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Is TFM in a vicious cycle of degeneration?

Topic started by rajaG (@ 208.24.179.211) on Tue Sep 26 15:43:14 EDT 2000.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I have checked the archives and for some reason a topic with a similar heading is gone!
So here's is some food for thought.

1. Actors like Ajith, Vijay, etc commanding MDs to copy from "English CDs" and set them to Indian lyrics.
2. MDs like Deva, Sirpi copying left, right and center, in situations excluding item 1 above.
3. Bad pronunciation of singers.
4. MDs like SAR repeating the same tune over and over and over......you get the point (and many times in the same film)
5. ARR not putting any effort in re-recording at all- merely playing the songs in the movie with slower/faster versions.
6. ARR, Srikanth (Deva's son), etc blatantly indulging in lip-synch activities. Other lesser known artists, engaged in karaoke singing. While this does not directly affect TFM it speaks for the lack of confidence in the talents of the artists.
7. Many occurences of really stupid lyrics - though most of them may be blamed on the director/producers adamant insistence or same boring situations.
8. Absence of thespians who could inspire Kannadasan, TMS, SPB, PS etc to give their best.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: fan (@ 216.190.255.35) on: Wed Sep 27 16:02:57 EDT 2000
  
  U, Very good points.
  
  btw: arul - i know you will read this.
  
  i haven't heard from rAjA that there are some plans as what you have suggested. if it happened, shankar might learn some basics in film making.
  
  
  i do not when raja become a movie director ?
  secondly i did not mention raja anywhere, shanker might choose some one else than Arr :)
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.28.53) on: Wed Sep 27 16:53:31 EDT 2000
  
  In spite of all these technology improvements the foll facts still remain and are the reason why things are stagnant now in TFM:
  
  1. Lots of singers , agree. many more than in the 80s as Udhaya told, agreed. But sorry, none in the class of SPB,SJ,Chitra(who is being used sparingly), KJY or Jayachandran( gross example of neglection of talent).
  
  can u any name one singer from the present lot who has the class, versatility and the mimicking ability or more importantly Bhaavam of SPB? NONE!!!
  
  2. MDs giving more importance to rhythm, range of instruments and what not and kottai uttufying on the most important part or element of the song, IMO - Melody. the songs of today (and that includes all the MDs) just lack longevity.
  
  Pl. note that Iam not talking keeping in mind any MD in particular, Iam talking about music in general.
  
  
  3. Music not being given that much importance by both MDs and directors. a film with reasonably popular songs like kaadhalar dhinam or Iruvar can flop if the storyline/starcast is simply not good unlike the 80s where all u needed was a mike-wielding Mohan and IR to come out as winners.
  
  
  4. No one out there who has talent and quest or veri to succeeed in eqwual measure as we witnessed in IR of the 80s of ARR of the 90s.
  ARR has already started giving his RR work to sabesh-murali and started accepting international projects. and reg. newcomers like bharadwaj, karthik raja etc. their initial works are mainly disappointing barring a few numbers.
  
  they seem to be following the path charted by IR or ARR and are yet to break out on their own.
  
  
  Pl. note that Iam not saying that this wont change in the future. Iam just giving reasons for the present lull as pointed out by RajaG.
  
  Who knows, there may be another budding ARR or IR out there waiting for his chances..
  
  BTW, I enjoyed and read all of your posts.
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.28.53) on: Wed Sep 27 16:56:56 EDT 2000
  
  And to all the people who speak of as though everything is right with the TFM, pl. dont consider everyone else who dont afree with your opinions as pessimists. some times it is good to sit back and analyze the scene and see whats it, that's not right.
  
  As Anand said everone is hopeful of the future but its only the present that people are discussing about. and from all the posts so far u can see just how many minuses are there. so, no harm in pointing them out.
  
  
• From: kiru (@ 192.138.149.4) on: Wed Sep 27 17:14:46 EDT 2000
  
  I suspect Fan is again plotting to hijack this topic to a discussion on digital recording, keyboards/sound modules or MIDI equipment as his usual wont :) (Fan,I like your keyboard skills..check out http://members.tripod.com/kbkaran/ilamai.mp3).
  Well..still I think because of the heavyweights here...the topic has turned more technical than it needs to be. The topic has to be treated more from the sociological point of view.
  
  1) I am not sure how musically savvy our new heroes are but MGR had good knowledge and taste for it. MSV himself has mentioned this. So if these new heroes want to poke their nose they better be well-educated on what they are trying to suggest.
  
  2) Copying..this is a beaten topic here I think. But it reflects a trend in our society for easy. I am seeing people trying to become programmers overnights. Nothing wrong in changing your job but I want people to do justice to their new chosen field. dEva says, 'nAn chAthikka varavillai.chambAthikka vanthirukkirEn'..What role model ? But he is not alone..he is just reflecting the current trend.
  
  3) & 7) Well..we care less about our language these days.. We are so much after money that language is something that we could care less. If shops in Toronto, Canada can have signs in Tamil ..signs/ sales people in chennai shops/restaurant want to use only english. Even a saleswoman in MusicWorld,Chennai encouraged me to complain to the management for the less number of tamil titles and not playing tamil music in the shop at all.
  
  4)& 5) Bad quality BGM is a sure sign of bad quality audience. There used to be a program on Film appreciation in Doordarshan. I dont know they have similar programs these days. Also, I wish I could do something about writing to TN Govt about introducing music in the school curriculum.
  
  Overall, I am worried about falling ethical standards in our society with rapid commercialisation and westernization. We need to attack this from all angles - voluntary, legal and social.
  
  By volunatary I mean - personal principles of boycotting/encouraging. Also, self-educating one on relevant art/technology.
  
