SHEEP

An odd chain of thought that happened (chains of thought happen, right?) on the journey from Bombay to Poona. The return journey didn’t quite have the charms about itself that the Poona-Bombay journey had. For one, there was a lot to look forward to while going Bombay-wards (there always is). Then the co passenger in this case was an annoying moron (the kinds I’m allergic to) and not a pretty, interesting and chatty chick like the one I’d met the day before (on the Poona-Bombay journey again).

The movie not being played was an irritation of sorts, as this dude would want to talk to me cause he had nothing to do. Not that I like movies in the bus, especially on the expressway journey, but with co passengers like this you’d rather have a movie on.

I decided to get on to my second line of defense. Out came the headphones and the cell with a few mp3s stored. Started playing the tracks and looking out of the window deliberately avoiding eye contact with the moron even. Things were rather peaceful until the moron in a fit of stupidity asked the bus crew to play the radio. The music from the radio kinda distorted the stuff I was listening to and I was forced into full concentration mode.
Gave up after a brief struggle.

I was then forced into listening to the appalling stuff they play on radio in a program called top 20 hits. (If they are top 20, they ought to be hits… whatever). Real bad stuff with Himesh in roughly 2 out of every 3 songs.

Set me thinking. Down the memory lane of sorts. When I’d started listening to music big time, there were the backstreet boys on one side and a few bhangda clowns on the other (Daler Mehndi headed the list there). There were the few wise ones who generally went hammer and tongs at these characters, but they were the minority. “Why listen to 'The Doors', they are over 30 years old?” was the retort the wise ones had to face. Music is timeless and Floyd and U2 are relatively deeper than all boybands and Mr. Mehndi put together… whatever.

Then came Britney Spears, man she’s horrible. And as if all that was not bad enough there was Aqua with ‘Barbie girl’ and some cheap band singing something about Tarzan and Jane and bananas and elephants et al. Cant remember the name, they were terrible I tell you.
Same story all along, the wise ones stuck to hitting out at the music coming out and listening to their own stuff and the majority crowd went about worshipping the nonsense being dished out.

Like a whole lot of sheep. With the marketing dudes being the shepherds. Advertise a track/band/movie/item number well enough and all them sheep will come flocking to it and get you your moolah.

Now it’s hip hop there and Khajooor here. The whole crowd goes gaga over them because the marketing dudes told them to. And I’ve been told “he’s not so bad, everybody likes him, he’s famous” and other such, quite a few times.

Being famous has nothing to do with being good at something. And how many of them sheep even remember the super hit tracks of last year?
The album “More” came out in the year 1969 that’s quite a while ago, and every genuine Floyd fan would know “Cymbaline” and “The Nile song” inside out.

Why blame the elders for hypocrisy, are we much better? Do we even know what we like? Are we sure we’re not being fooled into liking something somebody else wants us to like? Aren’t we just walking with the flow and assuming we like it? Aren’t we just a flock of sheep?

“It’s alright we told you what to dream…”
(Floyd – Welcome to the machine (Wish you were here))



p.s. AHAK and me had gone to check out the company rock band practice. They were playing U2 – Where the streets have no name. The vocalist in one of the initial attempts missed the line, “I want to tear down these walls that hold me inside”. We were talking about that line alone having more to it than all the hindi tracks (Euphoria, Kailash Kher included) in the year 2006. That just our opinion btw.

Komodo Dragon.



The Addition :
The name of the post reminds me of two things. One, the evergreen Pink Floyd anthem and the other, the Indian mentality or rather call it the Herd mentality. It was precisely during my pre-university days when I realized what music is, though music had always been there in our family. Those were the days when I moved from the bollywood numbers to Floyd. Phew..what a change ! Its only when you listen to Floyd that you realize that music is for the mind, not for ears (As mentioned by Komodo in one of our earlier articles).

Coming back to where I left, the Herd mentality. Over the years, I have met a lot of people who listen to a particular kind of music because that’s supposed to be classy. I sometimes wonder how many Floydians actually take the pains of getting into the lyrics and analyzing what they meant. Do people know that Floyd numbers are supposed to be heard in a particular order? Lets keep Floyd aside and talk about the bollywood numbers most people listen to these days. One Mr. Himesh comes up with songs that make no sense and its all over the UK charts. I thought music comes from the instruments. How many music composers today prefer keyboards or drums to DJ consoles. Their count might not even be in double digits.

AHAK.


p.s. Octopads have almost completely replaced drums in bollywood, now it’s DJ consoles and scratch effects doing their rounds.