I grew up listening to Bollywood music filled with different classical instruments and soulful lyrics.
Hindi songs have always played a great role in Bollywood movies. It always connected the Indian audience to the story, depicting the characters’ emotions.
But the last few years have completely changed the Bollywood music industry. With the increasing social media influence, music is no longer an art but just a business.
The increasing consumption of short-form video content has definitely decreased the attention span of people.
Bollywood is now creating songs that could go ‘viral’ on Instagram reels because it will get more streams.
Known as Tiktokfication, this phenomenon means focusing on making hooks for songs that could last between 15 and 20 seconds.
These hooks are made because if the hook gets viral, it is evident that people will listen to the whole song. This helps in driving sales and benefits the labels financially.
Instagram can be considered one of the major platforms contributing to this phenomenon. Since TikTok and other Chinese platforms are banned in India, Instagram Reels is the most widely used platform used by Indians to create short-form video content.
One of the most anticipated Bollywood movies, Brahmastra released a song teaser named Kesariya on April 13, 2022. Sung by Arijit Singh it soon became one of the most trending song teasers with 530,000 reels.
The 30-second song teaser was loved so much that everyone, including me, was excited about the song’s release.
I wondered if 30 seconds were so good, then the full song would be melodious.
That 30-second teaser turned out to be the catchiest part of the song, working as a successful hook. The hook was so good that listeners had high expectations that the whole song would be just as good.
The song, released on July 17, was met with mixed reviews as it did not meet fans’ expectations.
Gone are the days when Bollywood used to make original songs with different talented singers. But since Arijit Singh’s voice got ‘viral’ on social media, we don’t see any other Bollywood singers singing songs.
The songs that are made now are for reels and not for the sake of art.
Most of the songs that are made now are remakes of old successful songs or Punjabi songs.
Creativity in the Bollywood music industry is dying.
People used to remember songs. But now only the viral snippet of the track is remembered, which is also short lived, just like the reels.