When Lata Mangeshkar, the Goddess of singing, passed away, many of her iconic songs immediately came to mind. And what one could notice was how the music industry has lost its charm after a glorious run. When singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar and Md. Rafi were leading the music industry, some great music was produced.
Read more: Lata Mangeshkar, the Goddess of Singing who never compromised with her core values
Today, the music industry is going into a downward spiral. Over the past three-four years, we have witnessed a dearth of popular songs. On the other hand, Tollywood is suddenly making huge inroads and some of the songs coming from Tollywood are gaining pan-India popularity. So, Tollywood could be the boost that the music industry so badly needs.
The golden era of the music industry
The Indian music industry had strong roots, to begin with. Genius music directors like C. Ramachandra, OP Nayyar and S D Burman created some of the most iconic tunes that have survived the test of time quite successfully.
Some of the soundtracks like ‘O mere maajhi’ from Bandini effectively used the rich tradition of Indian classical music and folk songs.
Compare that to the downward trend in the present millennium. How many 15-year old songs can you remember? I suppose, not many. But you remember 50-year old or even 60-year old songs. And that speaks volumes of how the Indian music industry went into a downward spiral after a golden era.
What went wrong?
Last year, the Indian Music Industry (IMI) — the apex body that represents the interest of music companies or record labels on a pan-India basis revealed that the Indian Music Industry is in a downfall. For the third year in a row, the revenue of the industry stood at Rs. 1,500 crore. The report further stated that the recorded music industry continues to lose between Rs. 2,016 crore and Rs. 2,791 crore annually due to obsolete laws.
Read more: The Indian Music Industry is not making any money and they have only themselves to blame
So, why did a booming, glorious industry suddenly got hit by stagnation? At some point, there was a clear loss of innovation. The songs no longer captured the imagination of the listeners and then also came an era of ‘item songs’, which though immediately popular didn’t have any shelf life whatsoever. I mean you don’t tune into item song in your free time and feel like listening to it.
And finally, the industry got too involved with remix songs and recreations. The listeners however want something fresh, innovative and original. And a recreation doesn’t always capture the essence of the original soundtrack, so many prefer to stick to the original soundtracks instead of tuning in to the recreations or remix versions.
Tollywood coming to the rescue
There was also a brief period when the Bollywood music industry experimented with regional languages. The use of Punjabi songs, for example, was tried as a means to take the industry out of stagnation but that hasn’t been achieved.
In this context, Tollywood is making a big impact and is setting a template for Bollywood to follow. With movies like Pushpa: The Rise, Tollywood is already dominating the movie industry and it seems that the music industry is going to follow.
Popular singer Armaan Malik for example won the Best Playback Singer (Male) at SIIMA Awards 2021 for his record-breaking Telugu song ‘Butta Bomma’ from Vaikunthapurramuloo starring Allu Arjun.
Malik said, “Personally for me as a playback singer, I have not seen a song blow up as much as Butta Bomma has done. It is actually one of my biggest songs across all the genres, In fact, it has done better than some of my Hindi songs. It is beautiful to see how my Telugu language song has managed to get national fame. Internationally also, you could see David Warner dancing to the song. I think in general, Butta Bomma has crossed boundaries because of the song itself. People love to listen to happy and it makes everyone feel good.”
Malik added, “I have actually always said this, but I as a singer and musician, I truly feel like whenever I sing songs in the South Indian film industry, I go back as much better singer. When I go to the studio and sing a South Indian song and when I come back home, I feel I have levelled up as a singer. The kind of music, arrangements, songs, the melody they are doing is truly unbelievable. I wish also that Hindi cinema could also do the same kind of music. Being from Bollywood, I know the kind of music that is coming out. Obviously, there were a lot of remakes in between, slowly now, there are original songs coming out and doing well but the volume of it is a little less.”
Tollywood is known for bringing in original and fresh ideas that keep the audience glued to their seats. And this is exactly what Tollywood is also doing with music with songs like Srivalli and Sanchari turning out to be chartbusters and going through the roof.
The music industry was in a state of gradual and constant decline, but Tollywood could now power its unexpected revival.