  Legal - would be campaiging for good piracy and intellectual property laws.
  
  Social - indulging in philanthropic activities to encourage talent/artistes and new comers.
  
  With a good atmosphere we should be able to see good people emerge (#8).
  
  Though I might sound a little pessimistic..I think the future is good for TFM. We are progressing but we need to be self-critical to stay on track.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: fan (@ 216.190.255.35) on: Wed Sep 27 17:25:58 EDT 2000
  
  Vijay, the so called lull is only for most people here in newtfmpage.com, i was in chennai for the past month, things are totally different there.
  As far as I know Music industry is going great guns there. There are more good than bad.
  
  kiru,frankly, I have not told anything technical anywhere.did you read my points few pages ago ?,
  
  
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.28.53) on: Wed Sep 27 17:32:23 EDT 2000
  
  Kiru,
  I agree with u on almost all points. I dont think u are sounding pessimistic at all. if being critical of the present standards of TFM is being considered pessimistic by some people then its best to ignore them.
  
  Reg. language , first of all I too agree that it is a beaten topic here and that I have been misunderstoofd many times. the point I make time and again use english if u have to and if the situation demands.
  
  if u are having a MTV-type song like shakalaka baby or a teasing type song etc. it would sound absurd to use senthamizh and in those songs and have words like 'bholloga sundariye' etc.
  
  but in a serious romantic song like 'snehidhane' why spoil it by inserting words like Olive oil etc. it sounded so yucky and out of place.
  
  especially VM after starting the song in perfect tamil spoils it instantaneously with this single inseretion. its as if he couldnt avoid this insertion and it looks like what they call pazhakka dosham to me. english words ezhuthi ezhuthi VM just couldnt be creative enought o come up with a proper tamil word subsitute in that place.
  
  another thing that irks me is if u take a song like 'all the time' it uses simple and apt words for the situation the song is picturized on.
  why go for stuff like 'dolby system pol kural udaiyaval' etc. and in the process messing up like 'floppy disc pola vegame sellubaval" etc. idhallam ezhudhaname appadingarathukaaga ezhudhina maathiri irukku.
  
  thats what i cannot simply digest.
  
  I for one, dont care about the lyrics as much as i care about the melody. but sometimes words like these are so jarring that they distract u from appreciating the musical content of a song.
  
  and this is definitely one of the minuses of today's music. its analogous to how typos distract u from reading/appreciating a good post.
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.28.53) on: Wed Sep 27 18:02:08 EDT 2000
  
  Fan,
  the lull I meant was not in the sales of casettes;))but in the quality of music and there is definitely a stagnancy there. if rajni releases his ramakrishna casette tomorrow there will be immediately 5 lakh cassetes sold. But does that mean that TFM is going great guns?
  
  
  I think u know that too but u just dont want to agree;))
  
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 63.89.188.115) on: Wed Sep 27 18:55:28 EDT 2000
  
  To my worried breathren:
  
  The cream will always rise to the top. Melody will always last long. Take for example the movie "Dharmayuththam", the song that comes to mind immediately is either "Aagaaya gangai" or "Oru Thangaradhaththil" two fabulous melodies that have stood the test of time. Until recently I had totally forgotten that there's another song, "Ada poayya poayya ulagam perisu" in that movie, the reason being, it's a negligible song that deserved to be forgotten. Similarly, most TFM lovers will never forget, "Aagaaya Vennilaavae" from "Arangaetra Velai", but do you think, "Gundu onnu vechchurikkaen" from the same movie stands a chance to be remembered by many?
  
  Let's take the "Rhythm" soundtrack for which I wrote a scathing review of a couple of songs. "Ayyoa Paththickicchu" is not going to win over many memory flushes despite a damn good rock composition. But "Nadhiyae" and "Kaatrae" will be remembered for their melodies. From the movie, "Alaipayuthae" I'm told by sources in India that "Snaehidhanae," the haunting melody, was the most popular. So, fear not. You may have to suffer the onslaught of more bad songs out there, but use your judgement and seek the good and appreciate it.
  
  
• From: fan (@ 216.190.255.35) on: Wed Sep 27 19:02:58 EDT 2000
  
  Vijay,
  I could put it as industry is in a confused state. Everyone wants get into the industry.
  This industry also serves as a mode for "easy money!", Hence of-late industry is invaded by
  
  Non-musicians. They get few solid musical equipments and start misusing them right away.
  
  I would agree with rajaG here (though i argue with him for the heck of it:)), these musical clones (also
  
  clowns) surive just because of those gadges not because of their talents.
  
  After a while these clones loose their way, inorder to stay they start corrupting main stream music.
  
  These jokers give way to actors, distributers etc requests. One actor went to an extent to change the
  
  play back singer.
  
  As a musician I would say there is a slight slip in the quality because of these clones. Just for the
  
  sake of money and lack of talent they start using other methods. Quality of music suffers badly here.
  
  
  But at the same time the equation is balanced by good musicians (vidhyasagar is a good example here),
  
  they work hard, I met few of them and everyone told me that they are doing well, they are happy about
  
  TFM, when asked about copying they told me within few years things will change rapidly. Infact this
  
  process has already began many producers, directors are looking for quality musicians, belive it or not
  
  they are requesting not to copy. People are aware now.
  People look for good music, Bharati is a good example here, many people buy the CD just for good music.
  on a average if you see in top 5 there are 3 good movies with good songs, just 2 is bad, which is a good
  
  sign.
  
  Imho:This is just a "phase" will pass very soon. Finally, in simple words TFM has not become HFM yet. We still have the class.
  
  

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