Accidentally, I heard a mashup from a long list of songs on my phone. (I tend to download them and handpick them across genres and languages.) I usually do not like masups but this time, it was different!
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Back to the listening of mashups, the song was -
And I do not like listening to mashups. But I had downloaded this because this was one of the songs that my yoga teacher asked me to download so that we could do occasional zumba on this and of course, my ever present speaker would always help me to play that. So I did and never paid attention to it. Now that I am listening to it as I write it, a myriad range of thoughts encircle me. Why does it seem like a good idea? Why was not it before?
Turns out, I do not like when people mess up with the original composition of songs and the whole arrangement of it. It includes the amount of pause, the pitch, the tone, the lyrics, etc. etc. You get the drill. It seems like my ears are betrayed by being presented a familiar room to sleep in and then bam, you have been transferred to another realm! So this constant shift with a lot of tweaks made it not a preferrable option for my everyday listening of music. Oh come on, imagine you are sunk in the ocean of grief with Arijit singing kabira and suddenly, you have Neha Kakkar coming and singing Tenu Suit Suit karda. Additionally, both songs are on a different speed.
But then, now happened. (So ironical to write this statement. I should write more like this. Oh wait, am I breaking the fourth wall? Was there it at the first place?Hawww. I am getting distracted.) I was listening to the above mentioned mashup and essentially I was too lazy to change it. ( Should I end the newsletter here? Na. That is what happens in bad Hindi movies or Movies of Bollywood in general these days. Maybe someone hires me…) I let it play and I hear a lot of songs from closer to Kabira to love me like you do. The best part is that I do not know what is coming next. The worst part is, also, that I do not know what is coming next. This dichotomy is what makes me feel stuck to it. Also, the songs are very popular and I kind of like them. Not my favorites that I would accept any alteration to it but the ones that would have stayed on your playlist for a long time and then you keep them out from there because you have been saturated by it. ( Instagram reels, I am looking at you. Fuck you. You ruined Ghodey pe Sawaar and Shauq for me with constant reels) So it plays enough to let you enjoy a glimpse of the beauty and the fun that the song offers but not long enough to make you saturated again. Now that I think of it, it sounds a brilliant idea.
That being said, the mood also changes because when you are just warming up to that song, it changes. It is like a DJ who would play the full song for you and crave you for the hookline, and when the hookline comes, it would shut the voice and ask you to shout. ( bitch, I did not pay you or come here to sing or listen to 100 besure log! Usko Karaoke night bolte hai.)
These are my opinions but then the world does not revolve around me, fortunately. (It revolves around the sun and the UV is high so use sunscreen.) I also realized that it caters to a majority of the people who are essentially listening to music to either groove to the hookline or they sing it loud and they change the song. Also, popular songs tend to be catchy, predictable, and with less variation as compared to not so popular ones. It makes sense that people only want to listen to that part because it is usually the best part of the song. When I thought about my songs and the ones that I would listen to a lot of times and removing them from my playlist seems like a sacriligeous deed, I realized that the song was a journey of variation for me. And when that is put in a mashup, it literally spoils my mood because I am prepared for the journey but only presented a small part of it. So I found peace in mashups today, maybe only today or maybe only of pop songs.
What about the dichotomy of life? How does it connect? I think that life is a mix of songs that we compose and listen. There are some songs that we love only the hookline of. They are simple tasks like eating a mango. If you have to do the whole process- pluck it from a tree, wash it, cut it neatly, put it on a plate, and then eat, you would not enjoy it as much as you simply being presented the plate of cut mango by your mother. You want somethings done fast. Like maybe just putting a few numbers in calculator and get the results with least effort. Of course you can do it by yourself but why do so? But then, there are some tasks that you do because you are passionate about it. It can be something like fixing your car and maintaining your bike because you love them and doing that makes you feel thereapuetic. It can be cooking or crocheting a sweater too.
A lot of it depends on our attention span too. On days we are tired, our favorite extensive hobbies like cooking and crocheting and cleaning can be tedious. That is when we either play a mashup of our favorite tasks or just let there be peace. After all, life is about finding the perfect song to be played in the background at that moment. Sometimes, it is a mashup, sometimes, a long classical raga, sometimes, a fusion or a song full of variation, and sometimes, silence.
Thanks for reading. You can put your comments or reply to this email and I would love to hear your thoughts. What is your favorite mashup or song?
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