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Acclaimed singers like Sonu Nigam, Shaan, KK and even Asha Bhonsle have come out with independent music albums that have been popular with audiences. But these non-film albums are now on the decline and many blame Bollywood for the downward trend.
Some allege that artistes and albums are not promoted well, while others say Bollywood music has completely overshadowed independent music. "Albums are dead. It doesn’t make sense to waste nine good songs on a box of plastic when people will only listen to what TV offers them. I think I should do films now," said Rabbi Shergill, whose song Bulla Ki Jaana topped popular charts. Some of the other non-film songs that did great business over the past years include Tanha dil (Shaan), Ab ke saawan (Shubha Mudgal), Dhoom (Euphoria), Tu (Sonu Nigam) and Bheegi bheegi raaton mein (Adnan Sami). But such albums have now taken a backseat. "The reason for the diminishing presence of non-film albums is that our country is very Bollywood-centric," said Sachin Gupta, a composer with Tips Industries Ltd. This trend has accelerated the pace of musicians and lyricists heading towards Bollywood and expressing their creativity through movie songs. "It isn’t that I don’t want to do a non-film album. I love doing albums because I get more creative freedom and there are no constraints or limitations of the storyline," said lyricist Prasoon Joshi, who has penned the lines for songs like Dooba dooba (Silk Route) and Man ke manjeere (Shubha Mudgal). "But the problem is that the market for private albums is shrinking. People now are more inclined towards film music. So now I try and find my creative expression in Bollywood songs," he added. Singers cite inadequate publicity as another major reason for the failure of non-film albums in the Indian market. "Independent or non-film albums are not promoted the way they should be. It’s sad that channels don’t even give them enough airplay," says pop artist Shibani Kashyap, who became popular with her song Ho gai hai mohabbat. "Even music companies today feel that investing in a non-film album is a losing proposition and not commercially viable because most music channels play Bollywood numbers." "It was disappointing to see that even an album by legends Asha Bhonsle and Ghulam Ali saw very little airplay and promotion on TV," she adds. So what can remedy the situation? "I have done 17 albums last year and I’ll keep doing that because you never know what clicks with the audience. If we stop churning out albums then obviously the segment will die. So we need to keep trying to revive it,"said Sachin Gupta. "Along with
implementing sufficient promotional tools for the albums, I feel there
should be a channel dedicated to only non-film albums. We need
dedicated space to revive them," suggested Shibani. — IANS
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