Friends, I have a slightly different opinion. AJ is right, but I think we are
jumping to a conclusion here and it is very fair, its human nature. We all are
struggling to find the answer about what is different from AR's music of the
90s
and say now, so any answer that might sound reasonable at the surface, there is
a danger of one accepting it, just to get rid of the bother of the question. I
am myself struggling to find an answer to this question...just like many of
you.
Roja when it was released in 1990 was a path breaker in all aspects. Chinni
Chinni had a reggae rhythm. How can it be called pure Indian ? AR's brilliance
has always been in fusing indian tunes and sounds with western genres. Songs of
gentleman and thiruda thiruda were equally criticized by some in the 1990s
saying they are plastic music, computer music and too western. Just go back in
that time period and think for yourself, werent these albums way ahead of its
times in the India of the 90s ? Is nostalgia messing with our minds again ??? I
would like to call this sweet pain !
And for now, listen to VTV and the same indian ness comes through. Mannipaya is
pure indianness by any AR song standard. AR's repertoire has evolved and there
is a distinct difference in his work of now from the 90s. It is different. I
will though not say one is better than the other.
Which other music director has inflicted so much pain (sweet pain) in analyzing
the music and messing with our own emotions ? How can one who has suffered this
sweet pain, not be an AR fan ...
I plan to write something on what AR's music means to me.....for those
interested, stay tuned....
Ram
From: Taimur Nadeem <taimur.nad...@yahoo.com>
To: arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com; purev...@yahoo.com
Sent: Mon, August 30, 2010 4:24:08 AM
Subject: Re: [arr] Roja..........still sounds amazing........and my take on
general trends....
AJ you hit the bulls eye the "INDIAN A R RAHMAN" , the indian flavour in
contemporary music no matter what genre A R RAHMAN took , thats what used to be
in SIR'S music. that made him unique, just one in the world. that made him a
musical wizard , combining the beauty of indian music with modern themes.
yes i miss that A R RAHMAN. but the problem is raavan d6 JA didnt had the
magic
of that standard of music.
today A R RAHMAN's muisc is mixing up with west , uniqueness lacking. take
DILse
, saaathiya , hum se hai muqabla, jeans ,thiruda thiruda contemporary indian
music at its peak . the music of these albums is completely unique . even take
lagaan meenaxi mangal panday classic these three albums are. take Maa tijhe
salam wow wow , what contemporary masterpiece it is.
when A R RAHMAN used to sit in small dark studio in chennai , he produced
world
class music, now that he has studio's in every corner of the world , he is
famous in every corner of the world , he has lost universality in his music, i
feel . A R RAHMAN will surely return back to his indian magic one day.
and tell you first time i have affirmed your mail WOW.
REGARDS,
taimur
--- On Mon, 8/30/10, AJ <purev...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>From: AJ <purev...@yahoo.com>
>Subject: [arr] Roja..........still sounds amazing........and my take on
>general
>trends....
>To: arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com
>Date: Monday, August 30, 2010, 2:34 AM
>
>
>
>Can't believe it.......heard Roja today after ages and the sounds are still so
>clean, fresh, and breezy...not sounding that outdated at all, despite it being
>18 years old. Amazing compositions for ARR's debut......melodious, sweet,
>earthy, straight to the heart.
>
>
>If there was one thing that I liked about ARR of the 90s that I don't hear
>much
>of these days is that ARR's songs back then had a lot more breathing
>room.......there was more space in the songs and the song arrangements were
>not
>as dense as they are today. The songs just breathed easier back then it seems,
>if I were to make a very broad and general comparison to today's songs. ARR
>also
>used minimal loops and more spacious arrangements, so you could hear more of
>"silence" in the slower compositions. "Tu Hi Re" is a great example of that. I
>hope you understand what I mean. Again, these are just observations of mine. I
>like his past songs equally to his current songs in general, but there are
>some
>broad differences, signifying Rahman's evolution as an artist and adding and
>subtracting elements of his compositional style and sound over time. I am just
>bowled over how NONE of his songs from the 1990s sound outdated whatsoever
>even
>today. That says volumes.
>
>One more thing......songs in those days...1990s to early 2000s in general were
>more "Indian" sounding....not just with ARR, but with other MDs too. The trend
>in bollywood and perhaps other industries too is to have more Western and
>global
>musical styles in film music with gradual shifting away from the ethnic Indian
>flavor of songs.....not completely, but the trend is there. ARR too used to
>have
>more "ethnic Indian" sounding albums back then, even for contemporary films
>like
>Saathiya, Taal, Dil Se that were not period films. Later, the "Ethnic Indian"
>sound would be confined mostly to period film scores or situational numbers,
>but
>with some exceptions. Delhi 6, Raavan, and Jodha Akbar are the 3 most Indian
>sounding albums recently and look how beautifully all 3 music albums were
>received and raved about. I think a lot of people are missing more of the
>"Indian" Rahman. Rahman's music over time has become more "international" and
>less "Indian" as a general trend....again with exceptions here and there.
>
>
