Yo Yo Honey Singh is a fad. And like all fads he will soon die out. This is the mantra that all self – proclaimed connoisseurs of Indian music seem to be chanting nowadays. But, the real fad, gaining an exceedingly high popularity amongst pseudo-intellectuals and pseudo-feminists nowadays, is discrediting whoever is climbing the success ladder at a speed that is not acceptable to them. And Yo Yo Honey Singh has qualified to be their latest victim. The single biggest argument that these critics are bannering against Yo Yo is that his songs are overly demeaning towards women in general. Acceptably, he tends to highlight the shortcomings of girls these days quite a lot but, what we all fail to realize is that if the same amount of scrutiny that his songs are subjected to be applied even on the most celebrated love songs of all time, they would fail the test. Songs like ‘Ik Chatur Naar’ can be seen to project women as vixens that use their charm to trap men. Other songs like ‘Dhoop mein nikla na karo…’ and their likes glorify external beauty as being the only charming thing about women. Almost all romantic songs across the ages have been based on this central theme. Again, the Honey Singh critics might argue that these songs are situation-specific and do not standardize women as such, then why are we so inclined on generalizing Honey Singh’s songs to be representative of an entire generation of women? What I firmly believe is that Yo Yo Honey Singh acts as a veracious mirror not just for women who run after looks, fame or money but for men as well. His song ‘Brown Rang’ is the first of its kind to actually celebrate the skin colour which actually people will find in India. It is a reality check. Over-scrutiny of his lyrics is simply an art – killer as some profanities in his songs are actually just for the sake of entertainment and should be skimmed over. The important thing about a song is the impact that it will leave on its audience. And by impact, I mean the image of what the song represented that will be left in your mind 10 years later when you would have forgotten the lyrics of ‘Brown Rang’ or ‘Dope Shope’. His other songs like ‘Singh Surme’ discourage guys from yearning to settle abroad and encourage them to serve their own motherland. ‘SATAN’, his song based on drug abuse, one of the leading vices of our current generation strongly discourages the smoking of marijuana. ‘Bring Me Back’ is a truly inspirational song. In a time where our mainstream music suffers from a complete lack of originality, be it in terms of lyrics, music or ideas, Yo Yo Honey Singh actually has some new stuff to put out. His words are grasping and beats enthralling. And this is exactly what is expected out of rappers, a clan that derives entirely from being the masters of their respective languages. He does not use hardcore Punjabi so that he can reach out to a greater audience, but the correlation of sentences in his songs is truly commendable. And like all rappers everywhere, in order to attain this seamlessness in the lyrics he often has to use profanities. And whether the use of profanities is justified, is a different debate altogether. Lastly, I would like to say that people should really start thinking for themselves. The least you can do is listen to his songs before you judge them. Don’t wait for others to pour their thoughts into your mind and design your views of right and wrong. And for Honey Singh bashers I would like to say that you really need to get to the core of the problem and not just blame an easy target. Honey Singh’s songs don’t cause rapes. If you would actually take the pain of analyzing the data regarding rape cases in India, you would find that only the number of reported rape cases have increased in recent times (after Honey Singh’s rise to popularity) whereas the actual number of rapes occurring in the country is somewhat static. Hence, this situation actually has nothing to do with Yo Yo Honey Singh; it is basically an anomaly of the Law and Order enforcement in our nation. Honey Singh’s songs are catchy but not paradigm shifting so as to modify our society. Actually, it is what happens in our society that is reflected in our songs. It is high time that we take the pain of actually correcting ourselves rather than finding excuses to dump all our problems onto. Honey Singh will continue to sell and eventually, if he stops delivering, will die out. But that will not be because he was a fad. Nevertheless he will always be remembered as an artist who broke the monotony of our society with his haughty attitude, know-no-bonds songs and awesome beats because “Sabke ghar akhbaar aata hai.”
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 20:02:07 +0000