Life of a song
I’ve long been wondering about the, choice of songs on super singer competitions, that are being conducted across any TV channel worth its salt. Season after season, be it junior, senior or super senior category, any contestant who participates, never ever chooses any song that are recent and even possible chartbusters. Only logical reason could be the proprietary rights issue. Else, not sure whether it’s a rule or choice, but invariably, majority of the contestants stick to songs that are from movies which are minimum 50 years old.
Across all channels, when it comes to season finale, the contestants while choosing songs that exhibits their skill, always chooses song from either MS Visvanathan or KV Mahadevan. Very rarely do we get to witness even an Ilayaraja musical winning the title and till now I’vent seen an ARR song rendition winning one. The reasons could be multifold. Probably those songs are avoided because of the orchestra limitations, rights issue, due to scoring suggestions by their mentors, but whatever the reason may be, no super singer season finale is complete without someone singing “Neeye unakku endrum nigaraanavan” from Bale Pandiya with mandatory standing ovation reserved for the “maama maapley” portions, “Singaravelene” from Konjum salangai is another sure shot winner, Any song from “Thiruvilaiyadal” and offlate “Isai arasi” song. Contestant after contestant, season after season, across channels, take to these songs as a success route. Nowhere I am saying these are simple songs and can be easily rendered. The fact that people realize the challenges around it, often is displayed openly on the admiration that is adorned and on the accolades shared. Fact is, these amazing songs with those classic lyrics, written and tuned almost 60 years back, is still winning competitions, speaks volumes of the caliber of the team involved in the mix at those times. It has become like an assembly line, where, year after year, people sing the same song and win titles, only to be disappearing from the scene post a few playback songs. The demand against supply is way too much skewed for singers and the cases like SPB, Mano, Chithra who all had uninhibited run across thousands of songs are virtually impossible in present day. We hardly get to hear the same voice for more than a few songs and even in single song, multiple tracks come into play.
I really doubt, if another 30 years down the line, would we still be having such shows or to what extent they would’ve morphed into. But whatever the format be, would a finalist belt out a “Gaana Bala” number or any other song post 2000 year mark begs an opinion. Be it ARR or Anirudh or any cine musician for that matter, have long been addicted to the complexity of the technical arrangements of the song and very rarely has the focus been on the lyrics or on the voice quality of the singer. The more techno it becomes, it is just a synthesized arrangement of frequencies and the soul of the song is lost. Any of those title winning songs, have one common factor. The voice of the singer is predominant and the lyrical quality is in synch with the composition. For that matter, no one calls themselves music composers nowadays, but more of technicians. Rather than being an art, music has become more artificial and mechanical. Many of Ilayaraja’s chartbusters, would carry a story within themselves. You can get the feel of the scene or the situation for which it has been composed, just by the audio. It’s a cause for lament that techno portions have taken over every aesthetic aspect of a song and has almost wiped out the tribe of good lyricists, with Muthukumar being the last glorious exception.
Sometimes, I wonder if Junior would take up singing. I would love him to take up some art form related to music, be it singing or playing any instrument. With so much churning and changing happening across music field, not sure what shape it would’ve taken in coming years. But for the sake of simple pleasures of life, I do hope it retains some of its natural flavor, residual from the footsteps of those giants who have ruled that space.
Across all channels, when it comes to season finale, the contestants while choosing songs that exhibits their skill, always chooses song from either MS Visvanathan or KV Mahadevan. Very rarely do we get to witness even an Ilayaraja musical winning the title and till now I’vent seen an ARR song rendition winning one. The reasons could be multifold. Probably those songs are avoided because of the orchestra limitations, rights issue, due to scoring suggestions by their mentors, but whatever the reason may be, no super singer season finale is complete without someone singing “Neeye unakku endrum nigaraanavan” from Bale Pandiya with mandatory standing ovation reserved for the “maama maapley” portions, “Singaravelene” from Konjum salangai is another sure shot winner, Any song from “Thiruvilaiyadal” and offlate “Isai arasi” song. Contestant after contestant, season after season, across channels, take to these songs as a success route. Nowhere I am saying these are simple songs and can be easily rendered. The fact that people realize the challenges around it, often is displayed openly on the admiration that is adorned and on the accolades shared. Fact is, these amazing songs with those classic lyrics, written and tuned almost 60 years back, is still winning competitions, speaks volumes of the caliber of the team involved in the mix at those times. It has become like an assembly line, where, year after year, people sing the same song and win titles, only to be disappearing from the scene post a few playback songs. The demand against supply is way too much skewed for singers and the cases like SPB, Mano, Chithra who all had uninhibited run across thousands of songs are virtually impossible in present day. We hardly get to hear the same voice for more than a few songs and even in single song, multiple tracks come into play.
I really doubt, if another 30 years down the line, would we still be having such shows or to what extent they would’ve morphed into. But whatever the format be, would a finalist belt out a “Gaana Bala” number or any other song post 2000 year mark begs an opinion. Be it ARR or Anirudh or any cine musician for that matter, have long been addicted to the complexity of the technical arrangements of the song and very rarely has the focus been on the lyrics or on the voice quality of the singer. The more techno it becomes, it is just a synthesized arrangement of frequencies and the soul of the song is lost. Any of those title winning songs, have one common factor. The voice of the singer is predominant and the lyrical quality is in synch with the composition. For that matter, no one calls themselves music composers nowadays, but more of technicians. Rather than being an art, music has become more artificial and mechanical. Many of Ilayaraja’s chartbusters, would carry a story within themselves. You can get the feel of the scene or the situation for which it has been composed, just by the audio. It’s a cause for lament that techno portions have taken over every aesthetic aspect of a song and has almost wiped out the tribe of good lyricists, with Muthukumar being the last glorious exception.
Sometimes, I wonder if Junior would take up singing. I would love him to take up some art form related to music, be it singing or playing any instrument. With so much churning and changing happening across music field, not sure what shape it would’ve taken in coming years. But for the sake of simple pleasures of life, I do hope it retains some of its natural flavor, residual from the footsteps of those giants who have ruled that space.
Comments
Is that the trend in Super Singer type of competitions, I thought they had specific episodes for prehistoric songs, for devotional songs, for Ilayaraja composing with a red shirt songs :) etc etc.
Nostalgia is always a rose tinted view of the past - cut out the not so good and accentuate the very good. I can assure you that 50 years ago there were a number of terrible songs as well. The only radio channel playing film music - Vividh Bharathi had a policy that they should only play the terrible songs (the socialist view that all songs should be given a "chance" ). I have grown up bearing with 20 frog croakings masquerading as songs, in the desperate hope that one good song may be featured.