>From what I understand from some of the posts which have been put across by members, it seems that RDB Music is not a sales success which was a shock to me as this seems to be one of the Best Music of 2000's....
We do not have the Nielson soundscans or NPD surverys type thing in India, hence it would be premature to assume that this hasnt sold well till information confirming this is made available. That there is currently a kind of Bias or a movement with sole purpose of undermining ARR's effort and ignore the variety of his creativity with misinformation, half truths and pure ignorance. At one end we have the Music professionals who make comments which strive to undermine his musical genius, while during his hey days heaped praise on his abilities, ofcourse there were Old timers who had criticised him from his early days but I am talking about the current crop who are doing their best to discredit him now. At other end we have "music lovers" if you call them so (I know it sound s pretty condescending as if I am being very biased...but it is not so), who say that "his music is repetiive" "his creativity is limited" "okay some songs were good but that doesnt mean he is great" "he is not versatle...look at RD burman etc. The music loving public who used to buy the album just by seeing his name in the late 90's are not opening up and buying his music as they used to do so and therby contributing to the decline. >From what I understand from my experience and I am not any professional just a layman who can feel and experience good music, and judge what is a creation of greatness, what is mediocre, what is ephemeral. Just like other members I just believe in my instincts to judge music. Indian public has been fed on similar kind of popular music since the LP records started selling here. All the songs confirm to some Basic rules, have a defined structure and were inspired by the Classical musics of different era...modified and downgraded so that the general public can enjoy them. That is the only bit of innovation they did, they made music in such a way that it appeals to the common man and he came to expect all the songs to follow similar standards, and in this limited setup many great music pieces have come which have been of great artistic and commercial success. The only musicians who tried to do some sort of innovation to this setup was RD Burman and OP Nayyar and probably few others. Their music was hit and apprecaited but nobody would have called them great musicians. From what I have seen RD Burman's became recognized as a great Music director since his death, as the industry found his output was of remixable quality which can appeal to the current generations. This infact grew his popularity and made people like me end up buying all the available collection of his original song currently existing in market. In this kind of setup ARR had set in and brought in an entirely different musical experience to the music loving public. He defined and created something called Individual style in which the musician is recognized just by listening to the music. Though this would be a bare minimum in other places as just by listening to a small sample people were able to judge whether the song was by The WHo, Pink Floyd, Queen, Led Zeppelin etc else, this ability became something special here. ARR's popularity and his musical successes grew and he seemed to garner all major awards and had excellent sales to show. He was by far the greatest Music Director in India and had a star power no musician ever enjoyed in India. And then came the "Going International" phase, during the time which most of his Indian releases tanked. In the end it all turned to success for his music which we of Blockbuster quality and the last major hits turned out ot be Lagaan and Saathiya. His musically superior albums which were released subsequently did not do as well as they might have deserved, many of the movies didnt have the star power and incase they had star power (Swades, Mangal Pandey) the music was so true to the subject that it was not possible for them to be immediately appeable in the current scenario of bubblegum remixes and songs. Infact these have been stated as ARR' musical decline and loss of commercial credibility. Today ARR is in a position where his music would be compared to his peers (who are worthless except SEL)and his music would have to be of Blockbusterish quality to sell. I had thought RDB had a very great possibility of bringing back ARR on the league he once was in again, but it seems to be not so. I hope that after the release of the movie and if it becomes a success people understand and appreciate the music better and give the man his due. Or he should completely be concentrating more on International Project s and maybe he will reach the stature of John Williams or James Horner. Atleast the collective worldwide audience would not expect predictability once they acknowledge his genius. Explore, Experience, Enjoy A.R.Rahman - The Man, The Music, The Magic. Only at arrahmanfans.com - The definitive A.R.Rahman e-community. Homepage: http://www.arrahmanfans.com Admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arrahmanfans/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/