Shamitabh | Maestro | Amitabh | Dhanush | Balki | P. C. Sreeram

[Hulkster]

Long time no see everybody! Ignoring the audio function, the songs have evoked different type of responses from many fans.

I was listening to the songs on youtube and when i looked at the comment box, you can see some fans berate thalaivar for composing using synth, techno etc and some who believe he is only composing such songs to reach to the younger generation and normally never deals with such "music". It is quite interesting as thalaivar is one of very few and rare composers who have fans catered to different sides of his output such as one group who purely prefer his simple and soulful melodies, one that loves his use of western classical music especially strings, one that loves the way he experiments with raagams in his songs and many more.

Personally i love the way he composes where regardless of what kind of instrument or genre he uses, they always sound like they are brought up in the thalaivar way. To quote, just listen to the single interlude that comes in the Lifebuoy song. The rhythm and the beats are far from the usual mish-mash of sounds most composers use for such electric/techno genres and thalaivar highlights a simple and addictive melodic rhythm interlaced by techno beats before the techno beats change into a more vibrant mixture of rapid drum beats. This can be easily replaced by a celtic violin, tabla and conga drum yet none of us will notice the difference because they are all members of the thalaivar genre.

Thalaivar has basically shown the past, present and future music composers that it does not matter whether he is using thavil, synthesizer, electric guitar, veenai or sound samples. All forms and instruments of music will adapt to the thalaivar genre as long as they can play seven notes. If his critics had any doubts about his style of composition or his adaptation to various genres of music, this is one big middle finger to all of them. Best still, he composed this hugely complicated album in 45 minutes. Goodness gracious me. They should just ban him from composing music since he is making the english and tamil dictionary run out of superlatives to describe him.

Oh and my favourite song from this album is Lifebuoy. Short but stunning

[JamesDap]

Long time no see everybody! Ignoring the audio function, the songs have evoked different type of responses from many fans.

I was listening to the songs on youtube and when i looked at the comment box, you can see some fans berate thalaivar for composing using synth, techno etc and some who believe he is only composing such songs to reach to the younger generation and normally never deals with such "music". It is quite interesting as thalaivar is one of very few and rare composers who have fans catered to different sides of his output such as one group who purely prefer his simple and soulful melodies, one that loves his use of western classical music especially strings, one that loves the way he experiments with raagams in his songs and many more.

Personally i love the way he composes where regardless of what kind of instrument or genre he uses, they always sound like they are brought up in the thalaivar way. To quote, just listen to the single interlude that comes in the Lifebuoy song. The rhythm and the beats are far from the usual mish-mash of sounds most composers use for such electric/techno genres and thalaivar highlights a simple and addictive melodic rhythm interlaced by techno beats before the techno beats change into a more vibrant mixture of rapid drum beats. This can be easily replaced by a celtic violin, tabla and conga drum yet none of us will notice the difference because they are all members of the thalaivar genre.

Thalaivar has basically shown the past, present and future music composers that it does not matter whether he is using thavil, synthesizer, electric guitar, veenai or sound samples. All forms and instruments of music will adapt to the thalaivar genre as long as they can play seven notes. If his critics had any doubts about his style of composition or his adaptation to various genres of music, this is one big middle finger to all of them. Best still, he composed this hugely complicated album in 45 minutes. Goodness gracious me. They should just ban him from composing music since he is making the english and tamil dictionary run out of superlatives to describe him.

Oh and my favourite song from this album is Lifebuoy. Short but stunning

Well, there's a good reason for the catering to the youth argument. IR himself used to lament how easy composition had apparently become with the advent of computer technology. Even as late as 2012, he told an audience that the violin is a very difficult instrument and nobody wants to take it up when all it would take is pushing a few buttons on the keyboard to win accolades (even imitating the words used in music reality shows like "unbelievable"/"fantastic"). Dripping with sarcasm, in short. I am not sure how much his own rhetoric would have resonated with the IR who composed the title track of Vikram. He had boxed himself into a bit of an elitist corner. This album MAY be an indication that he is coming out of it. He has tried to keep the flag flying for orchestral music because no new composer really has taken over the baton from him in that regard. Maybe he finally got fed up of waiting.

[Hulkster]

Well, there's a good reason for the catering to the youth argument. IR himself used to lament how easy composition had apparently become with the advent of computer technology. Even as late as 2012, he told an audience that the violin is a very difficult instrument and nobody wants to take it up when all it would take is pushing a few buttons on the keyboard to win accolades (even imitating the words used in music reality shows like "unbelievable"/"fantastic"). Dripping with sarcasm, in short. I am not sure how much his own rhetoric would have resonated with the IR who composed the title track of Vikram. He had boxed himself into a bit of an elitist corner. This album MAY be an indication that he is coming out of it. He has tried to keep the flag flying for orchestral music because no new composer really has taken over the baton from him in that regard. Maybe he finally got fed up of waiting.

I feel that the papers have misquoted him. Thalaivar is not against computer technology. In fact he appreciates how much it has helped in terms of music composition and is always constantly looking at the latest technology in terms of how it can be used in his compositions.

The issue here is that composers are using computer technology for every single situation where live instruments have been almost erased from the composing map of India. Consequently, this has reduced the composers' understanding of various composition techniques related to live instruments (which means that they will never grasp the beauty and difficulty of composing using a live orchestra) and has made them over dependent on technology. That is what thalaivar is completely against.