Curious Thoughts | Ep. 02 | Do too many cooks actually spoil the broth OR the more the merrier?

I've been reviewing music for almost six months now and more so now than ever before I started to realize how the trend and concept of music albums in movies have changed over years. There was a time when the popularity of music in movies was driven by music directors - Kishore Kumar, R. D. Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, etc. Then came the era of actors and actresses driving the popularity of music in movies - Rajesh Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, etc. Slowly and gradually, playback singers started becoming a deciding factor for the success of music in movies - Kumar Sanu, Sonu Nigam, Shaan, etc. One obnoxious yet evergreen trend that has stuck with a lot of music in movies is 'item numbers' whose popularity has been driven by the likes of - Malaika Arora Khan and of late Sunny Leone. This trend has been so contagious that even top of the line actresses are using it these to revive their stagnant careers.

Apart from the above mentioned trends, there is one particular trend that has managed to tinker my thoughts curiously. Traditionally music of the movie defined the mood of the movie. Nowadays, music of the movie defines the success of the movie. Well, not completely but to a great extent. This has led to film producers, if not film directors, trying to scoop out best of the best music presented to them. It's like you have an option to select three scoops of your single favourite icecream flavour or three scoops of different best selling ice cream flavours. Which one would you pick? I would've picked the latter option because why should I stick with my favourite when I know people like the other flavours and that's the reason they are best sellers. Same is the case with music in movies in recent times. A lot of movies, instead of having one music composer for the entire album, producers cherry pick best songs by various music composers. Let me give you some numbers:

Top 10 songs of 2014
Rank
Song
Song Composer
Movie
Other composers in the album
1.
Baby Doll
Meet Bros Anjjan
Ragini MMS 2
Chirantan Bhatt, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Pranay Rijia
2.
Samjhawan
Jawad Ahmed, Sharib-Toshi
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya
Sachin-Jigar, Badshah
3.
Galliyan
Ankit Tiwari
Ek Villain
Mithoon,
Soch The Band
4.
Manwa Laage
Vishal-Shekhar
Happy New Year
-
5.
Saturday Saturday
Sharib-Toshi, Badshah
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya
Sachin-Jigar
6.
Tu Meri
Vishal-Shekhar
Bang Bang!
-
7.
Palat Tera Hero Idhar
Sajid-Wajid
Main Tera Hero
-
8.
Jhumme Ki Raat
Himesh Reshammiya
Kick
Meet Bros Anjjan, Yo Yo Honey Singh
9.
Zehnaseeb
Vishal-Shekhar
Hasee Toh Phasee
-
10.
Locha-E-Ulfat
Shankar Ehsaan Loy
2 States
-
Source: Radio Mirchi 

Top 10 Songs of 2015
Rank
Song
Song Composer
Movie
Other composers in the album
1.
Suraj Dooba Hain
Amaal Mallik
Roy
Ankit Tiwari,
Meet Bros Anjjan
2.
Jeena Jeena
Sachin-Jigar
Badlapur
-
3.
Sun Saathiya
Sachin-Jigar
ABCD 2
-
4.
Selfie Le Le Re
Pritam
Bajrangi Bhaijaan
-
5.
Hamari Adhuri Kahani
Jeet Gannguli
Hamari Adhuri Kahani
Mithoon,
Ami Mishra
6.
Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan
Meet Bros Anjjan
Roy
Amaal Mallik,
Ankit Tiwari
7.
Tu Chaiye
Pritam
Bajrangi Bhaijaan
-
8.
Bezubaan Phir Se
Sachin-Jigar
ABCD 2
-
9.
Banno
Tanishk Bagchi,
Vayu
Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Krsna Solo
10.
Gulaabo
Amit Trivedi
Shaandaar
-
Source: Radio Mirchi

You see there, almost half of the albums of the Top 10 songs in 2014 and 2015 have two or more music composers for the album. Moreover, in 2016 I've reviewed around 27 music albums for movies and out of that 12 have more than one music composers. With these data points I wouldn't say that the trend is increasing but it is definitely apparent over last few years. Open up database of movies in 2009 or 2010 and you will hardly find any music albums with more than one music composers.

