The Score Magazine May 2017 | Page 36

SOUVIK CHAKRABORT Y MURDER OF MELODIES From the EDM corrupted tu cheez badi hai mast mast to the oddly placed Shah Rukh in laila mein laila, Bollywood is going head over heels in an effort to serve stale old wine in stained bottles. The trend is a part of a never ending fetish, it has been tried a zillion times in the past and it would be standing tall as a popular influence in the Bollywood soundscape for the ages to come. The foci of discussion however begets from the existential qualms of a rational mind, which cannot help but ask, isn't it supposed to be a creative medium? Music saleability and acceptance today has largely been a square root to the amount of views it garners on online platforms; and it is there that lies the interest of making the soundtrack an 'eye candy' rather than a ear-rollicking piece. The affinity for the tried and tested formula, thus, is at an all time high. Here are a catalogue of some complimentary factors that amount to this crazy phenomenon. The rise of the EDM and MIDI generation has predominantly led to a new crop of music, which has shifted the focus from melodifying lyrics to sequencing them into dopeshot loops. The phrase, "music is my drug' has finally found its meaning, ever the more than before. Beat breaks are not as important as the monotonous cacophony of bass boosts and cranked up highs.Everything boils down to how many discos would ideally be throbbing the foot tapping numbers. Stars are alligned to selling the idea that whatever they are doing is to "pay homage" to the cults and legends of yesteryears. Be it the stars going brouhaha for Laila Mein Laila (from Qurbani, 1980), to singers and musicians vouching for re incarnates of songs like Humma Humma (from Bombay, 1995), and indigestible versions of Tamma Tamma (from Thanedaar, 1990) and Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast (from Mohra, 1994). The trend of this revival works alright, not just because of the brand value added to the films by the star casts, but also by the heavy weight veteran directors like Abbas- Mustan and also the legendary big names like David Dhawan is reincarnating tracks like Oonchi Hai Building and Tan Tana Tan, from Judwaa (1997) for the sequel to the same. But these are not the only the responsible groups to have made a difference on the musical scene. The largest influence 34 The Score Magazine highonscore.com has grossly stemmed out of the necessity for selling out music rights in order to earn a significant return of investment. Producers do not dream of selling a roof tearing revenue from the sales of compact drives or digital release; rather their primary focus is on the rights sales, and to survive the cut throat competition the approach has to be of a steep climb up the ladder, with the glance of an ambitious mercenary. The economies of sale has ensured that there is a dwindling fall of the quality in terms of either lyrics or compositions. That leaves us with one final point of discussion, what about the use of situational music in our movies? In order to put this to consideration, we must first acknowledge the fact that our actors and most importantly the directors, no longer prefer to have lip synching songs. Today, playback tracks are presented as the interior monologues of the protagonists who are filmed as a timelapse in a fast paced urban high street (without uttering a single word) and synced in the post with a song underlay, which essentially adds mood and feel to the entire story. Now, all of this totally demands the use of deepening lyrics, rhymes and prosodies. But, the Bollywood megalomaniac knows how to whisper into the consumerist mind of a sizeable chunk of an audience and so it goes on directly into manoeuvering the unimportant to the bigger truth of 'entertainment', thus the less populist pleasure of the sapiosexuals in reading between the lines of a ghazal is termed 'arty' and not considered as a main course delight of true 'entertainment'. Hence the inevitable consequence of the glittery glitzy tracks with a seemingly incoherent and an unfortunately incorrigible playlist of hundred percent pirated music of our younger generation! Who said all pornographies had to have visuals?