The transformed face of music

Gone are the days of the old classics. In the days bygone, right from the lyrics, to the music to emotions by the actors to the picturisation, everything was in perfect sync.

Today’s music is more of ‘seeing’ than ‘hearing’. Even before the original version of the song can come on stands, the remix versions are heard at the discotheques. Item numbers featuring skimpily clad girls is the call for the day. Neither do such item numbers have any meaning nor needed. Yet to draw the younger generation, they are being extensively used in films.

If you do not believe us, listen to what some of the singer of yesterday have to say. Both Alka Yagnik and Kavita Krishnamurthy, who were once heard frequently, are no longer interested in giving their voice to more than a few songs. Alka Yagnik is extremely worried because the lack of originality in today’s film songs.

“There’re a lot of re-mixes happening. It’s the current trend. But melodious music will always remain predominant. I’m getting my quota of songs. I don’t want to sing more than that,” she says, adding, “I’ll tell you something. The face of the heroine in Hindi cinema has changed. They’re no longer the delicate beauties that they were in the days of Madhuri Dixit”.

Where Alka wants originality, Kavita does not feel the soul in the music anymore. "The kind of music being composed these days and the kind of meaningless lyrics don't encourage me to accept many assignments. Today, the composers have no style, and music has become soulless. It's too mechanical also. You don't have to be trained in classical music because computer can do cutting and pasting for the singers. Duets are being made, and both the artistes don't have to be present for the recording”.

True, one cannot imagine singers like Lata Mangeshkar lending her voice for Mallika Sherawat. Somehow, their images won’t match. Today music is made to make business (read money). There have many films today which have had no or less business in the box office but their music has featured in the charts for month at a stretch. ‘Shakalaka Boom Boom’, ‘Fanaa’ and ‘Aashiq Banaya Aape’ are just a few examples.
As audiences, we do not think so much about these things. All that we do is ‘listen’ to a song and then decide whether we like it or not. If we notice it is the foot tapping numbers that we prefer now-a-days. But then again, such songs do not have a long life.

But, the time has come for us to decide as to which kind of music we want to hear in our near future. Do we need evergreen songs like ‘Tere Mere Sapne’, ‘Kora Kagaz Tha Ye Man Mera’, ‘Rangila Re’, ‘Bequaar Karke’ or something that will blast away in the dicotheque? The call is all ours.

- Mili Swarnakar (SAMPURN)