Every once in a while I keep thinking about how far we have come. Just seeing the posts that I have on this blog I know I have come quite a bit from the time when I thought hard to find something to blog. But more importantly there is something else that has hit me hard about how far we have come along. The other day a friend of mine - Mr. Ganesh KPRS posted lyrics from November Rain (If you grew up in the 90s there would be no way you wouldn't have heard Guns and Roses NR). But here am not going to be talking about the English bands because here in India we had our own very version of Pop and Rock music. Ironically to start off, it all began with a Pakistani girl, the world's sweetheart - Nazia Hassan.
In the 1980s along with her brother and music composer Biddu came out with hits like Disco Deewane (the SOTY version, though a tribute, is no where near the original in attitude and flavour.) -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-5h0BTMdMM
One would have also heard her angelic voice in songs from the film Qurbani. But what she really started was a movement of Pop and Rock in India. From then on the flood gates would open and many other singers with different flavours and origins would come on to make music. To start with is Remo Fernandes, I think one of the most interesting and talented musicians since the time when only classical music was considered good enough to be performed. Then came Remo and changed all of that with his hairdo, his attitude and his pure love for music. When it came to films he lent his voice to some amazing numbers but what really brings the greatness of the artist is when he performed live with Ustad Zakir Hussain for the 1999 Filmfare awards. If you do get to catch a recording of it you will be wowed by the expertise at which Remo matches up to the genius and mastery of Zakir Hussain.
All the music before the the 90s in India was only from feature films or classical renditions. There really wasn't much happening on the Pop and Rock front till in the 80s Nazia Hassan changed it all. Remo carried on from there and by the 90 there was a flood of musician making music. We had musicians like Shweta Shetty, Sunita Rao, Suchitra Krishnamurti and Alisha Chinoy doing regular girl pop music and then there was Bally Sagoo and Biddu doing the disco and party beats. And not to forget the one and only Baba Sehgal who brought his version of the desi rap. Some of the best numbers that still haunt me today are from this era.
By the mid 90s came a whole lot of musicians, including Junoon from Pakistan who brought hard hitting rock to popular music in India with Sayonee. There was Lucky Ali, Silk Route, Mehnaz, Anaida, etc. Along side them was also Sukhbir with his dance numbers that were a rage till the mid of 2000. But since 2000 there has once again been a downslide in the number of pop albums in Hindi. Rock in India seems more or less to be imitative of the western school and artists in the likes of Junoon don't seem to be coming our way.
I miss those years when I would wait for Doordarshan to play music from the pop scene in India. And then came MTV and it made us proud to see more music coming out. Shaan and Sagarika, Aryans, Shankar Mahadevan with is Breathless were making music, were making innovative music. But all this lasted only till 2000, maybe it did bleed a bit post 2000 but thats it. I miss those days when music was not limited to movies, esp when you think of the music from movies these days not being up to the mark.
check these out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teZ6cR3hX6w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml1F8jnrbL4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNuL6aJMQ4o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3I5NosQk3Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFWjpYbLTjc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD-Xaykwr6E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nKX-sUdEbE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onu9y0BfCqY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71RRcv5Jci0
enjoy... I don't own the links above.
In the 1980s along with her brother and music composer Biddu came out with hits like Disco Deewane (the SOTY version, though a tribute, is no where near the original in attitude and flavour.) -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-5h0BTMdMM
One would have also heard her angelic voice in songs from the film Qurbani. But what she really started was a movement of Pop and Rock in India. From then on the flood gates would open and many other singers with different flavours and origins would come on to make music. To start with is Remo Fernandes, I think one of the most interesting and talented musicians since the time when only classical music was considered good enough to be performed. Then came Remo and changed all of that with his hairdo, his attitude and his pure love for music. When it came to films he lent his voice to some amazing numbers but what really brings the greatness of the artist is when he performed live with Ustad Zakir Hussain for the 1999 Filmfare awards. If you do get to catch a recording of it you will be wowed by the expertise at which Remo matches up to the genius and mastery of Zakir Hussain.
All the music before the the 90s in India was only from feature films or classical renditions. There really wasn't much happening on the Pop and Rock front till in the 80s Nazia Hassan changed it all. Remo carried on from there and by the 90 there was a flood of musician making music. We had musicians like Shweta Shetty, Sunita Rao, Suchitra Krishnamurti and Alisha Chinoy doing regular girl pop music and then there was Bally Sagoo and Biddu doing the disco and party beats. And not to forget the one and only Baba Sehgal who brought his version of the desi rap. Some of the best numbers that still haunt me today are from this era.
By the mid 90s came a whole lot of musicians, including Junoon from Pakistan who brought hard hitting rock to popular music in India with Sayonee. There was Lucky Ali, Silk Route, Mehnaz, Anaida, etc. Along side them was also Sukhbir with his dance numbers that were a rage till the mid of 2000. But since 2000 there has once again been a downslide in the number of pop albums in Hindi. Rock in India seems more or less to be imitative of the western school and artists in the likes of Junoon don't seem to be coming our way.
I miss those years when I would wait for Doordarshan to play music from the pop scene in India. And then came MTV and it made us proud to see more music coming out. Shaan and Sagarika, Aryans, Shankar Mahadevan with is Breathless were making music, were making innovative music. But all this lasted only till 2000, maybe it did bleed a bit post 2000 but thats it. I miss those days when music was not limited to movies, esp when you think of the music from movies these days not being up to the mark.
check these out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teZ6cR3hX6w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml1F8jnrbL4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNuL6aJMQ4o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3I5NosQk3Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFWjpYbLTjc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD-Xaykwr6E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nKX-sUdEbE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onu9y0BfCqY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71RRcv5Jci0
enjoy... I don't own the links above.
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