For now, I'm speaking about his Hindi output. When I listen to songs like Ay Hairathe, Tere Bina, Lukka Chuppi, Tu Bin Bataye, Yeh Rishta, Yeh Jo Desh, Saawariya, Pal Pal Bhari, Desh Ki Mitti, Naina Neer, Piya Ho, etc. etc. etc., there is no doubt in my mind that no other musical director in recent times has created as powerful and moving melodies as our Boss. Nevermind the arrangements, rhythm, sound, for which our Boss is already king and known for it. There is an evergreen stamp to many of his recent melodies. However, I don't hear the media or the general public raving about his sense of melody too often. And I think it's ignorant to say that Rahman should be known for his technical skills rather than his tune skills. Without a doubt, the man is a master tunesmith. I just don't see how people don't realize that when listening to the examples above.
One reason why his melodies may not be as appreciated as they should is based on a comment that my parents made recently after listening to some of Rahman's songs. They like Rahman a lot and know how brilliant he is, etc. However, they keep mentioning how the songs of today in general compared to the evergreen years lack powerful yet simple melodies and moving lyrics. When I point to Rahman's songs, they agree that his songs are melodious, but the THEY ARE HARD TO SING. For them, that is the sticking point, that Rahman's songs are often too difficult to sing (unless one is a trained and talented singer) and one cannot hum them as easily. Seems like an overly simplistic point, but perhaps to the commaon man, it's true. While Rahman's songs are beautiful, full of melody, the melodic contours are often full of twists and turns and tinged with a classical bent, making them difficult for the average person to just listen with ease and to hum along. I think this makes a difference with popularity. Many of Rahman's most commercially successful numbers were ones that were not only catchy, but easy to hum along and sing with. Maybe this is the reason why Nadeem Shravan were called "the melody kings" (don't make me laugh too hard). Although their melodies were often stale and cheesy, their songs were easy to sing along with, light and easy music for the common man to digest. Not that Rahman has to ever stoop as low as NS, but perhaps there is a point here. One of the reasons why the song "Tere Bina" is so popular is perhaps that along with being beautiful and brilliant, the melody itself is fairly simple enough to understand and remember easily, esp. the dham dhara dham part. Same goes for Ru Ba Ru from RDB. Anyway, agree or disagree, I think this will be interesting to discuss.
