ABSTRACT
Folk songs of Haryana as the artistic expressions of people’s collective consciousness form a significant segment of its intangible cultural heritage. So far, these songs have lived their “First Life” in this region by extracting their vitality from the land itself. However, in the wake of drastic infrastructural changes, these are on the verge of extinction. Interestingly, Information Technology has come to their rescue as factors like low-cost access to the internet, availability of recording devices and popularity of social media have imparted the second lease of life to these folk songs. The paper analyses how YouTube has facilitated the transmission, dissemination and hence revitalisation of Haryanvi folk songs by making them digitally accessible to virtual communities across the world.