Now let us deep dive into why so many movies have more than one music composers. There are two distinct sets of composers we have - ones who will create the entire album single handedly and others who will only compose a song or two in the entire album. The first set (Set A) includes Vishal-Shekhar, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Sachin-Jigar, Amit Trivedi, A. R. Rahman, etc. The second set (Set B) includes Ankit Tiwari, Jeet Gannguli, Amaal Mallik, Meet Bros Anjjan, etc.
  • Let me tackle this reason in the first point itself. Set A composers are well-known established ones and come at a higher price than Set B. Most of the movies with Set B do not have extravagant budgets and hence it makes sense. With Set A you'll get an album of diverse songs which is still relevant to the movie. With Set B you'll get the same template of songs by each of them which made them popular. Very rarely does Set B sway away from their genre and that is why you need a bunch of them to complete the album. I've talked about it in my music reviews too. 
  • With increasing use of social media, it is more about creating the hype than it is about the actual music. Take the most recent example of the song Kala Chashma from the movie Baar Baar Dekho. Even before the trailer of the movie was released, the song was launched and it amassed more than 30M views on YouTube within few days. The song itself is nothing but a remake of a popular Punjabi track so it's not an extraordinary stuff that you are going to listen to. For such kind of hyped songs, it is the Set B composers that are put to action. Like I said, they create music similar to their previous creations which were popular.
  • A recently released movie called Junooniyat had music from Set B composers. The songs turned out to be quite popular (although most of us won't even remember them). The point I am trying to make is that how many of us watched the movie or at least remember the synopsis? None. This was one such movie that was made solely for the purpose of earning through it's music. Since our Set B has the knack of churning out popular tracks, that's what the audience received. And once the album was ready, it could possibly be that the entire movie was weaved around it. Why make entire movie for this. Just make music videos you may ask. That's also been done and it has it's cons too. Tiger Shroff is also known for his music videos. He was recently featured in a music video called Befikra. It has till date garnered around 22M views after almost 2 months of it's released. The music video had entire story built up around the song. On the other hand, with Junooniyat just two songs of it's album have garnered more than 25M views. Both of them have similar idea of selling their content to the audience. Junooniyat did it better. Having multiple songs released within a span of one month creates sufficient hype. Add to that the release date of the movie which builds up the anticipation even further. Once you have a deadline set, it is easier to convince the audience into consuming that content.
The reason I've talked a lot about Set B instead of Set A is because there is no denying that we do need them. If Set B knows the masses then Set A knows the music. They create some of the most meaningful and soulful songs that we can listen to on loop. 

I think these are sufficient enough pointers to make a conclusion. There is no doubting that the songs Set B composes are loved by masses (as of now. It will soon change. People get bored easily.) and if people are liking their songs meaning more money the producers make which is required too. I also see a lot of Set B composers creating music for music videos. One way this could go is making a standalone music album on a single story/theme (without the movie) and release each song thus building the anticipation of story until last song as well as making money on the hype of each song. 

In the end, whichever Set film producers go with, I would still prefer having just a single music composer for the entire movie. If you are going with Set B then let one of them compose all songs. In case the album fails, you know your options then.

That is all the thoughts I have for this episode now. I hope I tinkered some of your thoughts as well. If I did then feel free to share it. Let me know thoughts in the comments below. Until then, Ciao...!

Comments

Popular Posts

Music Review | Housefull 3 | Mika Singh, Sharib-Toshi, Sohail Sen, Tanishk Bagchi

Music Mention | Wrong Side Raju (Gujarati) | Sachin-Jigar

Music Review | TVF Humorously Yours (Web Series) | Vaibhav Bundhoo

Music Review | Azhar | Pritam, Amaal Mallik, DJ Chetas

Music Review | Great Grand Masti | Sanjeev-Darshan, Sharib-Toshi, Superbia