That's one progressively downer going level of appraisal if i may say so myself,,right readers???
So what is that a chain of? My mood? Social Morals? Any other arcane "old is gold and new is crap" sort of subject that everybody from old retirees having their daily morning/evening "chat ups" to political ideologists and intellectuals who still feel central govt controlling everything is the best form of governance?
It CAN be all that since the heading is fairly generic and open to interpretation and extrapolation. But i'll keep it focused on a fairly light topic.......
FILM MUSIC
I, for one, can honestly, without hesitation, utterly staunch in my views, state that current film music has gone to utter SHIT.Well,, the SHIT part is applicable to 98% of the hindi movie music in anycase even if not the complete 100%. But why am i saying that?? Am i a 80-90 year old who feels listening to songs sung by Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, K L Saigal or composed by S D Burman, R D Burman brings back memories of a time when going to the bathroom to piss wasn't a chore in itself at 1AM at night or that i could actually eat SOLID food rather than slurp spoonfulls of squishy mush coz i don't have teeth?
NO!
Let me make you all look at it with a simple view. Pick up any song from the days of Kishore Kumar, Mohd Rafi and co and listen to it once.
Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyaar Tera,
O Haseena Zulfon Wali,
Chura Liya hai Tumne,
O Mere Dil Ke Chain,
Mera Joota Hai Japani,
Pyar Hua Ikraar Hua,
Khoya Khoya Chand,
Dil Ka Bhawar Kare Pukar,
(examples given for your ease of picks. You can add any of your choice)
After one solitary listening you can probably hum it no end and even sing 40-50% of the song paragraphs. Listen to it twice and i can pretty much guarantee you can sing the whole song with word perfect accuracy. Now that isn't something to be taken trivially. The popularity of a song depends crucially on how fast it sticks in the listener's mind. And in THAT aspect the oldies win hands down. Take the breed of the new "hip" songs that litter the music scene and after 5 minutes of hearing them,,you can't recollect one line. Examples for those are way-yy-yy too many to even start writing about here, so fill in your own whilst reading( Ok. Some examples like CASH). Not only are the songs which are normally intertwined during a movie plot unfolding,,say,, like the hero-heroine catching each other's glances for the first time and holding them, the first kiss, the 'stuck-at-lonely-shack-in-monsoon' have become forgettably ordinary,,but the so called "Item Songs" have killed off whatever sanity was left. Even the ludicrously popular ones like college favourite "Crazy Kiya Re" doesn't hold anyone's imagination to hum or sing it after a couple of months.
Now my current crib about the state of the music scene isn't anything economic in nature. Hold on a sec......It IS economic in nature. I gotta spend precious moolah buying shitty songs and music. Ok...Ok, i download most of my music for free on P2P before venturing out to buy any CDs after a review of songs. But my current crib is that, I, a self annointed listener of "quality" music, has to wad through the drudgery of mindless and pathetically distant-to-the-listener music just because there HARDLY IS ANY OTHER VARIETY AROUND!!!( and the music moguls ponder why P2P has taken off so explosively....yeesh)
Music, any type or genre, in my view must make the listener forget about his ills, his problems, his world around him and immerse the person in the feeling and emotion the music is meant to convey. Classical music does that with perfection. Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi's music can totally absorb you into their fold. I hold a special place for John Williams' music from the Star Wars series of movies coz they have a really good ability to make your mind feel the emotions of the movie even without watching. And why even go that far off?? Even our own national anthem instills a sense of belonging and pride towards our nation(yeah ok,,that's the basic premise of any national anthem, but still). Compare that to the beats heavy film music of today,,and it seems that pharma companies have a secret pact with music composers to have them belt out headache inducing music to boost the sales of over-the-counter painkillers. The "Remix" culture is pretty synonimous with that particular feeling. Somebody should tell DJ Suketu that a remix needs something more than "Bang-Bang-Bang-Bling-Bling-Bling". Take away the actual lyrics,,and i can bet pretty penny that a listener can't make a distinction between any 2 of DJ Suketu's remixes( on a related note, i do like DJ Aqeel's remixes due to the face that he uses original singer's voices in his remixes, especially of Kishore Kumar, and has a variety of styles; and Bally Sagoo who's "Churaliya" is still the ultimate remix in my view).
