Home   Forum   Wiki   Notes   Register   FAQ   Sitemap   About Us   Contact Us  

ARR=longevity?

Topic started by R.Balaji (@ 129.130.140.38) on Mon Sep 14 11:09:34 EDT 1998.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Hi guys,
Recently I hada a chance to go india.-madras.
i could see the dominance of ARR in the film industry.After hearing "Uyuire"
I had to give up.
Man it was a very good album.I am an ardent fan of IR.If you see for the money worth then
you can be sure of it if you buy ARR's CD's.
He has lifted our tamil music to some different height whihc nobody has done before.I am
sureIR can never come up with unique tunes and music.He is great in his own style.I have to accept this.
I could see a major problem with ARR's music--longevity.That's it.ARR's music doesn't stand for a long
time.how many of you are hearing 'chikku pukku rayile"now.
Most of songs lack that long life.Since it is different it stands top on the racks for sometime and
we tend to forget it.ARR is trying to cover all the indians and become popular and for that he is
compromising
on his music.
I knew we have beaten this topic many times but I wanted to convey that ARR has brought the downfall IR.

---

Responses:

• From: Srikanth (@ proxy1.dpn.deere.com) on: Mon Sep 14 11:47:21 EDT 1998
  
  Hi,
  Life time of a song:
  Score from MSV lives still today, during Raja's reign we (I) have heard people say Raja's songs does not live for a long time like the old MSV songs. Now people say ARR's songs lacks life.
  
  The main reason for this is variety. Way back in 60 & 70's AIR and Radio Ceylon was the only source to hear music. Apart from the Radio, people also went to light music shows. (Most of them sang many Hindi numbers). People did not have choice of programming. They just listened what was played to them. As days passed we have more channels through which we started to hear to more variety, the number of songs came out also doubled. During Illayaraja's era, music was made regional and we heard more Rajas' score, he removed the Hindi domination from Tamil Music and gave a fresh look to the Tamil Film Music.
  
  Currently ARR is bridging the music as Indian music, he tunes his songs for audience of different cultures. We have not heard many songs from other culture - This was due Raja who feed us with excellent work. We were self-sufficient; there was no need to borrow music. Currently we have access to world music by the means of satellite TV, Radio, Internet etc. We have plenty of choices at our disposal, as choice increases the lifetime of a product goes down. This does not reflect the quality of the product. Same thing will happen to the scores of MSV or Raja's, if released to now.
  
  Srikanth
  
  
• From: Srikanth (@ proxy1.dpn.deere.com) on: Mon Sep 14 11:47:34 EDT 1998
  
  Hi,
  Life time of a song:
  Score from MSV lives still today, during Raja's reign we (I) have heard people say Raja's songs does not live for a long time like the old MSV songs. Now people say ARR's songs lacks life.
  
  The main reason for this is variety. Way back in 60 & 70's AIR and Radio Ceylon was the only source to hear music. Apart from the Radio, people also went to light music shows. (Most of them sang many Hindi numbers). People did not have choice of programming. They just listened what was played to them. As days passed we have more channels through which we started to hear to more variety, the number of songs came out also doubled. During Illayaraja's era, music was made regional and we heard more Rajas' score, he removed the Hindi domination from Tamil Music and gave a fresh look to the Tamil Film Music.
  
  Currently ARR is bridging the music as Indian music, he tunes his songs for audience of different cultures. We have not heard many songs from other culture - This was due Raja who feed us with excellent work. We were self-sufficient; there was no need to borrow music. Currently we have access to world music by the means of satellite TV, Radio, Internet etc. We have plenty of choices at our disposal, as choice increases the lifetime of a product goes down. This does not reflect the quality of the product. Same thing will happen to the scores of MSV or Raja's, if released to now.
  
  Srikanth
  
  
• From: Anand (@ peso.ntu.edu.sg) on: Mon Sep 14 12:32:02 EDT 1998
  
  Dear friends,
  Talking about listening to Chikku Bukku Rayile today....Why?...Even today, I really enjoy the song...But, the thing we must realise here is that ARR is trying out newer and newer types of songs, and each song is very good to listen to...So, the problem is ...Which song is better?...No one can say that because,Each song is great in its own right ...So, I feel that ARR's songs will be heard even after many years...because weach one of those songs of his stands testimony to his GENIUS!!
  
