I just caught up on the discussion between cb-ji, qwerty, punjini and madhavir108. Let me just inject my 2cw in the melee...
Personally, I don't see a problem with artists maximizing their income per se. I don't have a problem with artists seeking publicity or exposure. I don't see any problem with adding an element of performance to a musical show. Music is after all a performance. Any of us who go to live music concerts of any kind know this. There is a different between hearing a CD and watching a performance - and it doesn't matter whether you're talking about Ghulam Ali Khan or Micheal Jackson. Live performances give artists the chance to interact with their audience. And that can create a certain magic - a certain level of emoting that recorded music never can give you. So, I see nothing wrong with exposing up and coming talent to a live stage and if that means adding a certain amount of glitz, I have no problem at all with it. I enjoy a little masala as much as the next gal.
I don't think public voting is the problem. A given judge on any given day may be less or more fair to a contestant on a music program on any given day.
I don't think any of these elements would have hurt the show if it had continued to pay attention to the music. You see, I understand the point about presentation mattering as much as substance. But I think when you sell only packagte with ZERO substance, there's a term for that and it's FRAUD.
Towards the end, there were fewer and fewer actual performances on these shows and more and more canned (and I now believe cunningly scripted) drama... This is a SINGING contest for god's sake - why on Earth weren't these people SINGING more??
It's true this Challenge 2005 did throw up some genuine talent. I am thinking of Sharib and Swananda and Sanchali and Raktima along with Hemachandra, Nihira and yes Debojit and Vinit also... but what exactly was the message to these singers? It seems to me it wasn't "practice, improve" - but "glam up, wear some chic clothes and shake some booty - it covers up a lot for your imperfections" I don't think the message was: "throw your emotions into your art". It was "Be a ham and a drama queen. Get people to sympathize with you and it won't matter as much if you don't give your best".
The final thing I want to say is this. To me, music is something that allows you to explore your experience of the world in a way that few things can. Classical music, folk, film songs of the last era, rock, reggae, jazz - all forms of music do this. It's not like the Mukesh's, Lata's. Rafi's, Asha's and Kishore-da's weren't into performance - that they didn't add glamor or modern sounds to their performances. Kishore-da is said to have pioneered electronic synthesizers in film music. The difference between the music of then and a lot of the music of now is that it touched your heart - it helped you relate to your own personal experiences, whereas the new formulaic kachra doesn't. I think looking back, the same could be said of many of the performances on SRGMPC-05 - Even the talented ones - their earlier performances had more of that heart-stirring capability than the last 3 "finals" shows.
Well, that's my 2cw. Thanks for the great discussion, folks...
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And Gumshuda - mai to kabse complain kar rahi thi - lekin flirting se fursat abhi hi mila 😉 - is liye yeh post aaj likh rahi hun 😃
