The Gen Gap

I don't know what's with the old generation comparing the quality of today's music with their's. After watching a lot of interviews I decided I should write about what I think about this argument which has been happening for quite some time. Why should one even compare two generations? If it is mandatory then do it on fair grounds. Music recorded in the 80s are extremely commendable and I doubt if any of the young singers today can record a song in one take.We have lot's to learn from the olden style of recording.But I totally disagree with the notion that today's music is not golden enough to be heard on a repetitive basis and that few month's after a song's hit status it is discarded . Now you see why this problem arises is only because today we have a lot of sources for the promotion of a song. In olden times how often could one listen to their favourite song? Maybe if they are lucky to catch it on the radio that is if they own one. And that is exactly why they value the song each time as they get to hear it exclusively. And today we have a hit song being played 24/7 on the Television, Radio, Ipods, and even Jukebox where you can request you favourite anytime you want to listen to it. So just think how many times you get to listen to your favourite song? Almost 300 times before the movie releases. So basically you get to listen to the song and watch it's video quite a number of times before the movie comes out in the theater. By the time the movie releases the next hit number ranks the list and everyone moves on to that. But in the olden times you get to listen to you favourite songs 300 times maybe ages after the movie releases. It's the wait for your clock to tick to tune in your radio hoping that tonight they will be playing your favourite number. That is why they never got bored of those songs as they hardly ever got to listen to it. I do accept that there a lot of rhythmic numbers which we soon tend to forget but there are so many wonderful melodies produced even today. Music has become so big that we have lakhs spent over a 4 minute promotional video for a movie which is soon forgotten with it's bon voyage from the theaters.

Another reason could be the range of music people used to listen in older times. In Kerala film songs were subjected to very few artists such as Yesudasji, Janaki amma, Susheela amma, etc. At those time we had 3-4 exclusive singers singing in almost similar genres for a period of time and today we have 5 new singers singing in 5 different genres for just one movie. Music listened to at those times were limited and the attachment to the existing ones kept growing. Music created was also raga centric as situations provided to them were also matchable. You never had a situation of kabhi kabhi aditi or a Blue at that time.


For example I love McD burgers. But if include them in my daily diet I will eventually end up hating it or will probably get bored of it. I love Devarajan master's Rajashilpi but if I only listen to it on a daily basis I will end up hating the song, the voice and everything related to it. Same applies here. We listen to different kinds of music in different languages and genres to enhance our knowledge and this way we never get bored of it. Where was the interest and opportunity provided to listen to different genres and world music at those times? Technology grew and so did man's quest to deepen his knowledge in World music. The change is so evident in the sounding of today's songs. Be it the mixing or the contemporary singing or be it the inclusion of fusion or be it the unplugged style or even the programming. Where does one have the time to recollect a beautiful melody created a year ago when everyday millions of songs are being produced worldwide and all available just a click away ? An analyzing of today's songs not being able to create a historical magic is subjected to each one's personal liking. But on the whole I would say it's very wrong to compare the music created in older generation to the present as it's not being done on fair grounds. The foundation is still the same and in fact has become more stronger but technology, medium and the like have upgraded to an incomparable position. Let Old be gold and let's help the new ones from not getting rusted. Lets accept the fact that our tastes have changed and that today every musician is much much brighter than the older times because of the facilities provided today. Instead of pin pointing on what's wrong let's see the glass half full ...