I feel that Asians have a problem with taking criticism. Before I start I just want to show some comments from album reviews that have featured on this site. I've put them in two categories, the good and the bad! Here goes…
The Good
Sukshinder Shinda's Phases
Irfan on the Ek Kuri tune 'Apologies in advance to my neighbours for playing the tune at high volume - I guess it's Shinda's fault for producing such a PHAT tune!'
Taz's Café Mumbai
Richard on the song Habibi 'it is funky, has a deep bass and good musical returns at the end of the memorable choruses.'
RDB's The Album
DJ Dev says 'When you read the name of the song 'Put Sardara De' you probable think, oh no not again remix number 345 of the song but this Put Sardaran De is a huge dance floor smash hit.'
Dr Zeus's Unda Da Influence
Richard on the tune of the year of 2003, Kangna 'The tune itself is nice and bouncy, an anthem, with the tumbi maintaining tempo and complimenting all the vocals aptly.'
The Bad
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Taz's Taz-mania
Usman on Peeni Peeni Shraab 'I'm not the type to be fair and insult your intelligence and say a tune was average when, in fact, it was crap. So I'll get off the metaphorical fence and blatantly say this is sh**.' |
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Anakhi's Surreal
Usman on the title track 'To quote in the inlay of the album track 3 surreal is "skilfully woven together … unique combination of three different musical styles and vocal styles" I guess the boys and girls at Kiss are quite proud of that little build up to, makes it sound quite impressive doesn't it? 2 words, BU** SH**. You think ripping of the chorus of an old bollywood song is UNIQUE? Get a dictionary mate' |
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Untouchables Heavy
Prit on the mix called Chaa Muklavy Da 'What we have here is a piss-poor beat, crap musical arrangement and the 6th dodgy track in a row!' |
Dr Zeus's High Life
Usman on Bust Loose 'I don't wanna diss the guy cos I rate him but this tune is so F***ing annoying I feel like snapping the CD.'
Article
I am writing this article in response to e-mails that I have received telling me it's wrong to criticise! I was like are you for real? What are we supposed to do? Say everything is good? Not review anything at all? To say I was lost for words is an understatement. The desi music industry is quickly becoming saturated with every Tom, Dick and Harbinder wanting a slice of the cake. It's good that a lot of people are getting involved but it should be a case of survival of the fittest, not a scenario where all are sitting cosy doin what they are doin. As it stands the industry has many very talented artists combined with talent less comedians. Distinguishing between the two is becoming harder by the day.
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The purpose of having album reviews on the site is to give the desi music listener an unbiased opinion of the album. They can then use it as a guide whether they decide to buy the album or not. I've been accused of cardinal sin of discouraging people from buying albums, which I will admit to; I'm guilty, lock me up and throw away the key! My offence: simple saying it the way I see it! I mean due to the sheer volume of releases the days you cannot seriously in you right mind expect the desi music listener to buy every album that is released, can you? There are so many bad albums compared to relatively few good ones. I mean if they did buy every album then it's likely they will stop buying CD's altogether as they bought a few albums that can be best described as a joke. Is that what you want to happen? |
I do not feel that 2 or maybe 3 '30 second' clips of the best tracks on the CD from Asian websites gives the music listener adequate exposure to make the decision as to whether the album is worth buying or not. If anything it has a detrimental effect of making every album sound of similar quality. How? Well by having just 2/3 samples you are just listening to the best tracks it does not provide a true reflection of what the whole album is like. These days, as much as ever, there are releases with one or two quality tracks and the rest are blatantly album fillers. I guess the record company don't care as it's mission accomplished as far as they are concerned as they have managed to get you to part company with your tenner.
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Moving onto the main point of this article! Can Asians take criticism? In my view 'NO' with a big fat capitol N! It's like we at 'desitunes4u' are committing a crime by not saying everything is brilliant. I apologise for our honest unbiased views. I guess we are not like the rest of the Asian Media! What do I mean by that? Well, I'm talking about literally all Asian Media, be that Asian Radio, Websites, Newspapers or Magazines. I'd say that Adil Ray on his BBC Asian Network show is one of few that isn't scared of dissing when necassary and I think people could learn from him. I mean in the main it's like you give them an interview and they'll review your album like it's the best thing since slice bread or hype it up like there is no tomorrow. It just makes me laugh the amount of blatant bias the majority of Asian Media is prepared to give. It's almost like taking rishwath (bribery) the way it all works. It's common for people to use words like 'sick, phat, wicked, bad' when they are commenting on music they haven't even heard, it's just so sad! I don't need to name names, you know who you are! |
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So what is the overall effect of this type of media coverage on our music industry? In my opinion it's one of the important factors that is contributing to holding the music industry back! How? Well, if we are going to over-hype an album that is average at best then we are dropping the standards. Now, how are we doing that? By making it out that everything is 'cool' when it's far from it. It has the effect of making an artist feel that there is no need to improve his game on his next album as the over-hyped crap is doing OK. This is having an overall detrimental effect of us creating 'good' music instead of 'great' music. We all know that bhangra has massive potential but we are still small time when you compare us to genres such as hip-hop. I'm a straight up person and I've told artists to their face that a don't like a tune when I've been asked for my opinion. They respect my honesty and when I give them a compliment they know that it's valid and true to my opinion. I mean what's the point just saying 'it's good' when you know damn well it's not!
I just want to finish of by saying 'tell it the way it is, the way it should be.' To all the Asian Media, stop kidding the Asian public with you biased bull sh**. You may as well paint 'For Sale' onto your forehead. I know this will be hard for some but try to develop some izzat (pride). So stop acting all fake and start criticising where necessary so we can take this sh** to the next level. |