  
• From: SR Kaushik (@ elroy.cs.wisc.edu) on: Mon Sep 14 13:17:32 EDT 1998
  
  It is wrong to say that ALL ARR's songs don't have life - songs like Chikku bukku raile don't have it but songs from Pudhiya Mugham, Duet and Thiruda Thiruda will last atleast a few decades. Even IR's dabba songs are not evergreen, right?
  
  
• From: Aakash (@ latimer.cs.berkeley.edu) on: Mon Sep 14 14:14:24 EDT 1998
  
  Guys, I still do listen to Bombay and Kadalan songs. I think ARR's songs will atleast last for two decades, if not more.
  
  
• From: Mano (@ ecarh29c.nortel.ca) on: Mon Sep 14 16:38:36 EDT 1998
  
  Why??
  It's simple. The success of ARR depends heavily on the success of the movie. Particularly the way songs are presented to the audience. No one can deny the fact that the shankar spends a lot of money on the songs. Why we don't listen now, is the movie is old. So we, the people don't remember the song any more except that a very few people.
  ARR works with top rated directors such as Mani Ratnam whom have a very few flops to their credit. 'Chaya Chaya..' from Uyire is in the top simply it's not by ARR alone. Part of the credit should go to santosh sivan and Mani. If the movie is flop one, the songs goes unnoticed too. For example, 'Duet'. The songs are good, but the movie was flop, hence the songs went unnoticed. Further, 'Uzhavan' has a good song too, but Went unnoticed. How many of you remember 'Rakkamma' from Dalapathy. In my opinion, it was picturized well. In comparison, IR's songs becomes a hit regardless of the sucess of the movie. Well, I don't have to say the rest.
  
  Cheers
  mano
  
  
• From: IRfan (@ gw4.awo.com) on: Mon Sep 14 17:59:44 EDT 1998
  
  R.Balaji:
  A few months back, I bought a CD which had songs from 1)Jeans 2)Kizhakkum merkkum and 3)Porkaalam. I listened to all the songs in the CD. I was very much impressed with the songs in Kizhakkum merkkum, and I loved to hear "kannodu" & "Columbus" in Jeans more than once. As regards Porkaalam, I did listen but the songs were very ordinary. Nowadays,even after repeated listenings KM does not put me to sleep and I have to FF other songs. So, in my case, some of ARR's songs sounded appealing the first time and after repeated listenings, they are unimpressive. Again, this is a debatable point because an individual's taste for music varies. IMO, I will not hesitate to buy a CD which has an ARR & IR combo(which I feel is worth the money than buying a CD with ARR's music alone!)
  
  
• From: A Fan (@ chcgb110-02.splitrock.net) on: Mon Sep 14 19:32:05 EDT 1998
  
  I must say sorry to Balaji, because he is contradictory in his introduction part. ARR's music has simply more to offer to TFM? Other than Minsara Kanavu and Iravur, I have not found any ARR songs impressive. Only thing is that they don't sound IR type and also do not last long. Srikanth aluso, I disagree. yevery day, i am discovering old songs of IR that are just too much. Has ARR composed for more than 100 movies? Has he got more than 50 hits in 6 years? Can you say that except for two exceptional songs in minsara kanavu, ARR has given really timeless songs? IR gave over a 1000 songs in 6 years!! and atleast 40% have no comparisons in this world
  
  
• From: madhu (@ 207.15.187.10) on: Mon Sep 14 20:31:50 EDT 1998
  
  I fully agree with Srikanth in his analysis.
  
  Moreover I think people in one era dont really like the songs of the previous era. I like most of IR's songs,but i like only very few of MSV's songs , eventhough people of MSV's era feel his songs are absolutely the best. I think the kids now find ARR's and even DEVA's songs better than IR's. MSV's songs are always great to people who were in their primes during MSV's era. IR's songs are the best to people who were in their primes during IR's era. I thinks that is because, they make an impression and it is easy to make an impression when you are young and fresh. When you get old, you tend to get opinionated and have a mindset against things that are new. This is also a kind of chauvinism.
  We think that the music produced in our era is the best,just because we lived in that era.so when we are talking about longevity we are actually talking about it with respect to a particular set of people and not with respect to all. so we should judge with an open mind.
  
