Songs now are not about emotional connect but how many hits they get

With a career of over three decades and continuing, singer Hariharan never failed to impress music lovers across the nation and generations. The two-time National Award winner — who has several celebrated songs across genres, including Bollywood music, ghazals, khayal and fusion music — shares his opinion on how the business of music is going wrong owing to wrong marketing. From shrinking opportunity to constant substandard music, over the past few years, the music industry has seen a huge change.

"I do not want to pinpoint on any individual but would want to talk about the trend that has been continuing for long and gaining commercial benefit. Over the past few years, when a song releases, it is not about its emotional connection with the listeners any more, it is about how many hits and clicks it is getting. For us, back then recall value mattered. Now, it is not like that anymore, and that is why some composers are taking old songs and presenting with new instrumentation. Why old song? Because these have recall value," Hariharan said.

He added: "If you are not a musician, and call music a product for selling, how will you sell it? You should have the knowledge of the product that you are selling. You should know how the product is consumed. How can the knowledge of a musician, who has been learning and practising music for 30 years, be lesser than the one who does not know music, and can market the music? They release one remix song and play them across all radio stations repeatedly. Obviously, people are forced to listen. Then they say, 'see, people are listening'. New songs and new talent should be promoted. However, I think it is a topic that requires an elaborate and nuanced discussion. I won't say more than this."

Would he want any on his songs to be recreated? "No, please no. My songs are close to my heart and also close to the heart of all my fans. So, please, no!" he said.

Being a frequent collaborator of music directors like Ilaiyaraja and AR Rahman, and having delivered several hits, Hariharan started his career with the legendary composer Jaidev, and sung the song "Ajeeb saaneha mujhpar guzar gaya" in the film "Gaman" in 1977.

"You see, when I recorded my first song as a professional singer, I did not have a career plan. After so many years, even today I do not have a career plan. I never took pressure of building my career or gaining popularity following a marketing strategy,'' he recalled. (IANS)

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