Being a musician is a tough job. Even tougher is to stand independent ! when most of my contemporaries from yesteryears have been swept away by the might and lure of an industry called Bollywood - which consumes all and in ways not initially visible. Gradually & eventually they all serve this mammoth machine which makes sure that money and the mirage of immortal fame is what keeps you climbing this downward spiral of creativity - such is the system to which almost all such talented people have succumbed to.
Yes i too have been a part of this giant hit (shit) making machine for a few years. I too have programmed, composed and mixed hits which blare out of cheap radio speakers and large discotheque woofers. Ex - rockers, metal-heads, folk singers, drummers, jazz guitarists, keyboard players, classically trained and tech savvy audio engineers, et all - have made their moniker and fame inside this industry. For this industry robs your character to define yourself as a musician, composer, song writer - whatever your ernest skills and talent may be worth - you have to perform to the standards of the industry. You must learn to pander to the vapid tastes of a bunch of upper class twits who control this bourgeois mockery - the behemoth treadmill cinema standards of India. This continuum of hegemony.
Try as much, set against the career path of these erstwhile pioneering musicians with an original vision, the argument turns pale at the face of the amount of money and involved prosperity that one can gather being a part of this industry. Almost as quicksand, this process consumes the creative and ernest desires of an artist. Without taking names (which might piss off some of the caged lions of Bollywood) - it is easy to see that every decade or so, the legacy of music directors, producers and arrangers are replaced by another eager bunch ! Are u ready to claim the throne and bastion of hit-makers ? It's appalling to see talented musicians loose their brains (ability) to create anything credible outside the tripe and pedestrian taste of Bollywood music. After the initial glimmer and success, little do these artists realize that they have turned into mere cogs in a system - a system they so openly ridiculed at one point. Even the likes of the exhalted A.R Rehman sounds lame and perfunctory today - after a 15 year career run, studded with industry accolades. I witness a complete mockery of skills as much as a totally fake outlook that breeds inside large studios and the 'air'conditioned facades that ensures such artists eventually become mere workers / slaves to the system.
Enuff said, i do think, it is our choice and the devil's bait that has always existed .. so we may bite into ? Perhaps we need not .. After all, you must be a feeble mind to serve three chord songs behind some hideous singer, or make beats for a total hack posing as a music director or write the same banal melodies for some dunce masquerading as a film director. Watch out ! you might just be the next caged lion, ranting and raving about your erstwhile accolades, which are a bygone set of trophies inside your posh studio, at best. Or perhaps this is how most musicians arrive and perish without making anything worthwhile, ever ?!
Disclaimer - With no names mentioned in this article (expect A.R.Rehman's example), it should be obvious that there is no malice or ill feelings targeted towards the person who fit this category . A group of enslaved artisans. After all, they are nor creative nor individualistic in music.
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