Why is Indian music slowly degrading and losing originality?

As remarked by the contemporary society, humans are social and emotional animals, and there can’t be any better way to express and connect with people than music. But in the past few years,  there aren’t many songs that you can name within a fraction of a second or that are in your subconscious state that are expressive as compared to the so-called golden era of the Indian music industry. So, let’s go over some of the reasons why this disaster occurred. 

1. Respect and appreciation for the songwriters or lyricists: 

I simply ask you at this point. Have you ever listened to any of these songs, such as “Channa Mereya,” “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil,” “Bulleya,” “Kabira,” “Mast Magan,” “Raabta,” “Naina,” “Khairiyat,” “Manja,” “Janam Janam,” “Zinda Hoon,” “Gerua,” “Zaalima,” “Sapna Jahan I think most of us don’t know and, on second thought, we don’t care? We just see the singers and composers and give all the credit to them. This is where the loophole prevails. If we don’t appreciate the artist who wrote these beautiful lyrics, why will someone put out so much effort if he knows he will not get the appreciation he deserves? I will just end this point with the name of the person who wrote all the songs that I mentioned above; the one and only “Amitabh Bhattacharya.” 

2 . Independent artists: In 2016-17, when Jio came to the telecom and internet boomed in India, everyone thought that the monopoly of the music giants would be over and would give new opportunities to the known artists and would grow more, but now it’s 2023, and we know the current situation. Giants like “T Series” are still suppressing artists without giving them the credit they deserve, but we can’t blame a company over a 140-crore population as an audience. We lagged in discovering raw talent as we were busy scrolling through reels, listening to the same song hook nearly 100 times on reels. But we can’t blame the platform as it is why we got some of the few newly emerging artists. I can’t do much but ask everyone to support underappreciated artists whenever possible.

3. Money’s Magic: Just because I mention this point third does not mean it is less important than the first two, as we know how much necessary money is in choosing our profession. Singers like Armaan Malik and Sonu Nigam have openly and publicly accepted that in Bollywood, they don’t get any monetary benefit from singing songs in movies. Their primary source of income is derived from live concerts and platforms such as Spotify, YouTube Music, and others, but in order to remain relevant in the industry and the spotlight, they must do so in any case.

So, as I listed some problems in the system, I must also give the best and most to-the-point solution available, which, in my opinion, is

If you read the problems carefully, you will see that there is only one thing that is at the center of all that is.

We are the audience.

We are the spectators.

If we grow and mature as an audience, the maximum problems listed above will not disappear entirely but decrease by a significant margin.

Thanks for reading.

Have a great day ahead.

~Sidharth Singh