Playlist – The Indi Pop

 

I was sitting at the airport waiting for an eternity for my flight, playing my iPod in the shuffle mode as I usually do. Then suddenly I got bored of the stupid sequence of songs playing one after the other. I opened my playlist and selected the Indi Pop playlist. Ab na ja by Euphoria was first. And it immediately transported me to the good old days of Indi Pop. Good old? Seems that long doesn’t it?

I remember MTV being the premier music channel. And there were few others like Channel V, Z music. But one of my favorite channels was ETC. For the simple reason that they played so many good songs in Indi Pop. It was the time when the hindi film music even took a back seat. So many stars were born, Small and Big. From Lucky Ali to Anaida. And from Sonu Nigam to Jojo, everone were coming up with their music albums. It was almost like a Friday movie release. A music album would be released per week on an average. Gulshan Kumar was the God of small time performers. And there were the amazing videos too that would come with each album. For instance the video of Ho gayi Hai mohobbat. I haven’t heard about Aslam ever after that . But that one song was memorable. On the backdrops of Kerala, the guy walking into the poodle of water to fetch a paper ship for a kid. And the amazing old world charm created in the Na jaane kahan kho gaya hai song by Nitin Bali.

It cannot really be termed as Pop if you take a closer look. There surely was variety in hindi music back then. If Daler Mehndi’s Ho gayi teri Balle Balle rocked the nation, so did Shuba Mudgal’s ab ke sawan. From the famous song from Jalwa 2 – dhagala lagli gala to the Hariharan’s Kaash. Everyone was hooked to the Cassettes of Indi Pop. It was instant access to stardom. Even people like Anaida, who could not sing one note in proper sur would go on to become a star with songs like Banoongi main Miss India! But then nobody complained. There were no Judges sitting in some stupid shows giving their “expert opinions”. So many one album wonders would pop up. But somehow we tend to remember each one of them. Sunita Rao’s Pari hun main, Vikas Bhalla’s Hey dhuan/Awara, Kamaal Khan with his O O Jaane jana/Kya yahi pyar hai, Shaamak Dawar’s Jaane kisne, Chitra’s Piya Basanti, Abey’s Aye sanam, Aaryan’s ankhon mein tera hi chehra. Jojo’s who kaun thi, Bali Brahmbatt’s   Tere Bin jeena nahi , Rageshwari’s Duniya, Remo Fernadez’s O meri munni, Misty Rhythms’ sathyabhama deera chalna, Mumbhai by Javed Jaffri. The list is a long one.

And then there were the stars of t he hindi film music coming with their own albums. Many graduated to playback singing after their successful albums. Shaan’s Tanha Dil/Gumsum Ho Kyun/Love Ology/Bhool ja, Shankar Mahadevan’s breathless/Tere Khayalon se/Aasman ke paar shaayad, KK’s Pal/Aap Ki dua hai, Adnan Sami’s bheegi Bheegi raton mein/Teri Unchi shaan/Tera Chehra, Lucky Ali’s Sunoh/Sifar and Aks, Pankaj Udhass’ Ahista/Kya mujhse dosti karoge/Phir haath mein sharaab hai, Colonial Cousin’s Krishna nee/Sa ni da pa, Sonu Nigam’s Deewana, Rabbi’s Bulla ki jaana, Alisha Chinoy’s Made in India, Nusrat Ji’s Aafreen/Mast kalandar/Piya Re, Mika’s  Sawan mein lag gayi aag, Alka Yagnik’s Sare sapne kahi kho gaye, Bally Sagoo’s Rising from the east. And even Boss came out with Vandemataram.

The bands from across the border created quite a stir. And apparently they are the only ones carrying with their success. Strings, Fuzon, Jal, Junoon all had major hits with their albums. The awesome video of Mora Saiyyan mose bole na still would make you stick to the TV sets whenever it is played. The Indian Bands did well too. Atleast some of them did. Bands like Viva and Band of boys came up with an album each which sounded decent. But they never could replicate the success of the Paki bands. Euphoria and Silk Route were the odd success story of the lot. And may be Indian Ocean too with their amazing song Bandeh. And there is the remix saga which is a long list in itself.

Like I said many stars were born and they disappeared in a flash. But the songs they gave and the videos shot during the period were quite memorable. So many albums came that a few amazing songs were lost in the crowd. Songs like Kachi Rang Guzar jane from the album Sunset Point, Abhi nahi aana sajna by Sona, Alvida by Infiniti, Guncha koi and Sapnay by Silk Route. Someday by Shankar Mahadevan, Piya Bhawri 2(the whole album),  Mana Janab ne pukara nahi latin version by Shaan, Badalon ki gehrai by Lucky Ali(Sifer),

It is quite sad to see the dearth of music albums coming out these days. And we no more stick to the ETCs of the world for that one song to be played a million times. I hope the good days come back soon. Meanwhile we can enjoy the songs from good old Indi Pop days. Here is the Playlist. (Will try and keep updating it) and few of the Rare ones.