GOLD DOWN THE DRAIN

In these days when even mediocre stuff is promoted to the skies, one can’t help ponder over the converse, of how good albums go waste due to lack of promotion.

The reasons why good music isn’t given its due by its own music label range from the ‘commercial’ (these are termed ‘practical reasons’ or ‘economic constraints’) or political. While these can be at least explained despite the perverted logic behind them, there is no explanation or excuse for the third — and commonest — reason, that is, a laidback attitude by the company towards that specific album (or artiste).

What is peculiar about this lackadaisical attitude is that contrasting states of affairs generate it! If a film is a (expectedly or actual) big hit, the label concerned takes it as an assumption that the album’s sales will be proportionately high. So the album is left to fend for itself!

If the film is a flop, or is expected to be, or is ‘class’ material (who judges that?), then it is assumed that the album will sell limitedly anyway, and that only those interested will buy it, hype or no hype.

The same twisted logic is applied to non-film albums, where the popular rating of an artiste (or genre) or their (supposed) popular potential decides the matter.

Most music companies today (except for the less-than-handful professional ones who market their repertoire without discrimination, and have sales to vindicate this wholly praiseworthy stand) are guilty of this, some more than others. In the past, this did not matter so much, because the total output on the music stands was less, the people knew their minds, had clear-cut preferences and narrow spectrums of purchase.

For example, a film-music lover would practically never buy a classical album, and an Indian music aficionado would practically never be a listener of Western music. But today, when the consumer is influenced heavily by TV and other media promos, it becomes mandatory for the music company to see that no good music goes down the drain for any of these reasons.

If a bad album sells well on good advertising, then why won’t good stuff? Besides, music companies should also look beyond mere commerce. Adroit sales-strategy works despite adversity: it is not only its musical richness which enabled the album of the 1996 Khamoshi to be a chart-topper despite (and after) the film’s failure: PolyGram’s promotion had a lot to do with it. The music of Kareeb and Dil Se sold well despite the calamitous fate of their parent film.

In the olden days, good music always survived the parent film’s poor performance, but then that was a different era with just one music company around.

In the case of basic albums, with no film performance to fall back on, I feel specifically compelled to mention five stand-out albums which never got their due. The otherwise very market-savvy and meticulous Magnasound strangely left musical gold like Tere Firaq Mein to fend for itself last year. Here was a superb album of Ek Se badh Kar Ek ghazals vocalised by two of our very best singers — Suresh Wadkar and Kavita Krishnamurthi — at their best. Granted that it would never get the quantum of market-share a Daler Mehndi would command but it nevertheless could have made a major (and supremely deserved) impact if it had been projected skillfully. After all, ghazals have always been saleable when coming from established talents — and Wadkar and Kavita have consolidated their formidable credentials long ago.

Another ghazal album which suffered majority was Ghulam Ali’s Samunder on Ultra (with some ghazals contributed by the practically-unknown Amjad Parvez). Here was an album where eight out of eight tracks scored. The sterling album, Sapnay, brought out by Zee Music as a vehicle for the TVS Sa Re Ga Ma finalists, was left to fend for itself in an era when even heavyweights need to be promoted to sell. And it was full of lovely songs.

In 1997, BMG-Crescendo released the music of Chand Grahan, the music of a TV serial which happened to contain the last recordings of Mukesh, a mindblowing Asha Bhosle title-track and two Lata numbers taped in the ’70s. The music was superb, and strangely did not sound dated at all. But despite timing its release well with Mukesh’s death anniversary, it was never given a media boost.

And the way in which the Amit Kumar album Mad was hashed up in 1994 is enough to drive any creative artiste mad. A brilliant album by any, let alone ‘pop’ standards, it was simply not promoted at all! Five years after, the album still sounds as exciting and contemporary, and its lyrics are amazingly topical!

In an era when genuinely enduring music is at a premium, it becomes the music markets’ inescapable and prime responsibility to ensure that no musical gold goes down the drain. And they can only do this by making us as aware of its existence as any other ‘tin’ or ‘copper’ album!

And by letting the people make a choice. And they will be surprised at the result. Wasn’t it at the peak of the disco wave that ghazals and bhajans sold most? And didn’t 1942-A Love Story rule in the season of smut?