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What constitutes a song as a hit?

Topic started by Udhaya (@ 63.206.213.222) on Thu Jan 23 20:14:30 EST 2003.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Whether one should care about a song being a hit is a more intriguing question, but let me set that aside for the time being. In the western world, a single song can be identified a hit based on the sales of the single release (i.e. a single vinyl, tape, CD, etc, containing just the one song with a freebie on the B-side). Sales of the single is tracked by the Billboard singles chart which holds the stats for the number of copies sold, number of weeks the single remained in the chart, etc. Based on this rating, you get the top 40 and ultimately the top 10 countdowns. Naturally, the radio stations played the most popular tunes more often to please the public.

The single release is not the case with TFM. In the pre-satellite days, radio play based on requests by listeners, private play at tea stalls and weddings in street corners, as well as record sales were sure bets at gauging a hit song. Even in those days, a good if hard to resolve argument could be made about which song was a bigger hit in a hit soundtrack. In today’s TFM scenario, where each channel or website has its own criteria for top 10s, how does one declare a song a hit song? Especially with post-90 soundtracks that have as many singers as they have songs, how can a single song be picked out of the soundtrack as the hit song when people pay to buy a whole soundtrack CD and all that comes with it.

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Responses:

• From: Udhaya (@ 63.206.213.222) on: Thu Jan 23 20:16:32 EST 2003
  
  The point I’m laboring to make is, if singer x is in five hit soundtracks in a year, does he or she become a hit singer regardless of why the soundtracks were successes? This is the logic I see behind many here when they tout a singer's worth by saying that all his or her songs were hits.
  
  I have bought many recent soundtracks that contained singers objectionable to me. Thankfully I skip their songs while listening to the CD, but I cringe at the thought of my consumer money becoming a vote of support for the unworthy singer whose song is also represented in the CD. The success of a mostly good soundtrack ends up touting the success of unworthy heels like…well, it’s common knowledge who’s an unworthy singer so I won’t go there. I wish in today’s TFM there were a gauge specific enough to merit the best songs in a soundtrack rather than the success of the whole transferring equal success on all the unequal parts.
  
  
• From: peeps (@ 12.162.224.5) on: Fri Jan 24 11:54:04 EST 2003
  
  i have always wondered on what basis does the satellite channels decide their rating.
  
  Take us as examples..how do we come to know which song of an album is popular?
  we wont buy a album on its first day release.We ask friends,read magazines,
  watch tv to find out which song is good..on day to day life we can see people humming some
  specific song in bus,train or anyother public places.Slowly in a week or two we come to know
  the popular ones in that film even though it might not be our favourite song in that album.
  
  Satellite channels have regular touch with cassette sales and then they decide which song is best
  in that album by the popularity(here why i mean by popularity is just to know which is
  popular among masses by the above said ways).Its very rare that all songs in a album becomes
  a HIT except for top MD's.So consumer is left with no option other than recording his own
  selections(two from here,one from there) in a tape or CD.
  Some customers who love recording quality or by pure fanaticism(on Actor or on MD)
  just buy the original cassettes inspite of knowing that not all songs are hits.
  Llike everyone, Satellite channels are also biased and irrespective of cassette sales
  and popularity sometimes they rate their fav(Actor or MD or anyother political bias) as number one.
  
  The sad truth is that we are forced to accept the common taste of the public rather than our
  own tastes.I like song 'a' from an album in the frist hearing(in TV or radio) but another mediocre song 'b'
  (which doesnt suit my taste) from the same album slowly gains popularity and the whole media
  puts this 'b' as the number one and i am left with no option other than recording the 'a' song and
  listen alone..:-))..Makkal rasanayudan oththu pogavillai endral oru maadhiri paakranga..:-)
  
  Udhaya, In your case you have said that you are worried that your money will be considered
  as a support to the unworthy..again here unworthy is purely personal and if that unworthy
  song according to your opinion is sadly the most 'popular' song among masses
  then i feel no one can prevent your money becoming a vote for that 'unworthy' song..
  The only solution i can think of, eventhough its not ethical, is just to record those songs
  which you like in a album seperately rather than spending your money to buy the whole album
  and providing a moral support for 'unworthy' songs..
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 63.206.213.222) on: Fri Jan 24 12:39:29 EST 2003
  
  peeps,
  Thanks for the empathy. The prevalent attitude now goes beyond looking down on someone for not going with the flow; commercialism and success as a virtue has been successfully drilled into the public psyche that you constantly hear the logic, "But it's a hit!" to prove a song or a singer's worth.
  
  I remember reading a Bernard Shaw quote from when he toured Sri Lanka and India. He said, "I have never seen so many individuals in one place as I have in these parts." That individualism that Shaw celebrated in us is waning fast, we too are being dragged by the whims of the media like elsewhere in the world.
  
  
• From: peeps (@ 12.162.224.5) on: Fri Jan 24 13:47:36 EST 2003
  
  Udhaya,
  Its like "who cares your opinion when the whole world has accepted it" ideology..My regards
  for Mahakavi Bharathiyar goes sky high in this matter..A person who had the heart to oppose
  the prevailing public opinion and traditions as a single individual..
  Time again and again proves that 'public opinion' is always not the correct or good one..
  
  Personalities who take things seriously and tend to correct those things face problems..We live in a society
  in which more than 75% of them dont take film music seriously and analyse the positve and
  negative impacts of it on the society. We can't expect middle and lower middle class,who take the
  big share in today's so called 'public tastes', to avoid hindish singers and tanglish lyrics
  and borrowed western beats in these fast food days..
  
  On the other hand we cant blame the sellers of this product also who can easily claim that "they want poison so we are
  giving it"..Unless otherwise public takes film music seriously and give a deep thought about it
  nothing can be changed by very few individuals who can understand the slow poisoning happening now.
  Till then even tamil singers like Devan will sing "naan unnu kitta unnu kitta eppadi thaan"(Movie:Run).Better
  not to talk about hindi singers.
  
  
• From: selva (@ 172.183.198.213) on: Fri Jan 24 17:03:13 EST 2003
  
  A song is a 'hit' when it 'hits' my soul. This is the only true constitution of a 'hit'. Of course there are other definitions of 'hits' - mass, popular, commercial, media, critics etc etc. But these are only the vehicles(like bus, train). We don't take any bus that comes to the bus stop, do we? we only take the bus that takes us where we want to go.
  In this post-modernistic world, where everything is easily accessible and affordable to a majority in comparison to the modern or pre-modern world where only few were previleged to be exposed to art, appreciation of art has now taken a new (or no) direction. This is reality as it stands today, who knows what is in store for us tomorrow.....
  
  
• From: Sam (@ 208.134.115.240) on: Fri Jan 24 19:38:29 EST 2003
  
  any song dat goes "dinga dabba dingiri dikki hayyo hayyo" means it is a hit song. tamil music lizzeners have got some taste, i am tellin u
  
  
• From: curses (@ 219.65.109.34) on: Sat Jan 25 11:20:41 EST 2003
  
  so do films that have a minimum of 10 words..
  Haan maine bhi notice kiya hai..
  Isko pehle kabhi socha hai....
  phew!
  
  
• From: OISG (@ 193.188.97.152) on: Mon Jan 27 03:57:30 EST 2003
  
  Curses
  
  Actually all Hindi films must have the title
  
  "Sanam Hamare Ishq Tumare" .I would like them to shorten it,as usual.
  
  Sorry Udhaya for the Dig**
  
  
  

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