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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: Kr (@ 68.37.82.175) on: Sun Aug 22 11:42:28 EDT 2004
  
  I think what Jacky has posted proves my point. Based on lack of awareness of the songs in Kannathal, he classifies "the Kannathals" as of inferior or predicatble quality. However, an objective listening of the album which includes two brilliant songs "Amman Pugazhai Padi" and "Malai Veyil Azhagi" would make thes songs rival the Ilangatru Veesudhe or some of the so-called hits from other MDs. I think a lot of IR's songs are classified as "Kannathal"s like Karuvelampookal etc. get classified like the poster's classification because of the name of these movies, unknown cats and lack of publicity - which was exactly my point.
  
  On another note, while I consider IR to be more versatile not afraid to experiment different kinds of music, my perception of ARR is that he is very predicatble and caters to a group that prefers a certain genre of songs.
  
  
• From: Jacky (@ 61.2.36.2) on: Sun Aug 22 12:02:27 EDT 2004
  
  Ok this is subjective what's great to you may not sound good to me!
  
  I don't think ARR is predictable, you can listen to zubeida, Meenaxi, Laagan, Earth they are all very rustic.
  So was Duet, Rhythm, Kandukonden,Sangamam...
  
  They are not of the genre like Kadhalan, Mr.Romeo and the other chiku bukku stuff.
  
  
  
  
• From: Note Man (@ 24.11.160.43) on: Sun Aug 22 15:48:01 EDT 2004
  
  digressions
  
  
  Jacky,
  Just a clarification...
  
  Rustic means folkish and unrefined..
  I had been thinking that Duet was quity classy and was hailed by many ARR fans as being closest to WCM.
  
  Kandukonden and Sangamam were supposed to be Indian classical. And btw, many times ARR sacrifices the main motive of film music, i.e., to elevate the movie and gives his own songs in the name of experimentation. Apparently he has more freedom of expression unlike IR who tries to blend the music with the movie.
  
  " IR's songs are sometimes predictable (hardcore IR fans excluded) so he doesn't sell as much as ARR. "
  
  By this you mean you can tell an IR song by listening to it. If not, you are a genius in music who can understand the complexity of IR's music before he makes it.
  
  Many times I can also tell ARR songs when I listen without knowing the MD. But nowadays it is not possible to differentiate ARR's songs from others, only because other MD's are able replicate ARR's style, which should mean that ARR is predictable. This hasn't happened with IRs style, you can always tell whether a song is IR's or not.
  
  Now, based on this, I say ARR is predictable and not IR. Now, don't give me silly arguments like you are anti-ARR or you don't know what ARRs music is and all that stuff. I know how to enjoy ARRs music and I am aware of his talents as well as his limitations. Lagaan kind of songs have scored by Bhupen Hazaarika in Rudaali and by others in the past. But then people wouldn't appreciate them as much because they are actually rustic. No, they wan't the synthetic rustiness that is currently popular ala lagaan, earth.
  
  
• From: MADDY (@ 203.94.234.112) on: Sun Aug 22 23:14:22 EDT 2004
  
  kr ... that was a gud xplanation for audio sales but i cant agree however that shankar or for that matter mani ratnam are bigger names than ARR......ARR is the biggest name in TFM now......so his albums sell mostly bcos of hype and bcomes a superhit if it is really gud...
  
  as far as predictability is concerned , lemme tell u a very interesting thing to ponder upon.....after ARR's entry in 92', did u guys ever noticed how similar deva and IR were.......no, i'm not comparing isaignani with deva but still the similarity was too much.....i still cant tell the MD's for these movies quickly.....can you???
  1.Thirumathi pazhanichami
  2.Cheran pandian
  3.Uzhaipali
  4.Ponnumani
  5.suryan
  
  
• From: Kr (@ 68.37.82.175) on: Sun Aug 22 23:51:15 EDT 2004
  
  The question doesnt make sense. Is the question the movie titles for Deva and IR movies similar. I can pick all three of IR's movies but the three IR movies in terms of its osngs has no similarities. I would like someone who wants to pass judgement on the predictability to go through all of IR's compositions and look at the range and depth of vesatality of his compositions. It is very common even within an album, he shows tremendous variety. A recent example is Ivan. You have pure carnatic based songs, folk, western classical based, pop and rythm based songs all in one album. What about totally different albums, Pithamagan, Virumandi, Ponmegalai and Konji Pesalam one after another.
  
  I think people here just want to throw mud at IR whatever it is with absolutely no regard for facts. Its a shame.
  
  
• From: Jacky (@ 61.2.37.131) on: Mon Aug 23 05:22:00 EDT 2004
  
  Noteman,
  
  Thanks for the clarification.
  What i meant by predictable was last week on Vijay TV i was watching the promos of Kamaraj.
  The moment you hear "Nadu parthathuda" you know its an IR song, and it sounds like a rehash of his previous work.
  Why would someone ( a non-harcore IR fan) want to buy that?
  The context was the reason behind ARR's whopping audio sales which is not common for an IR album these days! Or for people to buy IR there must be a Heyram or something like that....
  
  You can't promote PithaMagan with "Yarathu...Manasu theranthathu.... a predictable stuff"
  
  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. Whereas Ilankatru can and i believe it did!
  
  I'm not talking about IR's authenticity or how "Yarathu" fitted in the movie, some plain facts why IR is not hot in the audio market.
  
  Kr,
  I don't think there's mud throwing at IR, infact Mud throwing happens only when HCIR fans blame bad tastes and buying habits by the customers when an IR album is not recieved well!
  
  
• From: Kr (@ 68.37.82.175) on: Mon Aug 23 06:26:47 EDT 2004
  
  I disagree with your comments on IR's music as I think it is a generalization without regard for facts, one has individual opinions about IR's or any other MD's music. I don't question your judgement and preferences. However,this assumes that all the songs that are well recieved are spectacular in content. I have listened to the songs in "New". It sounds very mediocre but generally hyped up. Now if that's the quality that songs need to be to sell, then I hope IR sticks with the quality that doesnt.
  
  
• From: Jacky (@ 61.2.36.113) on: Mon Aug 23 07:05:36 EDT 2004
  
  I don't know why you have problems reading my post or accepting facts.
  I never generalized anything about IR.
  Facts are Unna veda, Ilankatru, and so many other songs that were good (highly subjective) are recieved well.
  The legion of customers who spend 50Rs on a cassette or 125 bucks on a CD will find no compelling reason to buy Kannathal.
  As a IR fan you must know that his work is huge so it will be difficult for him make every song fresh without shades of his earlier works.
  
  
• From: kr (@ 165.140.4.22) on: Mon Aug 23 08:00:05 EDT 2004
  
  I disagree. I in a few posts back gave a list of 4 recent albums of IR with totally different compositions in each one of them and with in I where the numbers are so different between each other. All these facts genereally seems to brushed away when someone likes to call IR predicatble because it doesnt support thier conclusions. So a vague comment like the Kamaraj song sounds like a rehash of an old song..like what?
  
  I do not have a problem if one doesnt want to spend money on Kannathal. I on the other hand search for the CD of Kannathal and would never spend a dime on ARR's albums. It is my preference like the other is someone else's. But to make an hypothesis that more people do not buy IR's music because it is predicatble may be your opinion but unless it is validated by a survey of the sort that Maddy did with regression analysis to actual buying habits, it is just that..your opinion which is different from mine.
  
  
• From: Jacky (@ 61.2.37.167) on: Mon Aug 23 08:07:18 EDT 2004
  
  Ok apicer!
  
  

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