"MUSIC AND MARKETING DO NOT MIX"
Coming on the topic of progeny of musicians making it big. Only 5-10?
Here's a little exercise. Read up on what a 'Gharana' in music is😉.
7-8 generations of musicians...simple example - the Dagar Family. You must've heard of Ust. Wasafudding Dagar. Then the Bangash Family. The Mishra family of Benaras Gharana, Khan parivar of the Rampur Gharana, the Khans of the Patiala, Kirana Gharnas. Pt. Jasraj and his forefathers from the Mewati Gharana etc. In music, this is the rule, rather than the exception.
If we talk about Rafi sahab, do you know, he never ever encouraged music in his house. He had forbidden even his wife from listening to music, to bachche kya seekhenge? Amit Kumar in an interview said that he simply desisted the rat race of the industry and he was too much a mast maula to become a playback singer, so he left.
Nitin Mukesh🤢.
Asha's daughter is a fabulous singer! I've heard her in concert with her mother and Suresh Wadkar. She's supremely talented. But her mom didn't want her to get into the rat race again. And after seeing her mother suffer in her early stages in the industry, she quit. She was badmouthed at her college too. So she resorted to a better talent she had...writing. Talat Mahmood's son is a respected Ghazal Singer. If you listen to his albums, you'll feel that yes, the legacy of his legendary father is being carried forward by him. But where's the market now for such songs in films? That's why he didn't succeed in films...in fact, he never tried to enter. But his Ghazal albums are famous in the niche audience. Check them out, his name is Khalid Mahmood.
Mannada didn't have any children, so his legacy is done with. Hemantda...i dunno about him. Lata doesn't have any children either. Roshan sahab's legacy was continued by his son Rajesh Roshan who gave some of the biggest hits of the 70s and early 80s and now with his brother Rakesh Roshan.
Talking of riyaaz, i'll clear up some points which have not been touched by others in that thread.
1) Riyaaz is NOT monotonous! I've seen someone close practise, and she definitely doesn't do the same thing over and over again (and she's a carnatic musician, which's supposed to be more monotonous)
2) Riyaaz is simply conditioning of the voice and practising to hit the sur rightly. There's a specific way to do riyaaz. You have to get up at the first pahar of the day, sit facing the sun in padmasan, do pranayam first, and then start riyaaz with a tanpura. And riyaaz is NEVER done vigourously, as you might've got it wrong since i say a post regarding muscle fatigue etc. Riyaaz is a low pitched, sloooooooooooooooow expansion of notes, savouring each one like you might eat a <insert favourite sweet here>.
3) You do NOT sing compositions in riyaaz.
4) About creativity; riyaaz and creativity are two different things. Why do some vocalists and instrumentalists become A-Grade and others remain B-grade (as rated by SRA)? It's because of the attitude and amount of creativity and musical intelligence. Some people sing for the heck of it. Some people do it with passion. The main objective of classical music is to evoke emotions. Each of the seven swars denote an emotion. The combination of these intellgently, leads to a raga which emotes a certain rasa. While expanding a Raga during the presentation of the 'cheez', it is incumbant upon the singer to determine how he should improvise. Does he want subtle emotivity (is there such a word) or does he want powerful in-your-face emotions? I'll give you an example. ML Vasanthakumari is the most reknowned RTP singer (ragam-thanam-pallavi). Now, RTP is the most complex thing a carnatic musician can handle! It takes the jeebies out of me to even understand it! MLV handled it most beautifully. And, RTP is ENTIRELY based on your creativity and understanding. IT's fully creative and improvisatory in nature. For example., there's a famous swar-alankar by her where she keeps hitting the Nishadha (Ni) after every detour to the other swaras of the Todi ragam. Ni produces pathos, and rahul, i've seen my uncle literally cry after that barrage of swar-alankar!
Now that's intelligence and creativity. But where does riyaaz come in? It comes in here that you should have that tremendous command over your voice to sing the swar-alankar perfectly.
Let's take a look at Manada's Laga Chunari Mein Daag's last Tarana. It's the height of difficulty. Not many dare to attempt that Bhairavi Tarana, and if they do, they make sure they practise 101 times. The story goes that Roshan saab told Mannada that no one else but he could sing it. And Why? Because of all the Golden Era singer, Manada was the most trained classically, and because of his intense riyaaz, he had the best command over his voice. Such that even Rafi didn't have.
Talking about Rafi, here's another story regarding Riyaaaz. He used to get up at 3 AM to do his riyaaz. At two famous concerts in Bangalore and US, he sang O Duniya Ke Rakhwale. THe line "mahal udaas aur galiyan sooni", he sang it in EIGHT different ragas then and there! Until you do riyaaz to get your command of the ragas right, you simply can't do it. Moreover, Rafi was the only male singer to have had the full human range of 3.5 octaves. He himself says he managed to hold the melody at that high only because of Riyaaz and nothing else.
One last thing.
Ever wondered why every other house in the south has a girl or a boy who can sing and sing really well? Because they're pushed into music at an early age, and are made to rigourously practise. (but then, you need something special to become famous😊).
There's a saying in Kannada - Haadtha haadtha raga, naraltha naraltha roga. (you perfect a raga by singing and singing and singing, and you get a disease by moaning and moaning)😆
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