The Musical Journey....2

Hi!

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In my last post, I spoke about the impact the music of Barsaat had on the the music scene in Hindi Cinema. Let's pick up the threads from there and move ahead to explore what the next decades had in store as far as Hindi Cinema music is concerned.
The decades that followed can easily be tagged with the kind of music that came in that particular decade. This will help us in getting an overall idea about the kind of music we can expect when we listen to a song from a particular decade.

So here we go!
Soft 50's
Melodious 60's
Youthful 70's
Energetic 80's
Transitional 90's

A brief description for the tags that has been assigned for the decades follows :

Soft 50's

The decade when Hindi cinema music started coming on it's own! The decade when music for movies like Awara, Baiju Bawra, Madhumati, Shri 420, Nagin, Naya Daur, CID, Anari, Paying Guest, Goonj Uthi Shehnai, Anarkali blessed us! Listen to any of these album and instantly the world seems a better place to live in! Everything's so pure about them - the lyrics, the music, the singing! No one seems to be in a hurry, and that reflects in the songs. There is a certain calmness in the songs which engulfs the listener and takes him to a world he thought never existed!
My opinion is that this purity and calmness comes from the way the music was composed. The music arrangements and the singing were softly done, the lyrics were simple, and that is why nothing from that decade hurts the ears! That according to me makes it Soft 50's!

Melodious 60's

The decade of romance! Romantic songs were abundant in this decade and that is one of the most striking feature of this decade. Romantic songs from movies like Sangam, Mere Mehboob, Aradhana, Jab Jab Phool Khile, Aarzoo, Do Raaste, Suraj, Taj Mahal, Junglee, Guide and many others continue to linger in our memories till this date. A certain lilting quality can be found in the songs from this decade and they were ably performed by the romantic heroes who ruled in this decade. Notable amongst the romanitc heroes were Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna. Melody ruled supreme and that's what make the songs from this decade eternal!
My opinion is that songs started having a larger than life appeal and that reflected in the music arrangements and the style of singing! Listen to Chahe Koi Mujhe Junglee Kahe sung by Mohd. Rafi for Junglee to experience this! But the grandeur did not overtake the melody in the songs and that's why of all the decades of Hindi Cinema Music, the most songs that are still remembered is from this decade. That makes this decade the Melodious 60's!

Youthful 70's

The decade of Flower Power! Hippies, hashish, denims were the order of the day for this decade. But that was one side of the coin, there was another side of this decade that was ably represented by heroes like Rishi Kapoor. And then there were the shining stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Rajesh Khanna, Shashi Kapoor who ruled the roost in the 70's! It may surprise you that while talking songs, why have I started talking about the heroes of this decade. This is because this decade saw songs being made for stars rather than the movies! Movies took a backseat in the sense that by hearing the songs you can identify the stars that may have starred in that particular movie! But the overiding feature of the songs in this decade is that the zest cannot be overlooked! Be it any movie, be it any star, the songs in this decade had a youthful flavour to it. Even in movies like Haathi Mera Saathi, Yaadon Ki Baraat starring veterans like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, the songs were full of energy. The youthfulness can be sampled in the songs of movies like Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Yaadon Ki Baraat, Bobby, Johny Mera Naam, Hum Kisise Kam Naheen, Amar Akbar Anthony, Haathi Mere Saathi, Julie amongst many others!
This decade also started a trend of having designer songs that were made to fit in a movie! Just for example listen to Duniya Mein Logon Ko from Apna Desh and you will know that this song was there in the movie just because Monica My Darling from Caravan was a huge hit and the filmmakers wanted songs from the same genre in their movie. Some of the movies that featured designer songs are Anamika, Raja Rani, The Train amongst others!
My opinion is that there was not a single popular score in this decade which was dull. This energy in the songs are totally due to the treatment of the songs by the leading music directors of this decade, namely, Laxmikant - Pyarelal, R. D. Burman, and Kalyanji - Anandji! This energy in the songs is what makes this decade the Youthful 70's!

(To be continued..........)

गीत गाता हूँ मैं
गुनगुनाता हूँ मैं
मैंने हंसने का वादा किया था कभी
इसलिए अब सदा मुस्कुराता हूँ मैं !

Bye for now!
आपकी अपनी आवाज़
Vishal

P. S. If you wanna know about the movie or want to listen to the songs listed in this post, just click on the movie name or the song !