How can the grossness of Punjabi pop be tamedIJ Industry singers and psychologists feel that it can only be possible when young people reject aggressive sexual innuendos and we have more women lyricists to correct the imbalance
We always talk about the objectification of women in Bollywood item numbers but there needs to be a serious relook at folk pop music, particularly the party-popping Punjabi numbers which, by virtue of pan-India appeal, fuel the culture of gender domination in the popular culture space. Songs like Main Hoon Balatkari, which had led to the arrest of popular icon Honey Singh and which he had subsequently denied singing or Bad Wali Feeling are examples of Punjabi lyrics that have become notorious for their vulgarity, often promoting drugs, sex and violence through guns. The songs give in to feral desires of rustic men and involve courting wild White or fair women (a symbolic conquest of the West or the unattainable), a risque girl who parties through the night with the boys and the male right to go on a flight of perverse fancy. It is always the male’s interpretation of the female and she is not even given the identity of her own.
On a day-to day basis, we come across innumberable girls, who have been targeted through taunts and remarks at public places, including buses where such songs blare in the background. Though the use of vulgar and provocative music in the state run transport buses was stopped in Punjab with immediate effect, there is little that has changed in the commercial album space. Particularly at a time when rapes are becoming a pan-India epidemic that is headlining news everyday.
Contemporary voices
Surprisingly young Indian singers like Kavita Seth are not all for commercialisation and hotselling songs overturning the rules of sensitivity. “We are already facing the repercussions of our actions. I feel one should leave music in pure form so it heals individuals and helps them emerge out of negativity,” she tells us.
Vipin Aneja, Indian playback singer, doesn’t approve of the corruption of lyrics. “Personally, I would never appreciate vulgar lyrics and I feel it is an easy way to cut through the fierce competition and get noticed overnight. I feel the youth is equally responsible for having accepted the obscene lyrics because why else would these songs be doing so well and garnering million hits. This acceptance is encouraging these songwriters to come up with rubbish. It is also allowing the aspirant fringe a mainstream credibility.”
He also feels there is a misplaced sense of rebellion by extolling the underbelly. “I have seen college-goers grooving to these songs. I think it is the psyche where regular, mundane and predictable lyrics are passe and anything nihilistic passes off as edgy.”
Aneja even wonders why a few women enjoy what these artists are dishing out. “The question that haunts me is why are women promoting and supporting these artists who are perpetuating a culture of dominating womenIJ”
Seth also highlights the paucity of female lyricists in the industry that can change the cultural subtext. “Vulgar lyrics in Punjabi songs are neither healthy nor good. Everyone does not have the capacity to reason and filter the good from the bad. The masses are easily influenced,” says psychologist Swarnalatha Iyer. The problem is with the youngest generation which grows up on these songs without understanding their import or associations.
WHAT’S WITH THE WORDSIJ
Songs have become another tool to establish a supremacist viewpoint. “Writers are well aware about the fact that these lyrics make women uncomfortable, so they are a form of domination. Ours has always been a patriarchal society where women have always been viewed as objects, born for satisfying the needs of men. If you look at lyricists, majority of them are men. Even when romance is expressed in songs, it is from the perspective of a male but the expression of romance from a female’s viewpoint is quite different. Until and unless we have women lyricists, we won’t be able to get the women’s perspective at all. In all the lyrics one hears, one gets a very skewed idea about the male-female relationship. The commodification is such that you feel all other women, apart from those in your core circle, are available or worse negotiable. Also both male and female expressions against the establishment in songs have a sexual aggressive connotation,” feels Iyer.
The insiduous nature of popular culture is what we must watch against, say experts. “Though we do not bring up our sons to disrespect women, our children are exposed to something which has mass acceptance. What’s more there is no defined way of correcting it,” says Iyer. “I do counselling sessions where the kind of issues that are cropping up are so filmi and ‘imported’ in nature. Ten years ago, the issues were real. Now they seem imposed. Even the fear of being oppressed is guided by the words in a song,” she adds.
Be it images or imagination, it doesn’t speak well of a society that is moving away from the moorings of upbringing. As Aneja said, “Music is just one medium. If the impact of music is stonger than that of the upbringing, then, there is something very wrong in society. The value system should be deeply ingrained. You might sway to the tune of an artist but it shouldn’t change you as a human being.”