Rapist or Sodomist

I was more or less a typical teenager, snorting at everything that belonged to my parent’s era. I took special delight in ridiculing “their” songs, terming them boring, dull and too slow. But with time, I grew up. When I encountered the real emotional and mental upheavals in life, I realize the raw beauty and timelessness of those good old songs. It was obvious how much effort the lyricist, composers and singers had put in those songs.

I was just delving into the psyche of remix makers. Where will they stop? If one day, they discover that Meera, Kabir Das, Sur Das and Tulsi Das’s creations are the latest fads, will they manufacture remixes of these poet’s creations too? Doesn’t their attitude match with a rapist or sodomist? Just like rapists, they violate the sanctity of a song. At least, in India, they never ask for permission, and simply force their “noise” in the original song. What motivates them? What is their inspiration? Can they better the original creation? Can they bring more appealing visuals than the bygone era? What will they think? If skimpily clad bunch of ladies will perform Brownian movement from here to there, will they overshadow the sensuality of original ladies on whom the songs were picturized? I fail to see if they have achieved a single purpose.

But I have forgotten to analyze the biggest motivator, the green bucks called money. I know inspiration is very difficult to hit these mercenaries. By hook or crook, they just want to laugh all the way to bank. Nothing is wrong with that. But they can earn money without committing rape (or sodomy, if some of them are gays) to these original songs. Why can’t they restrict themselves to item numbers? Everybody enjoys the beat, the music, the mood and the ladies gyrating to the song. At least some effort is required to create these numbers from scratch. You don’t lift someone else work, paste it with your stamp and claim it as your own.

The other section that can discourage these sorts of creations is generation X. But when their guardians don’t have time to stand and stare and smell the roses, even for themselves, it’s too much to expect from these producers that they will take quality time out from their busy schedules and introduce their wards to real things. Their schools and colleges also make sure that students don’t have time to explore anything on their own. The latest refuse of the parents is to enroll their progenies in the personality development classes and think smugly that their responsibilities are over. The shoulders of the grooming instructors are too slim and pretty to bear this burden. The child will emerge out as a good “product” from the grooming classes. This product will walk, talk, eat and dance in the latest customized fashion. Individuality of the child can go to hell.

So it is left to this generation to discover the old magical songs. It is their sheer luck or chance, if they stumble upon the original creations. None of the TV channels broadcast these songs for a considerable duration of time on daily basis. That seems odd. Why they don’t broadcast these songs? Are music companies playing a role in policy making of music channels? Afterall if people are so enamored with remixes, what’s the harm in broadcasting old songs on daily basis for a while? What fear factor is stopping them?

I don’t know if remix manufacturers have conscience and it bothers them when they sleep. Maybe when everything evaporates with time and they have none of the glitz and glamour left to cling to, they might realize what they had done with the timeless creations. But that’s me being too optimistic. I think someone with right kind of zeal will file a PIL against these THEFTS and it would be left to judiciary to correct this anomaly. Remixes will not disappear but manufacturers might have to take permission from the rightful owners. A law might be enacted to offer a portion of the royalty to the real inheritors. This will minimize the remix manufacturer’s profit margins and curb this blatant tendency of theft.