  
  
• From: A Fan (@ chcgb207-11.splitrock.net) on: Mon Sep 14 21:39:44 EDT 1998
  
  madhu, i don't agree. because i am a fan of IR from the very beginning, i did not give me chance to listen to MSV's songs and i thought his songs were too old fashioned. then i began to appreciate MSV's songs only after IR worked with MSV in mella thiranthadu kadavu. I went back and listened to most MSV songs and i find that he is better than IR or anyone else!
  
  
• From: f_ir_f (@ horus.erlm.siemens.de) on: Mon Sep 14 23:45:04 EDT 1998
  
  ARR is definitely a good musician I have no doubt about it. Watch out! this guy might do wonders with his scintillating melodies. Dont miss out his wonderful musical goodies, just becos u r ardent fan of somebody else.
  
  katraarai katraarE kaamuRvaar; kaamuRa vENdum
  
  
• From: Anand Mahadevan (@ freedum.proxy.lucent.com) on: Tue Sep 15 10:22:36 EDT 1998
  
  I guess this is an oft repeated cliche in this forum of comparing IR/ARR and so to speak music which transcends generations.This is my take on musical longevity .
  
  I grew up in the 80's and have been influenced by IR's music.IR's music has turned out to be a benchmark as far as TFM goes.Looking back in retrospective,the metamorphosis is extraordinary.From the days of P.U chinnapa/MKT to our current folks it has been one heck of graph.This is just in terms of sheer quality.
  
  The days of PUC/MKT were mostly days of film music transcending from Carnatic.we can typically categorize this in the 40's and early 50's.G.ramanathan and folks brought in Orchestration which had great blends of western and nice rythym patterns.
  MSV and KVM took this a step further and gave us litling melodies which sometimes contained
  unique orchestration.During this time we had shanker -Jaikishen and naushad at their supreme.Infact HFM and TFM were on par and I would give a slight edge to HFM as they had composers who had distinct genre of musical thought process.Naushad in the classical mode and SJ in the western and neo rythym mode.I would say the 60's with the latter part of 70's was one heck of a period.
  
  The 70's saw the decline of TFM and the advent of
  SDB,RDB,LP .TFM saw the decline of MSV and the adevent of IR.
  IR gave us the pure western blend.The above mentioned folks did try but what IR gave us was the blend of western with folk and carnatic.
  He had tried to fuse in big time western concepts into TFM with great results.He did
  defintely take us to a higher plane.The compositions were rich both in terms of melody and musical content.This was amiss in the previous generations.A lot of MSV fans might not agree with this.The musical content in terms of the opening and two interludes was clearly redefined by IR.He added a lot of richness which was refreshing.He got us harmony.
  
  The 90's saw the wonderkid!! ARR who gave us nice melodies and the new synthezied music.The 90's also has seen the worst ever compositions in TFM.Music directors/composers with absolutely no inclination for creativity entering the fore and dishing out nonsense.Historically I would rate the 90's as the worst in terms of quality in TFM.HFM in 90's is not even worth mentioning.
  This to an extent explains why songs in the non 90's era have transcended time.Any musical creation which abandons the basic tenet of creativity will not stand time.This applies to most of the 90's song.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: balaji (@ schubert.crhc.uiuc.edu) on: Tue Sep 15 16:33:29 EDT 1998
  
  excellent analysis, anand mahadevan. but, one cannot do any judgement on longevity of a current item. it depends a lot on what the future holds for the music. the whole discussion about ARR and longevity is far-fetched and hypothetical. who knows, if next decade music comes close to heavy metal, we might talk nostalgically about the melodies of ARR!! only on looking back can we talk about the longevity of the composers of yesteryears. definitely , music quality has a lot to do with longevity but that is not all. there are a lot of random variables in future which we cannot fix apriori(sorry for the technical babble). personally i think a kid who grows up hearing "chikku bukku raile" will come to like it. to the masses, many of IR's songs are obsolete. only people like us try and be nostalgic. pazhayana kazhidhalum pudhiyana pugudhalum is natural. longevity is in the minds of people who look beyond the current trend. otherwise, one will have to be satisfied in listening to top 10 countdowns.
  
  

---

List all pages of this thread

Post comments