Music, Movies & Art: Part 1 - Music

My earliest memories of listening to music are the most embarrasing ones. I grew up in Nepal amidst family members whose taste in music is a far, far cry from anything sophisticated. There definitely was no Bach or Beethoven in the house. Rock-n-Roll or HipHop or plain simple pop music was non existent around the household. Even traditional folk songs were missing from my parents' tape collection. They listen exclusively to Hindi & Nepali movie songs. I have come to grow a taste for these uber-cheesy movie songs. But, I can clearly remember, around the age of five, growing sick and tired of billions and billions of these songs that for the most part confessed love towards another person or country. I had a gut feeling that there was more to music and I desperately wanted to taste it.

At some point during my tweens, I discovered one of the last great hair-bands - Guns N Roses. It felt like I had found gold and could live off of it for the rest of my life. Besides, GNR was more than just hair. Then came a barrage of diverse music. There was Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the rest of the grunge gang almost telling teenagers how they should feel about themselves. HipHop/rap artists were selling 'cool' on MTV, radio stations and youth-infested fiestas. Major record labels put out Boy Bands and Girl Bands with the same frequency meat factories churn out hot dogs. West-Coast Nu Metal bands made us realize it is cool to be a reclusive loser and blame it all on societal factors like peer pressure and parents. Amidst all this there were three things that changed the way I looked at the music scene.

1. Radiohead - Their ability to put out awesome record after awesome record is envious even for someone like me with no aspirations of rock-stardom. IMHO Creep is the best song ever!

2. Celine Dion's My heart will go on (MHWGO) - Amidst all the garbage that was being labeled Pop this one ballad redeemed the Pop genre.

3. Britney Spears' Hit me baby one more time (HMBOMT) - Her innocent schoolgirl aura coupled with I-want-it-bad glances on the video made all men have wet dreams about her. Now that is sheer genius.

The majority of my friends are very likely to be filled with scorn for having picked Ms. Dion and Ms. Spears ahead of several other great acts like Smells like teen spirit and RHCP's BloodSugarSexMagik and RATM and that record by Oasis with Wonderwall in it and all the indie bands etcetera, etcetera. MHWGO and HMBOMT were special because they stood out among the crowd and were not pathetic attempts to conform to the music scene.

Divas were a dying species in the 90s Bona fide diva Mariah Carey was giving up her multi-octave voice and leveraging her success on videos littered with as much skin as legally/socially allowed. Whitney had her success early on with Bodyguard/I will always love you but for most of the 90s she had issues (viz Bobby Brown). Just when it seemed that the concept of 'diva' was aged, Celine belted out MHWGO for Titanic. Every aspect of the song - the vocals, the music, the words - puts it on par with timeless classics from Beethoven and Bach. It is everything a great love ballad should be and more. The best thing about the song was that in the age of sexed-up music videos, it was probably the only song that when played on radio could send chills down one's spine. It was an affirmation that there still was some life in the power mongering, cash bleeding music industry. One could absolutely hate Celine (or compare her to a horse as I do) but they have to agree that MHWGO is a gift from the gods.

As for Britney, anyone remember when she used to be the world's biggest popstar? What Britney did with HMBOMT was phenomenal, as far as corporate-American-pop-music-business goes. Pop music in the mid 90s was exclusively dominated by BoyBands. Spice Girls were the only girl band that offered some challenge. If you were not an established diva, a girl/woman had no chance. But when Britney strut here stuff through a school hallway it turned the entire pop music industry upside down. One could argue Madonna had done it before in the 80s. But Madonna's breaking out into the scene was more of a marriage between feminism and pop music. She catered to a young girl's dream of openly expressing herself (including her sexuality). Britney took it to a whole new level. It was not just girls anymore. With HMBOMT she tapped into the perverted mind of men of all ages and made them go ga-ga over her sheer hotness. Yes she could sing and dance. Those are required if you want to get big in the music industry. But she brought her own sass as well, and it was bigger and better than her songs, her dance moves and Britney herself. It has taken its toll on her, though. With all that has happened in the aftermath of K-Fed, Britney could very well be the Elvis of this generation.

As for Radiohead - One can read the billions of critical reviews and what-not on the band that have been written since they started making music. Enough said.

Looking back, being exposed to music through those movie songs was not such a bad thing. While most of my friends vehemently hate certain bands and artists (Britney and Celine including), I tend to look at them as musicians who put out music they want to. The music might be different but not necessarily 'bad'. The reason why music is so important in my life is that there is true freedom in it. When it comes to music, one can do whatever one wishes to.

Music, Movies & Art: Part 2 - Movies