Women are fading out from Bollywood music

NEWDELHI: Though many activities in Indian public life have been dominated by men, there is one where women have led the way – playback singing in Bollywood music. Yet in recent years, even that has changed: the melodious voices you hear in the top movies have become increasingly male.

The number of songs sung by only women in 2017 was less than half of those sung by only men.

Bollywood music albums didn’t always look like this. An analysis of more than 24,000 Bollywood songs from the 50 highest-grossing movies of every year since 1950 revealed that the share of songs being sung by women is constantly declining.

Take, for example, the solo, that most versatile of Bollywood’s musical forms. The solo can be used to introspect, as in Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli, sung by Manna Dey, or to seduce, as in Don’s classic Yeh Mera Dil sung by Asha Bhosle.

While it continues to be a part of Bollywood films, today, one in every four solos is sung by women. Contrast that with the 50s and 60s, where they sang three in every four.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, when Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle dominated all of Bollywood music, very few competitors existed. In the earlier years, Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum had their share of solos, but they never managed to overpower the Mangeshkar sisters. The male voices were Mohammad Rafi’s in the 1950s and 1960s, and Kishore Kumar’s in the 1970s and 1980s. Other male singers did not sing nearly as much.

In 1958, for example, Asha Bhosle sang 45% of all songs in releases that year. That means she sang almost every other major song that released that year.

Today, even the top ranking Arijit Singh sings about 10% of all songs. With more singers in the fray, very few singers dominate the market like those in the past.

In terms of ruling the market, Asha Bhosle dominated the market the most, followed by sister Lata Mangeshkar. Since them and Rafi, Kishore no singer has dominated the market as much.

“These were musical superstars. I don’t think any singer of that calibre exists in the Indian cinema today,” says film critic Anupama Chopra.

So what led to an explosion of songs that were sung only by men?

Music composer Amit Trivedi, who currently produces most of the songs sung by women, says it’s simply a matter of what the script demands.

“In Secret Superstar, where the film is about a female singer, there will naturally be more female songs,” Trivedi says. But Secret Superstar is an exception: today’s scripts demand more songs sung by men.

Recently, Bollywood storylines have given more prominence to women. But that doesn’t necessarily translate to more female songs because lip-sync is not as popular as it used to be. So even in female-centric films like Queen and Kahaani, there aren’t many songs sung by women.