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The Golden Era of Tamil Music...

Topic started by Vishvesh Obla (@ 206.189.24.8) on Wed Feb 21 15:28:41 EST 2001.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Listening to a few old tamil songs always reminds me of the golden era of Tamil Cine Music. The two decades from the late fifties seems to me to have produced the best light music in Tamil. The golden era not only belongs to MSV (&Ramamoorthy) but also minor composers like AM Raja and V Kumar who could create music which has taste and inspiration behind it. Perhaps the formative years of Tamil Cine Music had an element of genuine inspiration behind it that could shape the musical sense of even the minor composers.

I have observed the songs belonging to this era having a kind of organic fluidity that is so natural to good music. The tunes flow to the natural sequence of music and don't have the strain of an artificial imagination at all. The accidental notes fall so perfectly in their places and add charm instead of a jarring sound as one hears in modern tamil cine music. Take for instance a song like "Unnidam Mayangugiraen". It varies in its rhythm and tune so differently but as a whole it is so beautifully synthesized that it adds so much of beauty and charm to the tune as a whole. The variation of tune sequence (or the scale) in those songs always seems to blend and not forced as one sees in the songs today.

They still appeal to the music lover, for there is the charming simplicity of the tune which combines elegantly with the better lyrics (mostly from Kannadasan, who had a fine sense of the beauty and more importantly, a good sense of sound in Tamil Language). The lyrics, hence, came naturally without any forced or exaggerated poetic association. One notices that those songs don't involve much complex orchestration of modern light music, but nevertheless are so musically elegant ; there isn't any forced imagination ; no aping of Western music as in modern light music. We mostly find the composer in his natural elements trying to synthesize a musical expression in a medium 'native' to his sense of music. Even a later composer like Ilayaraja is original most of the times when he tries his hand at folk music with which he grew up with.

In contrast, today's tamil cine music seems to appeal to us only by the hi-fi sound effects and rarely by any musical sense. There is always the annoying monotony, one who has any musical sense, observes. I wouldn't say that the songs of the earlier period were all so creatively diverse in their compositions. One can't expect such a thing in a lesser form of music as light music. But then there was at least that part of experimenting and a genuine attempt to create something from the musical sense that was less falsified in its inspiration. The composer of those times, as one can observe, had a kind of devotion to music, which didn't just have commercial interests alone. It is seldom seen today.

It seems to me that it is more than a question of taste and listening pleasure alone when one responds to tamil film music of its formative period. Ain't it so?...

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Note Man (@ 35.9.20.85) on: Mon Aug 23 13:25:28 EDT 2004
  
  Jacky,
  " This song is not going to entice many people (NHCIR fans who are curios to listen to something New, Good, Fresh or whatever you may call) to buy Pithamagan "
  
  These people are usually the younger generation who end up buying the audio. And apparently they want to buy something which allows them to dance and have fun with their friends. Nobody wants to listen to 'Adadaa' while chatting away or partying with friends. So, apparently they won't be captured with such songs. Even Deva's gana songs will score over IR's songs in this respect.
  
  But you can only listen to them for a while. Then when you start looking for something totally different from the current trend, away from post-ARR style orchestrization and composing, you will have IR's songs to look forward to. And, IR will always remain a composer who sets the trend with his innovative compositions and continuing the golden era of TFM as long as he lives.
  
  
• From: Jacky (@ 61.2.37.122) on: Mon Aug 23 14:04:59 EDT 2004
  
  Note man,
  Kr sonna mari we must need Data to prove, if you say TFM audio market consists mainly the Gen-young.
  I don't think either of you got my point, Hey ram sells, Virumandi sells, Pithamagan Sells and dash dash dash sells.
  And something doesn't sell!
  Forget selling they don't even make it to the countdowns on TV!
  You don't have to ask me...just think why Unna veeda and Ilankatru were staying long in the countdowns and why the songs mentioned
  by Kr didn't even make it, forget making it to the countdowns they are not even broadcasted on Radio!
  The last thing i want to hear is Raido guys are fools, TV guys are fools, Gen-young are fools.
  And if you still believe and attribute it to Bad "blah blah" habits of customers.... topic is getting into a deadlock!
  We can shake hands, To me IR is good, and I understand IR is the greatest to you. we can leave it at that!
  
  
• From: Guess Me (@ 202.83.35.163) on: Mon Aug 23 14:28:26 EDT 2004
  
  Jacky:
  "The last thing i want to hear is Raido guys are fools, TV guys are fools, Gen-young are fools. "
  
  Get ready Jacky. These people will actually say that soon just bcoz they cant accept the facts.
  
  
• From: k (@ 192.138.150.249) on: Mon Aug 23 14:55:24 EDT 2004
  
  Hey guys..good discussion without getting worked up. I think both Maddy and Jacky have some good points even though I love the music of IR.
  
  First - Rehman. He is surely one of the most talented MDs in tamil film history. His USP is the blend of non-ethnic rhythms with indian melodies. The reason that he is popular with the younger generation is this 'new rhythms'. The reason he also has the credibility with general audience or more mature people is because his tunes are really good. Rehman wanted to change the sound of indian film music and he really did. He is rewarded for that with his high salaries and commercial success.
  
