When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way— Wayne Dyer


Change the music!

This ever happen to you?
You listen to 'vande mataram' and suddenly feel a surge of patriotsim - for the duration of the song or until a few minutes later ? You listen to a peppy number and feel like tapping your feet and going 'shake shake' ? Of course you have! The music and lyrics of a song have a strong influence on the way we feel - be it for a few minutes alone - to snap us out of certain moods and drive us into some states of mind! We have lullabies to make little ones fall asleep, hymns and devotional songs played in places of worship, fast music with beats for exercise classes, ghazals and lilting classical music for wedding receptions and so on... That said, I am now zooming in to Indian film music. This potent force - playing in petty tea stalls to petite I-pods - touches millions! There is a song for every mood, occasion and feeling. Songs in the rain, in the snow, about meeting and parting , on nature's beauty to a soldier's duty (sorry , rhyming is this affliction I have, when it comes to me, I just can't make it go away!).
In particular, when I listen to songs on love failure, I feel why is there always so much hurt and despair alone? This discussion is not about how to respond to love failure and cope with it ( fodder for another post sometime later). The point I am trying to make is , why is there only moping and pining ( in these songs)? The psyche of songs like
1)  'Accha sila diya tune mere pyar ka...' - fantastic song that made Sonu Nigam a household name
2) 'Tujhe yaad na meri aayi, kisi se ab kya kehna...- from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
3) Sach mere yaar hai ..... baaki bekar hai - from Sagar

Whether you have actually experienced a heart break in life or not, through these songs you do vicariously feel the ache and hurt. All the missing and suffering when two people in love are temporarily separated is alright, but what's with all songs on unrequited love or betrayal or otherwise- having the same theme of
'My life is not worth living without you, I am a non-entity without you...' - despair, dejection and bawling!
If it's the guy, he's drowning himself in alcohol and if it's the girl, she's weeping to the point of dehydration - I have no gender bias, but the Indian filmmakers have kept it this way, so far!

Why can't we have songs like

Aretha Franklin's 'I will Survive' - She even goes on to say 'I should have changed that stupid lock, you're not welcome anymore' to the person who broke her heart and left her.

Another example Wham's
'Last Christmas I gave you my heart..... This year I'll give it to someone special'

Or another song I've heard -
' Follow me everything is alright......
If you want to leave, I can guarantee
You won't find nobody else like me'

We need to have more songs like these which talk about moving on, turning a new leaf and getting over love that's no longer alive. Though there have been movie plots that have dealt with this positivity, I can't seem to think of any song lyrics that reflect this pluck!
Even the one or two songs that come to mind like Ashiqui's
'Ab tere bin jee lenge hum...' start off defiantly but go on to describe only pain and hurt.
Songs of sadness and heartache are deeply touching and many are my favorites too. They can transport you to another time and place. I am not against this very sentiment, but can we not also have songs of hope, of treating life itself as a more precious commodity than just one person or one incident ? With some choice words and the accompaniment of some good music, these songs could actually inject some courage and spirit into many folks that are grieving and moping!
May be like : ' Tumse bichad ke zindagi se kuch paaya hai, kya kahe ek alag hi mazaa aaya hai'
or perhaps - 'Tune humara dil thoda hai, vaapas aaoge tho haddi thod denge' LOL!
or something like that! :-) What say?

2 comments:

  1. Great line of thought!

    Well, it's true that Indian "love dejection" songs are all about "I am non-existent without you", the filmmakers' rationale being - love is something that happens ONLY once or with ONLY one (if not, it's not true love at all...yeah right!).

    Yup, I love "Follow me everything's alright" by Uncle Kracker. Seriously, isn't there even one Indian song that talks about moving on? Great observation! :-)

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  2. Thanks Vid, your comment states simply what I tried to say rambling on and on! Yeah, we need films to make popular the idea that there is more to life and love than one episode of failed love!

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