MUSIC TRAVEL FROM LATE 1950S TO BUZZING 2010S

 Music has been diverse in Bollywood from the beginning, and from the start it has been used in such creative ways that still continue to amaze us even to this day. And as we do know that Music has been the part of Bollywood without which it couldn’t have been what it is today, but it hasn’t been the same since its advent, and has continued to evolve throughout the ages. So lets see how that happened.

 

The Golden Era of 50s -60s

Its the soul stirring lyrics in songs that connect with audiences in India. While songwriting in Bollywood has changed dramatically, the passion for writing a colloquial language of understanding remains true. Old songs from Hindi films are hugely popular with the masses in India. It’s the purity of lyrics and earnest music that makes old Bollywood songs exceedingly popular. The black and white era is responsible for paving the way for song and dance in Hindi films. While song and dance routines were prevalent in the 40s, it was the beginning of the 50s that helped song and dance emerge in new light. 

The old-time Indian music directors continued to churn out beauties, and some newer names began playing an increasing role. Take 1960. Naushad had Mughal-e-Azam and Kohinoor. Shankar-Jaikishen had Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai and the award-winning Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi. S.D. Burman had Kala Bazar. Salil Chowdhury, who had already tasted success with the 1958 film Madhumati, had Usne Kaha Tha and Parakh, featuring Lata Mangeshkar’s magical ‘O Sajana’. He had been prolific in Bengali cinema too. This was only the beginning of the 1960s. The rest of the period saw the emergence of lyricists Anand Bakshi, Indeevar and Gulshan Bawra. Bakshi went on to become one of India’s most admired and prolific versesmiths. Classical musicians played regularly in film songs. Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan, Rais Khan and Kartick Kumar contributed with the sitar. Shivkumar Sharma popularised the santoor, and Hariprasad Chaurasia’s bansuri became a regular feature. This magical era was of the 60s.

 

Melodious 70s - 80s

The 70s & 80s were decades that became trend settlers for Hindi films. Song and dance in films changed dramatically in these colourful decades. The 70s fueled a new indo-western sound that went onto become an integral part of Bollywood. Slow songs and fast-tempo songs were popular in the 70s. In 80s. typically drum beats and additional instruments were added to existing songs producing vague remix of beats while retaining the original vocals and music.

 Some famous songs of this period: Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas- Black Mail (1973), Gazab Ka Hai Din- Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Dil Deewana- Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Chingari Koi Bhadke- Amar Prem (1972), Ae Mere Humsafar- Qamayat Se Qamayat Tak (1988)

Rocking 90s –

The ’90s began on a nervous note. The previous decade had seen many changes in the Indian music scenario, with new record labels being launched, cassettes becoming the biggest form of consumption and Hindi film music showing some hope after a few ups and downs. A complete transformation was needed. The first signs of hope arrived when Aashiqui became a musical blockbuster in 1990, catapulting music directors Nadeem-Shravan, singers Kumar Sanu and Anuradha Paudwal, and lyricist Sameer to stardom.

In another genre, Rock Machine released The Second Coming, and the song ‘Pretty Child’ slowly made its way up the popularity charts. Though the band had released the fabulous Rock’n’Roll Renegade in 1988, the second album established them as revivers of the Indian rock movement. Too many things happened during the rest of the decade. Music director A.R. Rahman gave Hindi film music a new sound with Roja, and was acclaimed in the Tamil films Roja, Thiruda Thiruda, Pudhiya Mugham, and Kadhalan. A different set of composers ruled the Hindi scene. This was the resurgence era of the 90s.

 

Pleasing 2000s –

At the turn of the century the biggest change has arguably taken place in the way people listen to music. For this, rapid changes and innovations in technology are responsible. Many of these began in foreign markets, but soon had an impact on the Indian scenario. As compact discs (CDs), music channels, radio, and live performances were the main form of listening. The digital video disc (DVD) had replaced the video compact disc (VCD) as a means to watch concerts and music documentaries. Though hindi film music was in a fairly decent shape in the year 2000, with a good number of successful soundtracks. Music director A.R. Rahman was on top of the popularity lists, beginning the decade with Saathiya, Pukar, and Lagaan. Many new music directors came up around this time, notable ones being Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, Pritam, Himesh Reshammiya, Vishal Bhardwaj, and Salim-Sulaiman. In 2009, Amit Trivedi had a completely new sound in Dev D. Among singers, the biggest find was Shreya Ghoshal, who made her debut with the 2002 version of Devdas. Till today, she and Sunidhi Chauhan, who debuted in the late 1990s, maintain their consistency. The rest of the 2000s saw the arrival of many singers, but barring Arijit Singh, nobody has been really prolific. Even Arijit has had his critics, as a section of people didn’t find him as appealing as Udit Narayan or Sonu Nigam. But this was the Unique era of the 2000s.

 

Buzzing 2010s –

This has been been an eventful decade. It began with an infusion of fresh, new sounds, and allowed for experiments that would've been unthinkable before — a two-part, 27-track album such as Gangs of Wasseypur (2012); curated soundtracks with an indie edge, such as Shaitan (2011), Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015) and Gully Boy (2019); the musical numbers in Jagga Jasoos (2017). And yet the decade has ended in hopelessness. The awful eclipsed the amazing. There are just too many remixes, and the rest sound like each other. The 10s will go down as the decade that opened the floodgates for a large number of new composers: Ankit Tiwari, Amaal Mallik, Tanishk Bagchi, Rochak Kohli, Akhil Sachdeva, Vishal Mishra, Arko Pravo Mukherjee, among others — some of whom have come and gone, and some of who are currently dominating the charts.

The format that has made this possible is that of a number of composers (and lyricists) contributing to one film. It’s also an approach — or rather the way it is being implemented, like a mass-market mode of production — that allows the composer less and less creative room. Instead of giving him the time and space to immerse himself in the script and the spirit of the film under the singular vision of the director and inspiring him to come up with songs and pieces that are thematically bound, it relies on simplistic briefs — or ‘hooks’ — that are so generic they could practically belong in any film. This is almost entirely an invention of the music labels — one could pin it down to the insane success of Aashiqui 2 (2013), with which T-Series struck gold. Why did it catch on with producers and other labels? One, it’s cheap and convenient. Instead of giving a composer 6 months to work on 5 songs, they can get the job done much faster with 5 composers. Two, it has become a model through which the producer/label can exert more control over a film’s songs.Though this era also saw emergence of the Punjabi Rap music which was inspired and followed by the western rap as the name suggests but still mixed in with our own unique flavour. This was and is the modern era of 2010s.

 

And this was the evolution of Bollywood Music. It did have its ups and downs, but will always be a gold to witness.