I feel the author has misunderstood the whole issue of lyrics vs music. Lyrics are an important part of any song. You may have the best music . But for songs to last long one must have good lyrics. Having lived in Mumbai , i have had the good luck of knowing many languages including my mother tongue Tamil. For example , the lyrics of John Lennons " "Imagine" is what has held the song for such a long time. Even now , when you hear the song , you feel like stopping your walk and ponder over the lyrics. I was once in a remote village in TN near Nagercoil in 2002. I was waiting for an auto. From a marriage pandal , a loud speaker belted out two songs ( I had to wait for two songs to catch an auto in the evening) The songs were " Kalangallil aval vasantham" and "Aado Anda Paravai Polla"... both lyrical gems of Kannadasan. I inquired with a middle aged man "Still these songs you play for marriages" "Yes sir, the lyrics have a lot of strength" was the reply. For example " .... Pasumai Niranda Paravaigale .. Rakhtathilagam film lyrics of Kannadasan is still sung in farewell occasions of many rural colleges in Tamil Nadu. Good music without good lyrics is having sambhar without tamarind
RE:Music vs Lyrics
by madhusoodanan anandakrishnan on Mar 02, 2007 11:11 AM Permalink
what mr bala said is true,but only to an extend.well just imagine a person not knowing the language,happen to hear the song. would he be listinging to the lyrics.no its just the music and tune which attracts the person first. we worry about the lyrics later. eg "di di " by khalid, an arabic song sure all of you might have heard it .it was a world hit was it the lyrics that made is so famous?
"Example: Before the advent of Rahman it took a hundred violin plaintive strings to show the impending romance; a whole huge orchestra swept up emotions. Rahman had changed that. He had made street sounds respectable, made you listen to a single beat say the rice husk being pounded, to natural sounds of daily implements and so on."
It is interesting - the comparison is clearly with respect to Hindi films. Because in SI films (especially Tamil and Telugu) Illayaraja had changed all that long back and he was the first to bring in natural sounds, western idioms and even silence as part of the background music. His lilting tunes are also the first where classical carnatic music was rendered with a blend of western music, something that AR Rahman has expertised over the last decade.
Indian film music is NOT equal to Hindi film music. Please do your research before painting broadly with one stroke.
Rahman is a good music director, but has very bad lyric writers. No one like Shailendra, Sahir, Majrooh , Shakeel Badayuni etc. His music will gel well with westerners, because for them lyrics is not important due to lack of knowledge of Hindi and Urdu. For example SD Burmans Music (Guide) and the lyrics all of Shailendra has yet to be matched by a two some. Rahman should search for good lyric writers , who will write lyrics like "Piya Those Naina Lage Re" . This song is so well written , composed and picturised, that it will take several monsoons for somenoe to come up with this calibre combination.
So Rahman Saab search for good lyric writers , if you want both music and lyrics to stand water like the one mentioned above. Good music without good lyrics will not last long.
A.R.Rahman is a genius, an extraordinary musician with modesty, honesty and humanity. His ability for hard-working and adopting modern technologies in music has earned him all the praise and euology. His digression from Indian cinema music, although it is a loss to the several of his fans in India, his beat in the world stage is heard by all the section of preople in the world. Let him achieve a great height in music. We pray for his success and his new albums that may soothe our soul. Siva