But there is a clearing at the of the tunnel it seems. The "Underground" music scene is exploding all around the world from college groups belting out some cult classics like "BC Sutta" from the Pakistani group - Zeest, and my personaly favourite, "Gaand Mein Danda" from a group from XLRI Jamshedpur - Bodhi Tree. Now these aren't exactly "for family listening", but they accomplish perfectly what any form of music is meant to accomplish - make the listener FEEL the singer's/composer's emotions and his outlook on his life. The "Asian Underground" movement in the UK pretty much evolved into the "lounge music" scene with names like Talveen Singh and Karunesh. The success of all these names point to one thing from the Point-of-View of the listeners to the media empires - GIVE US GOOD MUSIC and we'll BUY them. Push CRAP on us and you can forget us spending a single cent.
Oh yeah,,before i wrap up. I would like to point out a weird trend going around with respect to music listening especially by the "hip" crowd(read college and under 28 group). Songs like "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee and "Bebot" by the Black Eyed peas have become somewhat akin to trendsetters when it comes to "oooh yeah,,that's cooooool man" type of songs. Funny thing is,,,i haven't met one,,,,ONE listener around me who even understands a SINGLE word in any of these songs. One is in latino while the other is Filipino. Now why would a "Hindi" nation bred up on "American English" listen to these kinda songs and actually RAVE about them???? Hmm,,,,,beats me. Well,,no matter,,you wanna rave,,then rave. It's a free country. But don't try to show it off as being "COOOOOL" to the other person and ping someone who actually listens to "GOOD MUSIC" as a dead-heap old-timer.
Hey,,who knows. Maybe if the "Bebot" crowd are exposed to Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Classical Instrumental or even good quality Asian Underground, they might even learn to like "MUSIC". But i surely ain't getting my hopes up.
So what is that a chain of? My mood? Social Morals? Any other arcane "old is gold and new is crap" sort of subject that everybody from old retirees having their daily morning/evening "chat ups" to political ideologists and intellectuals who still feel central govt controlling everything is the best form of governance?
It CAN be all that since the heading is fairly generic and open to interpretation and extrapolation. But i'll keep it focused on a fairly light topic.......
FILM MUSIC
I, for one, can honestly, without hesitation, utterly staunch in my views, state that current film music has gone to utter SHIT.Well,, the SHIT part is applicable to 98% of the hindi movie music in anycase even if not the complete 100%. But why am i saying that?? Am i a 80-90 year old who feels listening to songs sung by Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, K L Saigal or composed by S D Burman, R D Burman brings back memories of a time when going to the bathroom to piss wasn't a chore in itself at 1AM at night or that i could actually eat SOLID food rather than slurp spoonfulls of squishy mush coz i don't have teeth?
NO!
Let me make you all look at it with a simple view. Pick up any song from the days of Kishore Kumar, Mohd Rafi and co and listen to it once.
Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyaar Tera,
O Haseena Zulfon Wali,
Chura Liya hai Tumne,
O Mere Dil Ke Chain,
Mera Joota Hai Japani,
Pyar Hua Ikraar Hua,
Khoya Khoya Chand,
Dil Ka Bhawar Kare Pukar,
(examples given for your ease of picks. You can add any of your choice)
After one solitary listening you can probably hum it no end and even sing 40-50% of the song paragraphs. Listen to it twice and i can pretty much guarantee you can sing the whole song with word perfect accuracy. Now that isn't something to be taken trivially. The popularity of a song depends crucially on how fast it sticks in the listener's mind. And in THAT aspect the oldies win hands down. Take the breed of the new "hip" songs that litter the music scene and after 5 minutes of hearing them,,you can't recollect one line. Examples for those are way-yy-yy too many to even start writing about here, so fill in your own whilst reading( Ok. Some examples like CASH). Not only are the songs which are normally intertwined during a movie plot unfolding,,say,, like the hero-heroine catching each other's glances for the first time and holding them, the first kiss, the 'stuck-at-lonely-shack-in-monsoon' have become forgettably ordinary,,but the so called "Item Songs" have killed off whatever sanity was left. Even the ludicrously popular ones like college favourite "Crazy Kiya Re" doesn't hold anyone's imagination to hum or sing it after a couple of months.
