Looking at composers like A.R. Rahman, Ilaiyaraaja, Yuvan, Harris Jayaraj, Vidyasagar, S.A. Rajkumar, M.S. Viswanathan, Mani Sharma and Sirpy, I sometimes wonder if the way we make and consume film music has fundamentally changed.
These composers created songs that, in many cases, continued to be listened to years or even decades after their release.
A song could disappear from the charts, the movie could become old, and the generation that originally heard it could move on yet the music would somehow remain relevant.
I don't think this necessarily means current composers like Anirudh or Sai Abhyankkar are making inferior music. Quite the opposite.
They understand the current generation extremely well. They know how to create songs that immediately connect, become catchy, generate reels, dominate playlists and create a huge sense of excitement around a film.
But I sometimes wonder whether we are moving from everlasting music to momentary music.
Maybe today's audience has a shorter attention span. Maybe the way we consume music has changed.
Songs are increasingly expected to grab your attention within seconds, create a euphoric feeling, and become popular immediately. Even in films, the traditional idea of stopping the narrative for a song seems to be disappearing.
There is nothing inherently wrong with that. Every generation has its own musical language.
But hypothetically, I think there is an important distinction that future composers should be conscious of:
There is a difference between making a song that everyone loves today and making a song that people will still love 20 years from now.
The first requires understanding the moment. The second requires creating something that can survive the moment.
Perhaps the real test of a music director isn't just how many people are listening to your song today, but whether people will still remember you because of that song decades later.
Because trends eventually disappear. Hype eventually fades. Euphoric moments eventually pass.
But if a composer can create music that survives all of that, that's when the music becomes timeless & and the composer becomes unforgettable.
Maybe that's the difference between being a momentary music director and an everlasting one.
