaks Guitars”, with a funny little music video that struck a chord, so to speak, with millions of Netizens. It also brought in enough bad publicity for the airline to dole out reimbursement.

“Outstanding! I think he just invented something better than filing a lawsuit: posting a music video to obtain justice,” says one of the many thousands of comments on YouTube (https://bsmedia.business-standard.comtinyurl.com/knxyvm). An Indian commenter suggests that Mahatma Gandhi would have approved — “this is truely (sic) a non-violent protest for the modern era”.

Speaking as someone who regularly encounters Neanderthal activity on the Internet, one thing I found charming about this story is that it facilitated the delurking of hordes of small-time musicians — mild-mannered, retiring people who, going by the tone of their comments, probably don’t use Internet messageboards often. It was refreshing to come across online discourse where people were softly sharing stories about their beloved mandolins and ukuleles being destroyed by oafish baggage handlers.

No cuss words, no personal attacks, no generalisations about race or community. For once, the Net almost felt like a civilised place.

Almost. On the LA Times blog (http://tinyurl.com/mns4tb), one dissenter who clearly hadn’t read the report all the way through suggested that the whole thing was Carroll’s fault for not using a proper carrying case. “He just put the guitar unprotected into the hands of the airline? HELLO! I say he’s not entitled to anything… he was awfully naive to send his baby off to the bowels of the beast without protection.”

This leads to a discussion about where individual responsibility ends and airline responsibility begins, and this in turn somehow morphs into a debate about aviation history. “Remember the good old days when airplane waitresses were pretty and nice? They didn’t have a problem with being called stewardess either,” says someone on Fark (http://tinyurl. com/l3bsmx), and someone smartly retorts: “Remember the good old days when flying was a gentleman’s pursuit? Before every Joe Sweatsock could strap himself into a plane?”

Unfortunately we’ll never get to see the Savita Bhabhi episode where she leads a Joe Sweatshop into an airplane restroom, but we can do the next best thing: listen to the Savita Bhabhi tribute song by the band Shor Bazaar. (Facebook page here: http://tinyurl.com /mvd2f2. Download options available here: http://tinyurl.com/npdcdv.) “It’s unfortunate that our Government decided to ban the website,” writes band member Kris Bass, “I feel this echoes the discrimination towards sexual minorities. Hence this song feels like a liberation — a tribute to freedom of expression, the freedom to be yourself.” Less noble speculation is rife on Men’s XP.com (http://tinyurl.com/navgbq), where posters are speculating that a Savita Bhabhi live-action movie might be next. Who should play her — Sushmita Sen, Bipasha Basu? Or possibly even Rakhi Sawant, whose television swayamvar can be extended into a very different sort of reality show? Watch this space.

(jaiarjun@gmail.com)