Today while listening to a Hindi song, a point struck me. I pondered over the style of lyrics of bollywood numbers and English songs. Both are very popular and music of any sort tends to make you groove but this thing is a bit different. Indian songs, be it folk or regular movie ones, have thoughtfully crafted lyrics with deep meanings, and rhyming so beautifully that they make you sing and sway with the song. The songs become much more enjoyable because of these wonderfully woven words. I am not criticizing but except a few English songs, most numbers have a complete emphasis on beats and music and the lyrics are often ignored. The poetry and prose of Hindi songs and the descriptions of nature, emotions and beauty that make up a song are amazing. Although music gets you high , only lyrics make you feel the song in its right spirit. Good lyrics also make the song memorable.
Nice post AS. I don’t know about Hindi movie songs. But I can speak for Tamil movie songs. They used to give importance to lyrics until A. R. Rahman came in the scene. With the introduction of A. R. Rahman, it is all drums and beats. All music directors followed him. Nowadays, many songs, even if we listen 5 times, unable to understand the words. Some songs have no meaning.
ReplyDeleteVery nice writeup.
ReplyDeleteYou know many i times i forced myself to like english songs....but I failed every time i tried...
hii SG
ReplyDeletethanks a lot for liking the post. yes nowadays good lyrics have become a rarity and pple tend to enjoy loud beats and drums only
hi Sunil
ReplyDeletethanks a ton buddy!
me too :P
maybe you listened to all the wrong english songs...
ReplyDeletesome have very good lyrics to which you can identify..
the same could be said about hindi songs..
esp. a few written by anu malik...
but no there are some which are really beautiful...
so every song..be it in any language is good..if lyrics are good...
language doesnt matter...
so there are good and bad songs in eng/hindi/marathi..
i like to listen to all...
but then lyrics are sometimes to be felt..not understood..in exceptional cases..like a few cases.... chinese cases...
i dont understand any lyrics..
but I listen to them..i love them...
maybe its about the harmony of music and lyrics..and if any among both is half-cooked..we get indigestion....
music is to enjoy...not everything is enjoyable by everyone.. i dont long for carnatic music but there are people who die for it..the same way is the western..[some people think they are cool..cos they follow western..now u can discard them as fools]..but if a person genuinely likes some genre then fine..
ReplyDelete..but should say proudly that Indian authentic music is more structured and advanced than any other..
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about lyrics..there are exceptions everywhere..the recent songs in our indian movies..a lot of them have meaning..
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@SG thats a very negative stance taken against ARR.. dont say that lyrics lost importance cos of him..but agree that he got revolution in music industry..so we have an oscar with us now..
That depends on what genre, album and band/artiste you have listened to.
ReplyDeleteLyrics and music come together to form a song. I guess any language can achieve that. And if you have a ear for the type of music, you'll begin to appreciate it more!
hey AS, I think it is the other way round. While I wont deny there are songs for almost every mood in hindi, that applies for english songs too...
ReplyDeleteand there are a few artists that I have come to listen lately, every song has a deep poetry and meanings.
And for hindi songs, I think that they are loosing their sheen,
pehle ki baat ab kuch aur hi jaan padti hai.
:)
love English songs...
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing!
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ReplyDeleteexactly. well there is enough out there to listen to...but will be nice if we can have more songs with awesome lyrics :D
ReplyDeletehii Vishesh
ReplyDeleteu have hit the nail
thanks!
hii Sankoobaba
ReplyDeletethanks a lot for this thoughtful comment :)
heheh! leave Anu Mallik, most of the hindi sons are very meaningful I feel as compare to english ones... I agree with ur last point :D
hii Unknown!!!
ReplyDeleteyes i agree, but most Hindi songs are just too rhymic and deep than their English counterparts :)
and Sorry but I fully agree with SG.. ARR has changed the scene
hii RGB
ReplyDeletethanks for the nice comment :)
yes. but that's my own view :)
hii BA
ReplyDeletethanks for this honest comment :)
Nowadays,I feel though hindi numbers are losing sheen still they are much better than english counterparts as far as poetry is concerned :)
hii Jingle
ReplyDeletethanks buddy! i'll visit for sure :)
its not drums and beats even now, including arr. though i find nothing wrong with drums and beats. music has no barriers while lyrics has language barrier.
ReplyDeletei think with english its more subtle while with hindi its more poetic and dramatic.
hii Wise
ReplyDeletethanks! yes i agree hindi poetry is more dramatic
Very true what you said.. lyrics with music is wow but these days people concetrate mor on the music, you know make it peppy so people just buy it
ReplyDeletesongs dont have a meaning.. and some are plain stupid if u listen to the lyrics ..
I mean i have heard song with just the DHOL ..
standards have falen down ...
Bikram's Blog
hii Bikram
ReplyDeleteyes exactly, thats what i am saying!
:)
Hi,
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't agree with you. I think you have listened to the wrong songs. I don't mean to say Indian music is not good.It is important to chose the right song rather than generalizing!
hii harleen
ReplyDeletewelcome here :)
thanks a lot for ur honest comment...i feel there may be a few good songs but over all hindi poetry is far far better than english one
@ AS,hi pretty new to this blog .liked ur post on "lyrics" .even i agree with the part that hindi songs ,infact not only hindi,tamil kannada(which is my mother tongue) have more emphasis on lyrics.I caught ur entire esscence:we pay more emphasis to lyrics.BUT still we cannot generalise also ,because there was an era ,and infact now some songs are just still meaningless. if we listen to the old hindi songs we are just immensely immersed in it ."chi ngari koi.." ,dukhi mann mere";"aaja aayi bahar",etc etc.
ReplyDeletehii Raji
ReplyDeletewelcome to my blog :)
yes, u r very right..thats what i tried to explain..thanks a ton for taking the post in the right spirit :D
http://thursdaypoetsrallypoetry.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/the-perfect-poet-award-week-29/
ReplyDeleteperfect award reminder,
welcome to Rally week 30...
Thanks for the attention!
If I get connected to the song instantly the song transports me to a distant new place (trance :)). For me it is the tune and melody which does the act of attracting my senses. I feel that the music and tone have a language of their own. The same effect can be attained even when you don’t know the language of the lyrics. It happens with me most often when I’m listening to some foreign language songs. Sometimes it happens with just ad songs. Sometimes even just the instrumental music can do it for me. It’s not that I take away credit of lyrics. But for me lyrics help in strengthening the bond formed between me and the song- The inner beauty, The soul. In the long run, lyrics play an important role of bonding with the song forever and ever.
ReplyDeleteAbout your words “except a few”, I would like to differ with your view. Most of the songs even in English have very good lyrics. Only thing is, we get to hear only those which are hits. It depends on what the majority of the people like to hear and hence we think that most of the English songs ignore the importance of good lyrics. There are a few who don’t like fast beats, hard rock and jazz like me and may be you. And even if we like a song which is a soft melody or slow romantic tune with a deeper meaning, sometimes it may not become hit and we may not get to hear because of its lack of popularity. In fact there are lots and lots of English songs which have very beautiful and mind-blowing lyrics.
hii Asif
ReplyDeletethanks a lot for this thoughtful comment :)
I think as far as lyrics are concerned, English songs cut a sorry figure