  IR - is a traditional MD, much more classical in approach. Whether you agree that it was a golden era or silver or bronze, he is the last in the line of MDs to have composed songs in a certain way. To me, 'indian film music' is genre - a kind of music which starts being based on a tune, maybe a classical ragam or a traditional scale, to which accompanying percussion and harmonies are added. Note Man, describes precisely determines the current way of composing. It is more of a mix-and-match. The current trend is not going to change unless there is a marked improvement in musical sense in the audience. Traditionally, mainly older people had access to music and were aware of music fundamentals. Now the younger generation listens/has access to music without any fundamentals. Be it either western classical or indian classical. Fortunately, there is so much of music steeped in our classical scales around us, just living in this environment gives us an ear for good melody. That is why either IR or ARR will become popular with the fun/rhythm songs but will gain credibility only with their melodies.
  
  
• From: Note Man (@ 35.9.40.71) on: Mon Aug 23 15:18:53 EDT 2004
  
  " Get ready Jacky. These people will actually say that soon just bcoz they cant accept the facts. "
  
  And Guess Me is the kind of guy who wants and expects these things, if not, will say them himself. By 'these' people he means IR fans. And he himself does not care about the facts himself. Neither will he comment on other facts presented earlier in this thread. Dude, you are paranoid about people liking IR, get over it and starting doing some serious commenting, instead of trying to play proxy away from the field.
  
  Jacky,
  Fact is IR's fan base is strong. A minimum sell for IRs songs will be from his fan base. Also, the movies you have named 'Hey Ram', 'Virumaandi' and 'Pithamagan' have big heroes whose name adds some more glamour and thus, selling power. And if you notice the Top 10s on TVs hardly care about the quality of songs--(Guess Me, if you think that Top 10s are impartial, you are wrong. If so, how do Top 10 of one channel differ from the Top 10 of another channel? ). The main factor is whether the movie is a commercial hit or flop. E.g., Gilli's songs figured on Top 10 because the movie was super hit. We cannot expect the songs of Kutty or Konji Pesalam to do the same. Accordingly you will see that the top 10 songs oscillate positions. So in terms of judging quality thats hardly a benchmark.
  
  " And if you still believe and attribute it to Bad "blah blah" habits of customers.... topic is getting into a deadlock! "
  
  If you want to look at the quality of a song there are two ways to look at it.
  1) How you feel about it when you listen to it? This is a relative term and this is where most songs/MDs fall in and fall out of favor of people.
  
  2) Another is appreciating the intricacies of the composition. Like the kind of raaga used in, the kind of instruments used in orchestrization and the interludes in it. This is the way WCM and Classical music is enjoyed. Now, this is not a relative topic as it is a measure of the skill of the MD. IRs songs have this quality (or feature if you like) and since we, IR fans, (for Guess Me's sake) also like IRs songs, its a double delight for us. For e.g., people will definitely lap up MBK's songs, but they don't feature regularly on TV/Radio do they. And, how many young people do you expect to be fans of pure Classical music??
  
  On the audio market aspect, as a young student I used to buy many cassettes based on the kind of songs and the 'hip' content in them. And, I know elderly/middle aged people, if they bought music, would do it selectively as they usually do not have time to listen to everything that comes in the market. This was the reason that I made a decent 'guess-timate' about the age of the audience. I don't have figures and it might be difficult to get them anyway.
  
  k,
  Nice comments. Thats hits the nail on the head.
  
  
• From: Jacky (@ 61.1.202.124) on: Mon Aug 23 16:24:46 EDT 2004
  
  If I'm correct the thought to come out of pure classical base on a large scale was started by IR.
  I think every commercial movie in the 80's had a disco song.
  Now This thought becomes the trend, ARR and others are using more sophisticated techniques.
  
  Note man,
  Back to Square one!
  Quality is subjective, especially in Music. We can give a portion of success pie to Big heros and Banners but....
  I can definitely say the efforts put to compose Unna Veeda or Nen partha Parvai is notable than Kutty or Konji pesalama.
  That counts when it comes to selling!
  
  
  
• From: k (@ 192.138.150.249) on: Mon Aug 23 16:52:21 EDT 2004
  
  "I think every commercial movie in the 80's had a disco song."
  I think IR was forced to do that. If that is the case, ARR would not have found an opportunity, no offense/denigration to ARR's talents. He would have never come like a 'puyal'. Just another competitor.
  IR mainly used guitar and drums more to give a more modern effect to the sounds. He also scaled back the singing (TMS style to SPB/KJY ) to less classical lines and filled it with his own experimentations (eg. poongkARRU pudhinAdhu - for a different style of singing).
  Inspite of all these, the fundamentals remained the same - songs based on a tune. ARR created the shift.
  unna vida is not as natural sounding as nee paartha paarvai. the unna vida rhythm seems like it has been added by karthi. It does not gel well with the tune that much. No, it does sound good, but not great. This is what others are doing - vidyasagar, uttam singh etc. Keep the tune based approach but add different rhythm sounds. In the case of IR, even if it sounds hip (like kathalukku mariyadhai) he needs to work on it fully. It gets better if he can come up with good lyrics himself like in isaiyil thodanguthamma.
  
  
  

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