Mehmood Curmally is not surprised when Lata Mangeshkar walks in through the door of Rhythm House, the over 60-year-old music store in Mumbai’s
Kala Ghoda in South Mumbai and begins browsing for her music. She has been doing this for years and Curmally, who has been around for over two decades, is used to seeing prominent national and international singers like Police, Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson, Jagjit Singh, artistes like Zakir Hussain and music directors like Laxmikant Pyarelal and Shankar Jaikishan. However, what surprises the 48-year-old director of the store is when a 25-year-old college student comes in and asks for Ameen Sayani’s Geetmala ki Chhaon Mein, which hit stores this January. Binaca Geetmala, launched on Radio Ceylon in the 1950s, went on till 1994 and became the defining programme for Hindi film music. Few who were buying this music would have been born then. So, where’s the draw? For sure, say people in the industry, the remix generation is changing tunes and the flavour of the season is retro.

From Sony Music to Saregama, Shemaroo and Rhythm House to Radio Mirchi’s ‘Purani Jeans’ (its retro show), the young are tuning in to music that dates back to their parents’ and even grandparents’ generation. “My creative team hit on the word ‘Unremixed’ because we saw a market for it in the youth who were getting tired and wanted the music of the 1960s and 1970s as it was, to hear and see it as well, as the songs were choreographed so beautifully,” says Hiren Gada, director, Shemaroo Entertainment.

Lata Mangeshkar, with over 35,000 songs to her credit, makes up a large part of this retro demand. Gada saw good corporate interest from pharmaceutical to consumer durable companies for the Ultimate Unremixed collection of Lata’s songs. “Memories still make for a lot of money and it’s not only the older generation which is driving this,” he says.

As for Saregama’s decision to launch Ameen Sayani’s collection, it appears to have paid off. “We have sold 250 sets from the time it was launched,” says Curmally, who reaffirms the success story of retro as a concept.

“Speaking for our store, around 60% of our sales comes from Hindi film music, of which 30-40% is accounted for by retro from the 1960s and 1970s,” says Curmally. Sayani himself was a regular at Rhythm House.

For Apurv Nagpal, Saregama India’s managing director, retro sales are rocking. With more than 70% of his catalogue of over three lakh tracks forming what would be called retro, it couldn’t get better. “The truth is, these are timeless classics but it is interesting that the young generation is taking to this kind of music,” says Nagpal.

With music rights to a host of films from a bygone era in his cache, retro is a market he is not in a hurry to give up on. “At least 60% of our revenues come from our catalogue,” adds Nagpal.

Retro it is for the future.


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Media-/-Entertainment-/Entertainment/Bollywood-songs-Soul-in-old/articleshow/5058198.cms

Even Shekhar in his interview to melody stated almost the same. Young generation of today are going back to the retro music. Its good. Not that current tracks are all bad. But this trend keeps the hope alive that current MD's will belt out melodies like old times. Beats are fine but albums need to be a mixture of both beat songs and melody. Both genre is needed as that is what the youth of today are dictating.

That is very interesting news and thanks for sharing Thakur Saab.
Only last month I picked up a set of Old is Gold CDs for bhai and he
was just thrilled. Even I enjoyed listening to many of these songs.

Ya I was actually surprised when Shekhar mentioned about this fact in his interview.. this seems to be a good change in the trend.. Now our MDs have no excuses on the musical taste of public.. They should try some innovative methods to mix melody with the beats.. If the melody is maintained, then nothing like it.. I few days back got to hear few recently composed songs and was literally shocked listening to the songs and lyrics.. I switched the channel after a while as it was intolerable.. Well, lets see how things move about in the industry.. If only it improves, it would be better both for the listeners as well as the industry..

This is an excellent piece of news !!!! I wish this new trend of old songs continues and we get melody back.