Today every song is treated like a clap song, not sympathetic to lyrics

Kolkata, February 10: Noted lyricist, Javed Akhtar expressed his dissent over modern day music. “I am very unhappy with the present music scenario in Bollywood. The music that is being produced is not very sympathetic to lyrics anymore.

"Besides, the tunes the writers are getting today are not very conducive for writing poetry because of the tempo and the orchestration. The tempo is such that the words do not get established. They do not have the space to breathe."

"On the other hand, the music is so loud...every song is treated like a clap song. So the percussion is often above the voice, and the music gets ahead of words. So you just can't understand what the person is singing. Maybe you only know the 'Mukhra' (beginning of a song), and the rest of it gets lost in the cacophony," the septuagenarian said.

Akhtar, who has won multiple national awards for his lyrics in Hindi blockbusters like "Godmother," "Border" and "Lagaan," said Indian listeners prefer music that they can themselves sing.

"But they cannot sing if the tune is not worth humming, or the words are not clear. The listeners should not go to the words; the words should come to them," he said.