He’s a singer, composer, songwriter and actor all rolled into one. Arjun Kanungo is a singer almost every girl wants to date, a drop dead good looking man, who can also play musical instruments, sing, and act too. He’s a complete package!
In an exclusive interview with Hot Friday Talks, he speaks about everything music.
Speaking about the single space
“When I came with Baaki Bateein , I would go to the radio stations and ask them to play it but they would say no, it’s not a party type of song.But the song became huge on the internet, that’s when people started liking it and it was played everywhere. Now they want to play it! They are like give us your song, we will play it. That was a big change, at one time singles and albums were not taken seriously. It was mostly only film songs that were popular but all that has changed. It’s because the youth wants that now, they want new songs. The audience is hungry for content even in the music scene.”
Arjun feels it’s a great time to be a musician
“The outlook of singles in the music industry has definitely changed.If big singers like Shaan can release a single today, it means everyone is also looking at the benefits of single music.Everything being consumed by masses now is on the internet. Say a thousand films are released in a year, around 200 last more than a week, out of which 50 will be a hit and out of those 4 songs per film will be promoted, so the audience has 200 songs to listen to for the whole year. That’s comparatively little, so people want new different music all the time. What I am trying to say is that it is a great time to be a musician.”
On where he sees Indian artists in the next ten years.
“Almost eighty percent of our audience are Indians, and twenty percent are international audience. My last single had fifty million views, so twenty percent of that means ten million views. These are from countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, some from the USA, Brazil and South America. I see an Indian artist becoming a big international artist in the next ten years.”
Good music must have these according to Arjun
“The number one thing that matters in music is melody and lyrics. These are the two main things, look at musicians who have crossed over like Guru Randawa, Hardy Sandhu, their lyrics connect first and if you are able to make the audience connect to your lyrics very well, only then your song can become a hit. Very few people listen to electronic music, especially the Indian audience. We Indians are very involved in our music, we love music no matter what age so lyrics matter to them.”
Arjun’s take on songs that are remixed/recreated
“While I am not judging the people who remix songs, I feel that we need to create something new. The songs that are being recreated are almost 10-20 years old, and if in the next 10 years we don’t make anything new, what will we recreate in the future?There will be nothing new to recreate in the future.In my opinion, when one is making a huge film and it is such a big platform, where you are spending crores to promote these songs, and when the entire janta is listening to these songs, then it is their responsibility to create new songs! However, I feel that it’s completely ok to create a new version of your own song. But this is clearly my perspective, I am speaking for myself.”
We do agree with him, and we end our interview with the hope that we get to hear more originals than remixes in the future!
