Discussions on ARR

plum wrote:

fring151 wrote:

crimson king wrote:Another point is, there is no such thing as composing a tune in fragments is an accepted style in the West.  The old pop songwriters like Burt Bacharach used to write a complete melody first, with or without lyrics, and then work out the arrangements, maybe with the help of an arranger.  Or they write the chords and the melody evolves as a response to the chords.  Breaking up the entire composition into bits and trying to somehow put them together must be one of the bizarre ways of working that I have heard of.  It's fine if that's works for him but by itself that doesn't make it 'pathbreaking' or 'unique'.  As a technique, writing songs with only a Western verse-chorus and no charanam is not unique to ARR even in India.  IR has done it on All The Time (Nadodi Thendral).  Nor do I see, to endorse your arguments, anything that makes it somehow more difficult than a pallavi/charanam or mukda/antara flow.  It is just THEIR songwriting tradition just as pallavi/charanam is ours.

Why go back only to 92? Rahmana pAthu thAn adhu kathukkutAru nu abANdamA pazhiya pOttruvAnga (never mind the chronology and other things - andha nuNNukkangaLa pathi kavala padra gumbal illa idhu). EVK (1982) had two songs without any charanam - Pazhaya sogangal and thendral idai. Even PArtha vizhi from Guna had a sort of verse-chorus format - with possibly the best use of the "money note" I've heard in Indian music - while still retaining a very classical melody and arrangements - so the format is cleverly disguised and totally Indianized. Songs where charanam-1 is different from charanam-2 abound as well - KalaivAaniye,  rAga deepam, Kavidhai keLungaL (nambungappa, adhu Rahman idea illa). I even had an example of a 3 charanam song where all 3 charanams are different, but can't recall.

Edit: My point is simply that it is not as though IR was in a rut in song-formats. He has experimented plenty even in this - the above examples are but a sampler. He just very rarely went for the complete free flow (or should it be free-fall?) where everyone does their thing and you just stitch it together to see what you get.

ninnai charanadaindhEn...

Aside, HJ in this interview mentioned 'pleasurable listening' as his motive and you could see where he takes it from. Very relevant to this song as well.

Another important thing as you pointed out that this is a journey. So? Recently they try to typecast almost everything into this pop/rock capsule, be it a romance movies (VTV, JTYJN, Jootha Hi Sahi kind of movies), or adventure movies (Blue, Maryan kind) or even our own rural/sea-side movie (raavanan, kadal etc) or crime+love movies (Gajni kind)

wizzy wrote:^and with that Plum Saab just got himself a cyber stalker #Sorrycouldn'tresist    

wizzy wrote:HJ like 'Vikraman movies' plies his trade on those and he cherrypicks movies which does exactly that 
AR doing it smacks of laziness if you consider each song of his goes under incubator for 2 months and 
the variety of directors/philms he gets to work with comparatively.

Another important thing as you pointed out that this is a journey. So? Recently they try to typecast almost everything into this pop/rock capsule, be it a romance movies (VTV, JTYJN, Jootha Hi Sahi kind of movies), or adventure movies (Blue, Maryan kind) or even our own rural/sea-side movie (raavanan, kadal etc) or crime+love movies (Gajni kind)

that is AR being genre-less like those generic Bolly movies for ABCDs, if Kadal/Maryan were to be remade in Hindi the songs would fit just right in.
'Highway' will be again lapped by these generic post oscar fans,1lakh youtube views+Itunes best seller+ithupona filmfare nomination
later this album will go down as his greatest, rinse repeat for his next album.

fring151 wrote: I have a nagging feeling that "Raj" in the comments space sounds very much like someone I know here.   . Kindly throw a hint.

app_engine wrote:

fring151 wrote: I have a nagging feeling that "Raj" in the comments space sounds very much like someone I know here.   . Kindly throw a hint.

You're smart
(like me )

I used to call our man as the "friend" of Raj in the old hub.

Now that our man himself revealed his ID, I can "hint" you by pasting a link:
http://365rajaquiz.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/track365/comment-page-2/#comment-15218

crimson king wrote:lol, I was wondering what prompted some Rahman fan to post a very long rant on mayyam.  

I would say that Megha and NEPV have Westernised TUNES as well (apart from Western arrangements) while I certainly agree that that does not define IR's work.  I think a song like Innum Konjam Neram is pretty Indian and Vijay Prakash's singing was the real letdown (wonder why he didn't go with Srini mama on that occasion).  Regardless, I don't buy this argument (which that Rahman fan posted) that IR fans are just getting left behind. 'We' could just throw that one right back at them; it's they who are too concerned with commercial hype and cannot see the potential of his arrangements for Megha and NEPV.  It's not like acoustic = old/vintage.  I listen to plenty of Western music and I can vouchsafe that IR's arrangements for both films are as contemporary as they come.  And hey, this time, we have a jazz critic on our side to support our argument     since they love quoting those kind of sophisticated opinions.

Nerd wrote:Worthless load of tripe. But anyway -> http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?10295-Highway-imtiaz-ali-randeep-hooda&p=1106098&viewfull=1#post1106098

Nerd wrote:Worthless load of tripe. But anyway -> http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?10295-Highway-imtiaz-ali-randeep-hooda&p=1106098&viewfull=1#post1106098

Nerd wrote:LOL! Just now saw that post. Why so much stomach-burn on gem-digging? May be because we have plenty and they have none?

BTW, I have this serious doubt - what do they mean "busy schedule"? (i.e. if it does not include composing songs but he had to "take time out" to compose songs?)

Do they mean "sponsoring" (& even attending) Vijay TV shows?

Yes, yes romba romba busy only!

What is he claiming "them" to be - humans or animals?

wizzy wrote:they usually smile and take no notice it seems   

Raaga_Suresh wrote:And those guys are thinking 'Mahi Ve' and 'Pattaka Kudi' are greatest of the songs!!! Ofcourse they are pissed we are digging out gems

Raaga_Suresh wrote: we are digging out gems

Raaga_Suresh wrote:I would like to hear the comments of someone like crimson_king who I think listens to other modern Hindi songs. I did not find anything very extraordinary in the album. The violin harmonies being standard ones.