The generations can rarely see eye-to-eye on most issues. Even when they agree, it is debatable if they are just doing it for the sake of peace. Nowhere is this more apparent than when the state of Bollywood songs comes up for discussion. These have been the staple of our lives, especially during the growing up years. They are ubiquitous, blaring from the radio (later FM), TV, at weddings, parties, even religious functions, the filmy lyrics replaced by devotional ones. But ask anyone of the previous generation to the current one, and they would launch on a diatribe of the lyrics, the music and even picturization of the songs, holding theirs superior.

I plead guilty too. When the boys were growing up, the songs they loved to play on a loop! Ugh!

Leave aside the music, the ‘lyrics’ were just inane words masquerading as such. What would you call something that went, ‘Tu kha. Parathe kha, laddoo kha,’ or ‘pichade pe kutta kata’, and such stuff in the hit album by one Dewang Patel (God knows where he is now – probably still nursing his sore bottom!) Then there was this pop album that had the ‘memorable’ lyrics — ‘digging in the nose’, not to speak of ‘Aati kya khandala?’ – all huge hits with that generation. Watching the boys go nuts over the songs, I would wonder if they paid attention to the lyrics at all or were just tapping their feet to the beats and rhythm. (Read about them here)

But wait!

What was that again? Gapuchi gapuchi gum gum,’ ‘Goyake chunanche,’ ‘Dum maro dum’, ‘ek main aur ek tu,’ ‘Hum aur tum, tum aur hum’? Inane much?

Well, those were the mukhdas of some of the songs that I enjoyed in my teens. My father with his rudimentary Hindi claimed with utmost conviction that he could easily top any old lyricist of Bollywood, as all one had to do was to keep repeating the words hum-tum, main-tu, ladka-ladki, etc. in random order.

My elder sister, over a decade older than me, added her lament about the quality of lyrics in songs of my time! If only she had heard those of my kids’ generation and the current ones!

Well sis, if that were so, what about the ‘Lara lappa lara lappa laai rakhdaa, addi dappa….’?  ‘halla gulla laye la’, ‘eena meena deeka’ or some equally silly lyrics that you’d lapped up in your time? Of course, she would argue till she turned purple in her face about how songs in those days had melody and meaningful lyrics, and how singers were real singers. And oh, the radio announcers of her time had this clever way of bunching such songs into neat programmes like ‘Anokhe bol’, so no one could point a finger at the absurd lyrics. She would loftily inform that things began going downhill from my times and have now gone underground with no hopes of quality songs ever coming up for air again! Whew!

I know I am being unfair here. I love the songs of the golden era of Hindi and regional films – the 1950-60s. The lyrics were often profound and meaningful, despite the sprinkling of lara lappas and halla-gullas. There were non-filmy songs that were excellent in content and music too. But then, it was perhaps because life was slower and people had more time to listen and appreciate song lyrics. Today, more than half a century later, orchestra groups still play the songs of the 60s and 70s, though there is the boisterous medley of the latest hits to which the youngsters and even oldies gyrate and shake a leg! (You can read about her collection of old songs here). And that song from Padosan, the one with the most absurd of lyrics – Ek chatur naar! There was class even in crassness back then. What a great duet it was by Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey!

So, what’s happening to music and lyrics? Are they really going from bad to worse? Maybe they are, but if you ask me, it is more a generational thing, with the older and current generations disagreeing about the merit of songs of their respective times, as I said in the opening para.

The other day, I was playing some of my favourite old Hindi film music and was appreciatively nodding my head when I noticed my two young friends, looking at each other and wrinkling their noses. I began a lecture on melody and dulcet voices before I caught myself.

After all everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion of things – to either like or dislike them. Neither I nor anyone else has a right to judge their opinions as long as they don’t harm anyone. I don’t like their kind of music, and they don’t like mine – fair enough. If you ask them, they’d have a longer list of reasons for not liking my music. When I asked them, the girls told me that the songs were so slow and melancholy that they depressed them!

Once again, I wanted to tell them that there were many exuberant and happy old songs too, but I swallowed the words. Next time I’d play them some of those numbers and then maybe they’d begin liking them or maybe not. And that would be just fine.

The point is this: when one is dogmatic enough about what they hold dear, one has no patience or tolerance for things others might feel strongly about. I remembered the quote, ‘If you’ve a closed mind, keep your mouth shut too.’

The idea is to keep an open mind to be able to appreciate the good things in every generation. Despite my dislike for the kind of music I mentioned earlier, I do find that some songs are not only melodious but also catchy enough to make me hum them. I have trained myself to like the new music along with the old. I love some ridiculous rap and some weird rock. Honestly, I am trying my best to keep my mind open but also remember to keep my mouth shut, just in case I am tempted to speak!

Maybe I should say that music has ‘evolved’ to keep up with the times. Yes, that would be the diplomatic thing to say! The emphasis on melody and lyrics has reduced steadily from my sister’s time to the present, getting faster, noisier with less meaningful lyrics. This is why too I have left out the current music scene. Frankly, the kind of fast and loud music with random words strung together and set to deafening toe-tapping beats, is beyond my comprehension. Perhaps genuine lyricists don’t exist anymore? But with such loud beats and sound effects, who is paying attention to lyrics anyway?

Sorry Gen Z!

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