Music strategy that works in the long run

Most discussions I see these days on the internet tend to strive for the political correctness. Most YouTubers and writers tend to brush aside Raja and Rahman as legends on the same sentence and move on to either build on these composers' work or move to the newer composers that were based on the work of these composers. Nothing can be farther from truth than this. I was thinking about some of the discussions I have been having with friends and they seem to be influenced by such social media undercurrents. My views on Raja as a composer never gets swayed by such carefully crafted propaganda. He still stays heads and shoulders above any film composer from India. 

One of the things I observed in the popular discourse is that, most folks pedaling such ideas earlier used to "demonstrate" their knowledge by saying something or the other to showcase the difference between the two composers (most of it is silly); now, they even paint it as though there is no difference between these two composers. They are simply from two different eras and continue to exert influence today in some form. This is complete BS as the music strategy followed by these two composers is starkly different and Raja's strategy has worked over 5 decades and AR's has lost it steam in under 15 years.

I want to dive deep into the strategies employed by these two composers to demonstrate why Raja's strategy is superior. In particular, I would like to explore the following sub-topics:

1) Classical music as the foundation as opposed to loose genres
2) Compositional techniques as opposed to new age electronics and software
3) Modernity as opposed to just departure from the past
4) Blending musical systems as opposed broad brushing from various genres of music
5) Rhythmic exploration as opposed to the idea of "modern sounds"
6) Deep rootedness as opposed to global exploration
7) Uncompromising style as opposed to what I call "SouthNorth" concoction


I will try to add more topics as I uncover them.

I am of the same opinion as well though I lack your knowledge to provide technical comparison as you do.  I look forward to your analysis.

Classical music as the foundation as opposed to loose genres
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Let us explore the foundational aspects of both these composers. Raja came in with a very strong classical western background. He quickly picked up the gigantic Carnatic classical form of Indian music. Even in his very early days, he was able to demonstrate his mastery over these two genres with songs such as En Iniya Pon Nilave or Uravugal Thodar kathai in the Western genre or Chinna Kannan Azhaikiraan in Carnatic classical in the 70s. With his increased confidence by way of training, he added a number of Carnatic compositions in the 80s (Kovil Pura, Salangai Oli, Sindhu Bhairavi, UMT etc) and many such films had beautiful CCM parts, new raga exploration) and he unleashed WCM based compositions as a matter of routine ever since he started his career as that was very natural for him. Armed with this huge arsenal, he still has an inexhaustible range of compositions that are based on solid harmony principles and beautiful interpretations of Carnatic ragas. The RaGas of the world are still exploring his work from the 80s and 90s even today. There are hundreds of analysts still uncovering Raja's classicism from Gurucharan to the YouTubers who are trying to interpret Raja's harmonies. I particularly liked what one of these YouTubers said about his work - "I make fun of composers and that's the focus of the channel, but came out empty other than the Rajini song for Raja, as his work is so perfectly crafted". His recent addition of very modern Jazz elements in Modern Love Chennai, still leaves one with awe as he continues to solidify his foundation even more.

Rahman had this pseudo "modern" outlook by dismissing everything that was done before him, hoping that it will serve him for a long time. That is a strategy that lost steam beyond the 90s. His Chinna Chinna Aasai was supposed to be reggae and his electronic sounds and new style beats in Thiruda Thiruda (particularly Thee Thithikkum) were considered 'new age' tfm. Even though he brought in SPB and other star singers and had a string of hits that almost eclipsed others, something was foundationally shaky. The basic harmonies were outsourced (meaning,  written and conducted by others) and the superficial 'Western' like music definitely gets you popularity in the charts but lacks longevity. There are so many western classical music techniques that were untouched, so many ragas that were never used simply due to the lack of knowledge in this area.  While all this superficial clever 'Western' new age stuff may not appeal to someone who understands music deeply, it does appeal the money bags of Bollywood. The so called "new sounds" got exported to Bollywood, and ever since MM, SC, SD and RD, Bollywood has been running light on real fuel. While this helped Rahman till the early 21st century, he ran out of fuel after that. As the foundational elements are very loose, it can be easily replaced. Rahman's Hindi compositions do not make you sit-up anymore. His work in Mimi, or Goatlife were pedestal to be mild. Rahman kept exploring genres but there were a few standouts. The Indian audience seem to not care anymore. From a dominating composer to a 'me too', Rahman's journey is littered with foundational problems with his classical music exposure.

An analogy from physics is apt here. Gravity is a weak force but is effective over long distances. Classical music is like gravity. Most electronic music and modern genres are similar to strong nuclear forces. They are effective in very tiny distances only!

Compositional techniques as opposed to new age electronics and software

Despite his huge commercial success with his music till the 90s, Raja never cared about his achievements when it came to exploring and trying out new compositional techniques. Throughout the 1990s, Raja kept experimenting with very rare ragas and tried to blend it with synthesized sounds that were available in the 90s for the first time. Where required, his priority shifted to pure Carnatic compositions as well (example “maasaru ponne varuga” in MMG for Devar Magan). It was a delicate balance of not giving up pure strings (Guru, Kaala Paani) and synthesized ones (Friends, Veera) in the 90s. However, his composition style changed post 90s despite the old style being hugely successful. His music in the 21s century, beginning with his melodic content blending with synthesized strings and percussion in Malayalam film music (Achuvinte Amma, Manasinakkare, Rasathanthiram) was still relevant and won a number of hearts in Malayalam. Even though his volume in Tamil was reduced, he still has Julie Ganapathy (enakku piditha padal, Idhayame),  Oru Naal Oru Kanavu (Kaatril Varum Geethame), Ramana (Vaanaville). When challenged, he did come out with a complete deviation from his comfort zone – example, Om Sivoham from Naan Kadavul, completely in Sanskrit for a Tamil audience. His approach to folk and Carnatic bent over a groove (Ilankaathu veesuthe from Pithamagan) clearly showed how Raja kept his arsenal modern, keeping his foundation as strong.

Contrast to the Raja approach of staying strong on fundamentals, Rahman quickly gave up his Carnatic experiments beyond the 90s. He somehow created an impression that sticking to CCM was not very modern and it limited a composer. Raja continued to demonstrate the opposite. Post 90s, the Rahman magic lost its edge primarily due to not being solid on the classical foundation. His commercial success continued, but his music had the ‘mayfly’ nature to it though there were exceptions. He tried modern genres in Yuva and he couldn’t lift MR’s film from disaster. He had a string of disasters in the first 5 years of the 21^st century (Raja has equal duds in Tamil during this time). The Oscar lifted his spirits but his venture into British Broadway music (Bombay Dreams) was recycled stuff that did not strike any chord. He tried a few films in Hollywood but could not get the freedom he got with Indian film scoring. While his background scores improved from the 90s, he was unable to get anywhere near the bar set by Raja. Rahman tried various techniques with new music software but that did not buy him any edge as the audience were slowly getting used to other clever deployment of the same software. The myth that Rahman created crystal clear recording also got busted in the first decade of the 21^st century as other composers caught on. Rahman tried gospel and other forms of western music but their shelf life was short lived as his audience was not church going anyway. He tried sufi sounds and beyond the initial novelty, it failed to stick (Guru, Jodha Akbar).

The bottom line is this: when a huge wave comes at you, the survivor is the one who moves to high ground and recalibrates himself to the next few more waves.