Music is Stairway to Heaven...

MUSIC -  I am sure each one of us like music, some like to listen particular genre of music, some like to listen only during particular occasion, some people like me – just love to listen to it every minute in a day. My ears are always plugged whether I am in office, or in Gym or painting or travelling. Whenever I am not with someone, I am with music.

Music is an important part of a culture, nation, people and one’s way of life. Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as "the harmony of the spheres" and "it is music to my ears" point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to.

By the way, why am I here again? Why did I start with this topic? Its 1:20 PM MST on a Wednesday and I am in my office working with music on and this song starts playing “Pyar humein kis mod pe le aaya, ke dil kare haye...”. My face lightens up with a mild smile. What a relief! Imagine, when this song falls on your ears after you listen to “My name is Sheila, Sheila ki jawani, I’m too sexy for you, main tere hath na aani”; it definitely is a blessing in disguise, ufff!!

So, yeah, music more than often is pleasant. For me it’s food for my soul :-) I mean, if I have to just close my eyes and drift to a different world, it’s music of Kenny G, Yanni, Instrumentals of old hindi songs etc… If I have to cut myself from the outside world and focus on my studies or work, its Music. Music is divine, its eternal. And folks who can make such music that can touch people’s soul are really blessed.

My point is, these days I like hardly 5% of the songs released in last one decade – if I start counting they cannot be more than say 80 or 100, which is roughly 2% considering the huge volume of Bollywood movies and songs getting released every year. However, I listen without fail to Mukesh Kumar, Kishore kumar, Mohd. Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, K S Sehgal, Asha Bhosale, R D Burman.

I am not saying there aren’t better collection these days. My point is even the worst song of 60’s 70’s 80's had some meaning. The music might not have worked or the composition would have been a flop. But there cannot be any comment on the lyrics or singer. But these days, only 1 out of 20 songs turns out to be with decent lyrics; beware I am saying decent not best. But you will definitely find 1 in every 5 song to be of the kind “Munni badnaam hui”, “Chikni Chameli”, “Chipka de saiyyan Fevicol se”, “Sheila ki jawaani”, “Jalebi bai” etc.. etc.. list is huge, just take a count of atleast 1 song per movie. The ones I have listed are the ones which are famous (that’s why I know it :D). And that’s why even kids of age 3 yrs know it too. Parents make them dance on such songs too, with a whole lot of pride. 

I don't hate item songs, but there can still be some meaningful lyrics in such songs too. Why? Din't we have Jhumka gira re Bareli ke bazar mein, Parde mein rehne do Parda na uthao, Kajra muhobbat wala akhiyon mein aise daala etc... dance numbers with beautiful lyrics? Then why are people today coming up with such pathetic lyrics is what I don't understand. 

Musicians say, its because people want such music. Lyricist say movie makers ask for such songs because people love them. If it's true, then I feel sorry for the people and their degrading taste.

Gulzar ji, Javed Akhtar ji – they bring in some meaningful lyrics and depth to the songs, but they are getting old too. Someday they will stop writing and then? Prasoon Joshi, Piyush Mishra, Farhan Akhtar are some other poets whose writing I enjoy. 

Shankar Ehsaan Loy, A R Rehman, Vishal –Shekhar, Mohit Chauhan, K.K, Shreya ghoshal, Sonu Nigam, Papon, Arijit Singh, Ankit Tiwari, Lucky Ali, Adnan Sami, Kaavish, Amit Trivedi, Shankar Tucker are some of the current musicians/singers I listen to. 

Thanks to the Coke studio, MTV unplugged, Kappa Mojo shows that introduce us to pure music. 

Well, this was a tribute to Indian music. In addition to these, I of course have a huge collection of songs from the western world. I love listening to Linkin Park, Imagine Dragons, Green day, Michael Jackson, MLTR, Nickeback, Eminem, Nelly Furtado, Megadeth, George Michael, Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Henderix, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Adele, Justin Timberlake and so on. I will write about my Favs in some other blog.

I cannot thank enough, all these people who make such music...my salute to you all!!!

It feels great to listen to some good music; hard or soft rock; good beats, some strings, some meaningful lyrics to suit the mood. It just makes the mundane day to day activities tolerable and drifts you to a different world. Music is Stairway to Heaven..and now I will listen to Led Zeppelins Stairway to Heaven...Off I roll... :)

-Sarita
27th June 2015