Has our song, music and movie quality degraded?

Has our song, music and movie quality degraded?

Recently, a song named 'shantabai' has created two polarizing views. One in which it has become a hit and is played by DJs and the crowd is dancing on it; the other being scathing criticism on the quality of songs nowadays. In a general survey one can easily find many people who think that songs and music are not what they used to be. Use of vulgar lyrics and bad words in songs has increased and the crowd increasingly likes it. But is such content good for the society especially kids? It is difficult to contain exposure of the kids as the processions play the songs loud and clear. Has the quality of entertainment in general and of songs, music and movies in particular degraded?

Yes –

1. Many songs have ridiculous lyrics. The lyrics make no sense at all. Sometimes they are vulgar too.

2. Another area of concern is the remixes of old songs. The new generation should know the old songs in the way they are. Nowadays the new generation is getting familiarized with old songs through remixes which is not healthy.

3. Many songs have copied tunes. Piracy is not good as it shows lack of talent, which inevitably leads to substandard output later on.

4. Under the name of experimentation, lot of music is released. It is called the new age sound. But it is not real music. It is just random noises. There is no standard or quality in it.

5. People nowadays get excited by rock bands, etc. There were rock bands earlier too and they became famous and memorable as they had quality music and lyrics. Random noises don’t qualify as great music.

6. When it comes to movies, the nudity and adult content is on the rise. There was a strict censorship on such content in the earlier times.

7. Movies are part of entertainment and should have decency in them. Many families watch movies together.

8. It is becoming difficult to watch movies with families due to the bold scenes and gore violence which has bad effects on children.

9. People are exposed to content which instills wrong values in them.

10. Under the name of experimental cinema, many a times, people are fed with low quality and vulgar content.

11. 'Times are changing and we only give what people like or want or both' is the reason given. However one must realize that songs, music, movies, etc. is art. Art must have quality else people lose interest. That is happening nowadays. We always remember great movies. We call few movies as classics. Many are from earlier decades. We can easily see that not many of the current songs, music or movies feature in the greatest of all times lists. This shows the deterioration in quality.

12. There is no clean comedy nowadays. It's becoming rare.

No –

1. We know that the only constant thing is change. So the same is happening with the entertainment industry. It’s changing. The only thing is that it’s taking the same direction as the people want it to.

2. Songs, music, movies, etc. is art. And we all know that art has no boundaries and limits. Art explores and experiments.

3. The movie quality is not degrading at all. It has only reoriented its focus from traditional areas to unexplored areas.

4. It is tapping themes which are underlying in the society and no one dared to expose these themes.

5. It is not just giving what people want but is also educating people as to what actually goes on in the society.

6. It makes people come out of their comfort zone of ‘goody-goody’ content and shows what bad is happening in society.

7. We must look at songs, music and movies as art. But art which does not reflect reality is of no use.

8. Many social issues have been brought forward because of movies and songs.

9. The songs which we criticize many a times try to adapt to the way we are. Lyrics try to use words, language and styles which are in vogue today. It helps connecting with the people.

10. There are people who are taking offences to remixes. However, remixes are good, in the sense that they at least bring forward the old songs and make sure the next generation knows about them. Had remixes not been there, not many would have voluntarily searched for old songs. Also, on hearing the remixes, one always has the option of listening to the originals and decide what he or she likes.

In the end it is important to understand that it is a personal choice as to what to see and hear and what not to. Looking at the current entertainment options and content in them, we can say that there are some things that need censorship for the larger good of the society; or they at least need proper and strict regulation. But under the name of regulation we must not squash freedom of expression and individual freedoms. We must acknowledge that under everything, the songs, music and movies are simply adapting to current trends. Apart from this they are exploring new areas of society which hitherto were unexplored or avoided or given lesser importance. They are experimenting. Aren’t experiments the thing which has led to many breakthroughs in all kinds of knowledge in society?