MUMBAI: As we are getting more inclined to the technological advances happening around us in the digital era, there is no denying that its impact is seen everywhere including the music used in our songs. Today’s popular mainstream music is just the result of computers and the knowledge of extra-ordinary sound engineering techniques. Format, mediums, performance, and distribution of music has forced those in the music industry to follow this rising trend and either adapt or die out.
Indie lyricist Mr Deepak Jeswal, who has written over 100 song lyrics and poems, said the ease of technology has only made people lazier and recording a program on your laptop has become a cakewalk rather than gathering all the musicians to the studio and record the songs.
“Even we do it sometimes - it’s also cost effective but at the same time it actually loses the sheen and the excitement of recording a song. It also compromises the quality of the music but it can be gauged only by a veteran in the field. Today’s youth cannot understand the difference much. I am highly worried that our future generation won’t know about many musical instruments like sitar, tanpura, ektara among others which are going extinct from the music industry. The twang of the sitar played live can never be replicated by a non human computer sound. And that’s what adds to the charm of the song. Even the thump of the rhythm instruments - the sound quality that one gets when played live is amazing,” said Mr Deepak Jeswal about the current trend in the music industry.
Banker by profession, Mr Jeswal is passionate about music. In his free time, he loves to read and hear the poems written by Gulzar, Sahir Ludhianvi, Rajendra Krishna, Gulshan Bawra, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Raja Mehndi Ali Khan among others. His upcoming song Tere Qareeb is all set to launch and in this ghazal they have used the real instruments. To cater to the youth, they have modernized the song with lyrics close to millennials hearts.
“We have used several instruments like Sitar, Flute, Guitar, Tabla, and my favourite- Maadal - a percussion instrument made famous by the legend RD Burman! So we hope to produce a Panchamda effect in our music which will make it immensely enjoyable. The song is in 3 stanzas and there are 3 interlude music pieces which Arnabda (Arnab Chatterjee) has composed in a brilliant manner. Those music pieces lend a complete experience,” Mr Jeswal added.
In the era of digital downloading, the music industry has gained more control over pirated music and internet streaming as it has become the norm. When asked when the trend actually began, he said, “It’s been a gradual transition. There is no one defined moment. But in the last 9-10 years I feel the music shifted its pace and style. Nee composers brought in their own sensibilities - which is both good and bad. But the fact is when you wish to remember a song usually you would quote an old one only.”
Echoing the same thoughts as Mr Jeswal, music composer Mr Arnab Chatterjee said using real instruments means getting into the soul of the music and its musicians.
“We always say that music is life and that means we want to say that it has a soul. So, when we use an acoustic or live instruments in our music, we are reaching out to that instrumentalist’s soul. And that time we can actually feel the original sound of music with that particular artists soul and we feel that song is very close to our heart. If the sound is not touching our heart, it means something is missing, which is its soul . These days maximum music works framed by electronic instruments or programming. Technically definitely we are doing well but the soul is missing,” he added.