The split second music mystery

Bollywood songs rarely play on Pandora, but when they do, I hear with plenty of interest. One such song "Yehi Meri Zindagi Hai" hit the waves that day. As is with me, I treat each song like a mystery movie, with suspense unwrapping to reveal a fine gift that jolts a pensive mind.

The song starts just like any Bollypop song, nice instrumentation with some great traditional Indian riffs. A female's vocals come on a few minutes later, and the lyrics indicated it could be filmed around a woman having a good time.

Then came the stunner: she sang "Yehi Meri Zindagi" with a classical Indian tone that slides for a second. It slowly got back to a pop mode just a second later. Clearly, this woman had trained in Indian classical music, she sang it like the great Indian classical singers. It bought a bit of a twist to the song, and a split second of listening joy. Rest of the song? Pop music, I'd say.

Bollywood music has come a long way. My parents think the old music was great, some misguidance came along in 80s and 90s when pop music from Europe and the U.S. invaded Bollywood songs. Then came AR Rahman, the experimentation, which raised the bar. And now we're hearing classical Indian making appearance in pop. Can't get any better, especially for a person who can't listen to classical Indian endlessly.

Happens so that singer is Aditi Singh Sharma. She's uneven at best during the song in switching between classical and pop, though she's kinda good lower tones at which Indian classical music becomes becomes such a joy. But she's young, and will learn. I'd like to hear her on an AR Rahman song.

And sorry for being away too long. Extended writer's block, perhaps. A bit of word shy, perhaps. It comes and goes.