During long evening drive in a dipressed mood and listening to a desi channel, I came across a super melodious never listened gazal of Mehdi Hassan which instantly cheered up my mood. I started wondering how substandard our english mixed lyrics has become today. The music of subcontinent of yesteryears without doubt is far superior to any other music in the world. The composers of this period were far supreme and that’s why many critics refer to it as a golden period of subcontinent music.
The team of Naushad, Rafi and Shakil Bidayuni created one of the finest compositions in Hindi cinema and similarly Shanker-Jaikishan, Mukesh and Shailendra team delivered ever green unforgettable songs. On the other side of the border, Mehdi Hasan created another great legacy of music in the subcontinent.
The decline started when a substandard composition from RD Burman-Kishore caught public attention in 1969. RD Burman’s love of western music was further accelerated by Bappi Lahiri (Naushad blamed him and referred to him as the guy responsible for the destruction of Hindi music). This started an era of copying cheap western music which is now complete with stupid english mixed lyrics trend.
Would we ever be able to go back to our great legacy of Kawwali, Gajal and melodious Hindi/Urdu songs with urdu lyrics or rather completely surrender and submerge to the western music? I would welcome comments from music lovers who too are concerned like me with the continued deterioration.
Kishore kumar was the best.....
jagjit singh is another legend!!!
I am sorry to differ with you here. I always considered Kishore a substandard street singer. Anybody on the street can sing like him. No music composer other than SD and RD wanted to use him. SD kept him for second grade songs and always used Rafi for his finest compositions.
Pressure from film producers in seventies forced most of the eminent music directors to use kishore reluctantly. But Madan Mohan never succumbed to such pressures and never used Kishore. No songs of Kishore can ever come anywhere near to Madan Mohan's last immortal composition of Laila Majnu sung by Rafi which started another golden era albeit for a brief period.