Now my current crib about the state of the music scene isn't anything economic in nature. Hold on a sec......It IS economic in nature. I gotta spend precious moolah buying shitty songs and music. Ok...Ok, i download most of my music for free on P2P before venturing out to buy any CDs after a review of songs. But my current crib is that, I, a self annointed listener of "quality" music, has to wad through the drudgery of mindless and pathetically distant-to-the-listener music just because there HARDLY IS ANY OTHER VARIETY AROUND!!!( and the music moguls ponder why P2P has taken off so explosively....yeesh)
Music, any type or genre, in my view must make the listener forget about his ills, his problems, his world around him and immerse the person in the feeling and emotion the music is meant to convey. Classical music does that with perfection. Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi's music can totally absorb you into their fold. I hold a special place for John Williams' music from the Star Wars series of movies coz they have a really good ability to make your mind feel the emotions of the movie even without watching. And why even go that far off?? Even our own national anthem instills a sense of belonging and pride towards our nation(yeah ok,,that's the basic premise of any national anthem, but still). Compare that to the beats heavy film music of today,,and it seems that pharma companies have a secret pact with music composers to have them belt out headache inducing music to boost the sales of over-the-counter painkillers. The "Remix" culture is pretty synonimous with that particular feeling. Somebody should tell DJ Suketu that a remix needs something more than "Bang-Bang-Bang-Bling-Bling-Bling". Take away the actual lyrics,,and i can bet pretty penny that a listener can't make a distinction between any 2 of DJ Suketu's remixes( on a related note, i do like DJ Aqeel's remixes due to the face that he uses original singer's voices in his remixes, especially of Kishore Kumar, and has a variety of styles; and Bally Sagoo who's "Churaliya" is still the ultimate remix in my view).
But there is a clearing at the of the tunnel it seems. The "Underground" music scene is exploding all around the world from college groups belting out some cult classics like "BC Sutta" from the Pakistani group - Zeest, and my personaly favourite, "Gaand Mein Danda" from a group from XLRI Jamshedpur - Bodhi Tree. Now these aren't exactly "for family listening", but they accomplish perfectly what any form of music is meant to accomplish - make the listener FEEL the singer's/composer's emotions and his outlook on his life. The "Asian Underground" movement in the UK pretty much evolved into the "lounge music" scene with names like Talveen Singh and Karunesh. The success of all these names point to one thing from the Point-of-View of the listeners to the media empires - GIVE US GOOD MUSIC and we'll BUY them. Push CRAP on us and you can forget us spending a single cent.
Oh yeah,,before i wrap up. I would like to point out a weird trend going around with respect to music listening especially by the "hip" crowd(read college and under 28 group). Songs like "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee and "Bebot" by the Black Eyed peas have become somewhat akin to trendsetters when it comes to "oooh yeah,,that's cooooool man" type of songs. Funny thing is,,,i haven't met one,,,,ONE listener around me who even understands a SINGLE word in any of these songs. One is in latino while the other is Filipino. Now why would a "Hindi" nation bred up on "American English" listen to these kinda songs and actually RAVE about them???? Hmm,,,,,beats me. Well,,no matter,,you wanna rave,,then rave. It's a free country. But don't try to show it off as being "COOOOOL" to the other person and ping someone who actually listens to "GOOD MUSIC" as a dead-heap old-timer.
Hey,,who knows. Maybe if the "Bebot" crowd are exposed to Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Classical Instrumental or even good quality Asian Underground, they might even learn to like "MUSIC". But i surely ain't getting my hopes up.
P.S:- Was also gonna write about Tamil music since i'm a avid listener to old movie songs of Sivaji films and stuff,,but couldn't get the names of singers and composers in my mind. But no matter,,the picture there isn't too different too.Also i have a similar article on movies coming up. But till then Happy Reading and Happy Listening to "Good Music" ;)
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1 comment:
At least for once, I completely agree with you :P :)
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