Oldies but Goodies

This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a program that featured a retrospective on the music of OP Nayyar, a very popular Hindi music director who passed away early this year. Having grown up in a household that was always filled with music I was rather familiar with the music of OP Nayyar though I had not always associated with him. The program itself offered up video clips, audio clips and live renditions of some of his evergreen hits. The audience was largely made up of people from my parent's generation who were familiar with his music. I may have been slightly younger than the average person in there but that didn't preclude me from having a good time.

As I said, I am a long time listener of music and music truly is the soundtrack of my life. In having taken part in the program, I was able to enjoy the sights and sounds but also enjoy the mood it created. For me, the nostalgia didn't go back quite as far as it did for my parents and their friends but it was nostalgic nonetheless. For me, the music reminded me of some of the roadtrips we took with our parents as kids. We used to alternate between tapes (no CDs at that time) so one western musical tape and then one Indian (classical or Hindi songs) and like it or not, a lot of that music stayed with me and became ingrained in my memories.

Looking back on those times, there were times when I used to think about how much longer the Hindi tapes would last but that didn't mean I wasn't listening. Even for someone who didn't understand the words or the meaning behind what was being said, I think the power of music comes when a listener can appreciate the tune and the 'feeling' behind the song. Most of the older songs from the 50's through the 70's have those feelings. The music was often new and fresh and could be retro or new age at the same time. The tunes were unique and the words had a great deal of meaning. When comparing it to the music being produced today there are some good ones but as many artists and fans have stated time and again, there is no comparison between the music of yesterday to today.

As I sat there listening to the various tunes and watching them in the movie clips, I found the tunes grew on me more and more and though I had heard some of them before, some of the others which I wasn't so familiar with stuck with me just as easily simply because the quality and style of music was so much better than some of the artists of today. And it's not just the music of OP Nayyar that does that but many of his contemporaries as well like the Burmans, Shankar-Jaikishen, and so many others. Their music was just as great then as it is now. Don't believe me? Attend any party where people gather and begin singing (most any and all Indian gatherings have this happen at least once or twice) and you find that the oldies are the songs that dominate. They may be sung off-key or slow... but the feeling and enjoyment is there. I think that's the true power of music and the true power of some of the greatest Indian music composers.