The art of narrative podcasting

As we tread down our memory lane, no matter how diverse our paths, we all culminate at that point in our childhood when we loved and enjoyed bedtime stories. The tales of Panchatantra, with growling lions mimicked in grandpa’s shrill voice or stories of warriors that spelt pride in their very narration, we loved it all. A congenial combination of a beautiful story and animated articulation that formed dreamy images in our heads as we were put down to sleep -the impact was so profound that we strive to recreate it with just as much life to the coming generations. Such is the power of riveting vocal narrations.

Didn’t I read something like podcasting when this started off?

Channeling the beauty of skillful audio narration, with a hint of technology is the modern day art of podcasting. To bring in some perspective here, a podcast can be anything from a random coffee table conversation to a lecture delivered at Stanford to an audio series of a few episodes. Yes, that’s the range it spans. It’s all that’s captured between the ‘record’ and ‘stop’ buttons on your devices. But the effort that goes into establishing its quality in terms of the presented content, editing and fine-tuning is what takes it a notch higher.

By pure definition, a podcast is a media file available on the internet. While iTunes is the giant of the podcasting industry, it’s gradually gaining traction on Spotify and Google Play Music. What essentially began as an audio broadcast found its variants in novels and videos (vodcasts) too. But somehow podcasting is still synonymous to audio-only content, so let’s happily stick to this assumption for a while. For some better feelers you could try listening to one of the path-breaking podcasts, Serial, a gripping murder mystery by Sarah Koenig.

How is this a powerful medium?

Did it happen to you that you remember some TV ads not really because what the producers offered in it, but just because of a catchy jingle or phrase it was associated with? Like Radio Mirchi’s famous ‘Suno Sunao Life banao’ or the Sarv Shiksha Abhyan’s campaign song ‘school chale hum’. These are instances, albeit minute, of how the human brain tends to perceive certain rhythmic patterns of sound better than most imagery. We are so habituated to reflexively using our senses that we totally underrate the power of simple hearing which leaves so much room for imagination.

Like the age-old radio revamped and made its revival in the early 2000s, the trend of podcasting which intends on delivering something more meaningful than Bollywood's top chart-busters will be a welcome change.

Podcasting’s great…So what is TheIndiestreet about?

Amidst the cacophony of commercialized forms of art, we at TheIndieStreet choose to be the voice of every independent artist who’s attempted to carve a niche, be it music, films or any other art-form. . And what better way than hearing their stories from their own voices?! We present to you the journeys of some indies, their inspiration, their struggle and an eclectic collection of their works through our podcast series. The soon to be released pilot features Rapper MegUhWatt. There are many more such voices trying to reach you. If only you could lend an ear…

Listen to our first episode here.