Every thursday morning we have a meeting in office to discuss new programming ideas for the breakfast show, which is the flagship show of any radio station. I was asked to think of ideas that would pull in Asian listeners, mainly Indians, since there is a large Asian population in Dubai. Our station is a classic english hits station and we tend to get very 'English' at times so we need to do something to give us a more universal appeal. I thought of doing a quiz on bollywood songs that are copied from or based on english one's. Mainly play a part of the bollywood copy (like Mere rang mein rangane walli), ask listeners to guess the original and then play the original song (The final countdown - Europe). Since music is a universal language anyone can participate in this quiz, regardless of their nationality.
While our programming head liked the idea he was concerned about how this would go down with our Indian listeners, both in Dubai as well as our online listeners abroad. What if they are sensitive and what if this hurts their sentiments? This was a tough one to answer considering the frequency and ease with which the sentiments of some sections of our society gets hurt these days. Someone might take offence to our questioning the creative genius of some of our bollywood personalities. I find the ease with which some music directors and film-makers get 'inspired by' other works extremely funny and I'm hoping that atleast some of my fellow countrymen see the humour in it too. Time will tell....
Incidentally I'm trying hard to recollect the hindi song based on Neil Sedaka's 'Oh Caroll, I'm so in love with you'. Please help anybody....
And also many thanks to Shakespeare, he was my 'inspiration' for the title of this post. Couldn't think of a more fitting one than this!
8 comments:
Hi,
It is a good idea, provided Bollywood has enough songs that have been carried forward from an original and can be part of a quiz. Try this with your friends to know if it works.
In the introduction, you can hum a tune and ask the audience if they can guess which song it is. One tune may have songs in 3 different languages. For example, the song "Tum dena saath mera oh hamnavaaz" has the tune of "A hundred miles". I believe the original tune is of a Spanish song, but I may be wrong here. The lyrics are only an excuse. The intention is to bring home a popular, yet melodious tune and to capitalize on it.
Although there is plagiarism involved, the composers make good music available to a wider audience that probably would never have heard the original tune, had it not been for them.
Thus, some songs, Bollywood or otherwise, act only as carriers of good music originating from another continent.
Plagiarism is not new, nor is it confined to any continent. For example, there is one song from the movie, Sleepless in Seattle, which has a Spanish song as its original. The English version can be heard when the credits are run. Both versions are good.
Since plagiarism is a global issue, and the main intention of the quiz is to appreciate good music and to play a "Eh, can you guess?" game, thereby encouraging audience participation, I do not think anyone will feel insulted through this quiz.
Having said this, perceptions differ a lot, so to avoid anyone from feeling targeted, the RJ can include non-Bollywood examples as well. It will thus be clear that the radio station intends to impart interesting facts and at the same time has a neutral take on this.
(I know I could have said all of this more economically, but you get the point, right?).
Hi,
Yes, I get your point :) and I'm sure this happens across the globe. I loved your perspective of good music getting carried to different continents when tunes are duplicated. It is a tricky issue but your perspective is a new and positive one. Another point to prove that the world is getting smaller, isn't it? Thanks....
If the programme is positioned as pure fun and it is conveyed that it is not to berate anybody I don't think too many people will feel offended by it. Besides, just because tunes are inspired, they don't always reduce the joy of the inspired version. I enjoy Salil Chowdhury's "Itna na mujhse tu pyaar badha" despite knowing that the tune has been inspired by one of Mozart's symphonies. He has improvised it and adapted it suit it to Hindi lyrics very well. So I would suggest go ahead with a suitably worded disclaimer.
On a lighter note, a good copy is always better than a bad original;)
There's a whole site dedicated to the topic of plagiarism in Indian music. Check http://www.itwofs.com/
The Neil Sedaka 'Oh Carol' copy was 'Aye Dil...' from 'Kya Kehna'.
Your idea is a sure hit for people like us who would like to know which song has been copied from where. But then, there is the sentiment angle.
Hey,
Thank you for the site. It is quite amazing and gives me enough songs to be able to submit the proposal tomorrow. We have decided to be safe and simply put it across as which english song does this one sound like or remind you of....so no bringing up plagiarism.
Will let you know when we start this, if we get lucky we might even get a sponsor.
You can listen to the radio stations I work for on www.gulfnews.com. Radio 1 is the contemporary hits one and 2 is the classic hits.
Kanchu... looks like I am late in giving you any "go-ahead" suggestion here...but I had an idea which you can consider in the long run for this program.
I understand the emotions that run high when you ask questions concerning somebody's 'originality.' But here is the twist , can you add an element once in while in your show where you come up with a random english song, or a spainish song, play it and ask the listener to put some hindi words/ and ' IMPROVISE' it to make a BOLLYWOOD sounding song...so its not only about the words...but it has to be modulated in to a hindi song....hope you get what I mean! all our music composers have done that....
you can ask them to take their creative liberties and tweak it a bit, ask them to come back after few days and your RJ could decide the winner...the most apt, lyrics, and making it sound like a bollywood song...I think it will be pretty exciting...some bands, musicians, singers, lyricist might even compose the 'inspired songs' ...this could also be a studio based audience...or the outside audience...like for example....the song "pretty woman" can very well be modulated in to a bollywood song....the participants need not have musicians' support, they could sing it for you...the crux is that they ought to catch the essence of modulating a song to call it a great ADAPTATION or and INSPIRATION........you can offer prizes for the 'best inspiration' ...there comes your sponsor!!!
Vidyut,
That's a great idea. I also tried to convince Steve, our morning jock to play Antakshari on air, but he found the concept too complicated :)
Hey Kanchan,
Radio City here has a similar program on air and since there has not been any noise around the concept here in India yet, I dont think there would be one there in Dubai :)
Sangita
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