Jan 25, 2016

The musical destination

A few days back, I went for a Bollywood dance night in my apartment. It was a lot of fun, dancing after a long time. Great energy, adrenalin pumping and a good workout. But I felt a slight tinge, which made me realize something. Of the 25+ songs played that night, I could hardly recognize 3-4 of them. Most of them were the latest Bollywood dance numbers. I haven't been in touch with Bollywood music off late (with the exception of ARR's albums). But that's not exactly the point. I didn't like many of these new songs. Neither I'm able to recollect them now nor I feel the urge to look them up. The few words that I was able to recognize made me uncomfortable. Is it a mandatory requirement that all dance party numbers need to have words like dhaaru, vodka etc? 

When I was a school going kid, I used to wonder why my dad never appreciates Illayaraja, AR Rahman or Jatin/Lalit albums. He is quite happy, repeating the same MSV and RD Burman albums over and over. He still bores me sometime with repeats of the sad Gemini Ganesan songs in loud volume :-) I remember he did mention once in the 90s that the latest songs are so loud and jarring.

I guess I have now reached the same stage in my life. I can listen to Kishore Kumar, Rafi, Illayaraja and ARR a million times again but cannot bear the latest noisemakers. I miss the Hindi Pop of 90s. It's not that I don't want to accept new music but the new ones don't appeal to my taste anymore. Is this called "growing old"? :-) I'm sure in a few years, D would wonder why I'm not liking her kind of music. If she asks, I'll tell her that I have arrived at my musical destination.

I'll continue to search for albums across the world that fit my taste and discover new musicians and new forms of music. In that direction, I have set myself a goal for this year to start listening to more Indian classical music - Carnatic and Hindustani. Any recommendations for artists/musicians/albums, please share. Would love to hear from you.

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