Some trends of the decade in popular music, encompassing hits, losses, challenges, rivalries, victories, tv, movies — and himesh reshammiya.
When I met them years ago in what they called their “jamming adda” (den), it wasn’t hard to sense the camaraderie of the members of Indian Ocean. And while many other music bands battled intense ego issues and were on the verge of falling apart, the members of Indian Ocean remained in sync with one another. That may be one reason why the band’s music mesmerised everyone. “Most importantly,” Asheem Chakravarty told me, in their habitual den in Karol Bagh, “our music puts a smile on our own faces”.
Two days ago, when I opened the newspapers to see the news of Chakravarty’s passing away (he was just 53) due to cardiac arrest, I remembered that occasion in Karol Bagh when I had spent a day observing and chatting with the band. I also remember that Chakravarty was playing with a little girl, not more than six years old, who was the band’s domestic helper’s daughter and whose education the band was quietly funding, without finding it necessary to talk about it with the press.
INDIPOP WENT POP
As I sit down to write about the trends in Indian music in the last decade, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that one of the biggest stories, especially in the non-film music category, is the manner in which Indian Ocean has not just survived but also thrived, without diluting its music in any way. “[The music of Indian Ocean] is a sound that reflects the individual tastes of our band members and distinguishes our musical personalities,” Chakravarty had said.
Many such statements from him indicated the stiff challenges that music bands had faced in the last decade. Many bands — Palash Sen’s Euphoria, for instance — had, in fact, succumbed in the effort to survive the onslaught of music companies, trading in their original sound for what they began calling “Hind-rock”. Others like Silk Route couldn’t replicate the success of their first album and went into oblivion (Mohit Chauhan, the band’s lead singer, eventually went solo). Bands like Indian Ocean and Parikrama, however, managed to sing and perform on their own terms, although it wasn’t easy for them to get albums released by the popular music companies.
Till the mid-2000s, Indi-pop remained a huge trend, what with music companies (Archies Music, Universal, Sony BMG and T-Series, to name a few) heavily promoting a new breed of artistes in the non-film music category; music channels like Channel V and MTV initiating programmes specifically to promote newer artistes from India; and event management agencies going the whole hog to find ways to get Indian artistes to perform at live shows all over the world. Today, sadly, music channels are busy promoting reality shows and showcasing film music. What’s more, music companies like Archies Music have folded, and many others don’t want to touch music bands, what with piracy issues and illegal downloading of music, which has led to their downfall.
How Indian Ocean as a brand — and not just a band — survived is one of the biggest stories in Indian music. Even as the decade draws to a close, perhaps the hardest and most shocking blow is the fact that Chakravarty will no longer be there to lend his valuable inputs to the band and to Indian music as a whole.
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RAHMAN AND “JAI HO”
While Indian Ocean’s survival (the band did the music for Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday and, so it is said, were to begin recording music for an Aamir Khan film in 2010) is a triumph of sorts in Indian music, in the popular music category, the man who completely rocked the music scene in the last decade is none other than A R Rahman. His music continued to captivate listeners and audiences, but the clincher was his work in Slumdog Millionaire, for which Rahman won India the Oscars. Other versions of the song came out too (the Indian National Congress used one in its national campaign in the 2009 general elections), and Rahman even sang an English version with Pussycat Dolls. Rahman continues his conquest of the world with not just Indian but also international projects.
SINGING REALITY
A major trend in the last decade was the continuing craze for talent hunt music shows on television. While Zee Television’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa (it was Sa Re Ga Ma earlier) continued its success story, many other shows like Indian Idol, Channel V Popstars, Voice of India, Super Singer, even Bathroom Singer, continued to fetch TRPs for their respective shows by promising to launch the best singer. That milieu gave us a clutch of singers, including Abhijeet Sawant, Rahul Vaidya, the girl band Viva and another rock band Aasma, to name a few. In fact, no sooner than it had started, the trend began to wane because of an overdose of such shows. Mediocre shows like Fame X (Sony) and Bathroom Singer (Sahara) ensured that many of the winners were ignored the moment the show went off air.
THE SOUND OF SHREYA GHOSHAL
If the decade saw the rise and fall of music talent shows on Indian television, one of the biggest finds of the decade in Indian film music was Shreya Ghoshal, who, after being noticed on a talent hunt show, was offered a music contract in 2000 by Sanjay Leela Bhansali for his film Devdas. Ghoshal, who entered the music industry as a teenager — she was 16 when she recorded her first film song — continues to conquer the hearts of Indians with her magical voice. What’s more, she has, with her mellifluity and range, easily overtaken Sunidhi Chauhan, another popular singer who is, according to an industry source, not getting much work in Bollywood by way of music recordings.
THE NASAL RULE
Speaking of individuals who made an impact, many will scoff at the inclusion of Himesh Reshammiya in our list of decade trends. But like it or not, this man singlehandedly invented a brand of music that is fabulously tailor-made for the many villages, towns and cities of India. His nasal voice may have been the butt of jokes, but his fan following continued to increase. And by the time his first film as an actor (Aap Ka Surroor) hit the theatres in 2007, he was a bonafide phenomenon. One of the first Indian musicians to have full-fledged performances at Wembley, Reshammiya’s success story did take a beating with his next release Karzzz, a remake of Subhash Ghai’s Karz, which flopped miserably. His music continues to get noticed and even if some snub him, his chartbuster hits and increasing fan following ensure that Reshammiya’s career continues to rise smoothly.
