Javed Akhtar reveals why songs today have become forgettable: ‘The tempo and beat has become very high…’

“It is not that writers can’t write good songs, it’s that they are not getting an opportunity to write good songs. There are a number of reasons why songs have become forgettable. One, the tempo and beat has become very high. Two, most songs are in the background today, there is no lip-sync anymore,” Akhtar told PTI.

Javed Akhtar said that since the songs are no longer a part of the story, they lack personal feelings of sadness, happiness, and heartbreak.

“Songs today are played in a generic situation, it’s playing in the background. Earlier, songs were used to capture a particular human emotion and would be part of the story. The character would lip-sync so it used to become a part of the drama. A song was like a scene,” he said.

According to the lyricist, most of the songs are set to high-tempo music where the human mind gets only a fraction of a second to register the word.

“The tempo of songs has become high and frantic that the voice loses its value. Words only go deep into your psyche or your hearing when there is some space for the words. When you have a fraction of seconds to register the word, if the tune is so fast, the words become irrelevant,” Akhtar noted.

Javed Akhtar was recently in the city to attend a session and book signing event organised by real estate developer The Anant Raj Corporation (TARC). He talked about his conversational biography Talking Life, written by Nasreen Munni Kabir.

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