Why Bollywood Has Stopped Making Good Music

Bollywood films are highly popular worldwide and one of the prime reasons for their popularity has been the success of the song and dance numbers which still remain the heart and soul of a number of Bollywood films. Since films started getting made in India, the music, song and dance numbers have played a huge role in making Bollywood films popular in overseas markets. It is often said that music transcends boundaries and at places where people don't understand Hindi, the songs have left the listeners/audiences spellbound. 

As Hollywood is popular and is known for its films having amazing special effects and big-budgeted blockbusters, Bollywood has created a niche for itself since the 1930s by giving its fans some of the best music in the films and songs with a timeless quality. The Hindi film industry has seen legends like SD Burman, RD Burman, Lakshmikant-Pyarelal, Jatin Lalit composing some of the best songs of all time while singers like Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Mohammad Rafi etc. enchanted us with their voices. 

Be it the people from the distant land of Africa or people living in the North and South American sub-continent, Bollywood music traveled seamlessly and made new fans wherever it went. People in Russia, Europe, and other Central Asian countries still dance to the classic tunes of the 70s, the 80s, and the 90s. But, for the last few years, we are seeing that the quality of the music in Bollywood films is degrading and the songs of present hardly have any recall value. No doubt, every once in while we get to listen to some really good original numbers, but that number is really less. Here, we decode why Bollywood has stopped producing good music:

Selling Old Wine In The New Bottle: If you will look at the top 10 hits of the year 2017, you will find 5 songs which were the remixed version of songs from the films of previous decades. Amit Trivedi has said that a number of times, producers pressurize the composers to include and remake an old song with a few new lyrical words. 

Useless Item Numbers: The thinking that an Item Number gives the film 'that X-factor' filmmakers are looking for has everyone trying to fit in an overtly sexualized dance number featuring a 'hot' actress which in turn becomes the highlight of the film and no one cares about the film any more or other good songs. 

Actors Singing On Their Own: We have also seen a number of actors taking up the job of singing thanks to numerous voice alteration software which have taken away the jobs of a number of talented singers. If there are no real singers left to sing, what else one can expect for a song.

Singers Left To Judge Reality Shows: The real singers have to face serious humiliation as numerous remixes and item numbers are already eating their jobs and they are left to appear as judges on TV. Shaan said a few months back that the industry is giving all the opportunities to just one or two singers and it's really unfair. 

Bad Remixes: As the singers, lyricists and composers are pressurized by the makers, stars and the producers to come up with the rehashed version of old songs, a number of songs often end up being so bad that it becomes really difficult to listen to them. A number of remixes flop badly.

Thank You, Punjab: Punjabi songs were taken as it is or were modified slightly in a number of Bollywood movies earlier but the past couple of years have seen a huge increase in the number of remixed Punjabi songs. While the northern belt of India has already heard these songs, just to make them pan-India popular, these songs are remixed and forced upon the listeners.