Disco Deewane: The Kitschadelic Appeal of the 80s

Say D – Say I – Say S – Say – C- say O!

‘Aao Zaraa Kadam Milaaake Dance Dance… Yeh Raat Me jo Mazzaa Hai, Kuch Naya Nayaa Hai’ went the mood of that age. When Nazia Hassan, 15 years old, sang the iconic song “Aap Jaisa Koi Meri Zindagi Me Aaye Toh Baat Ban Jaye” for Qurbani back in 1980, it was probably straight from the heart. She had auditioned for it a couple of months ago, as Biddu, then a disco sensation in Europe, had agreed to take her on, after Feroze Khan discovered her at a party. This was Biddu’s first of many projects, both a Bollywood film and the underling. (He went on to compose for Star, Goonj and recently Shootout at Lokhandwala and take Shaan, Shweta Shetty and Alisha Chinai under his wing.) Nazia went on to become a face of indie pop, as did Biddu become a cult producer in the subcontinent post his command over the West in the 70s. Nazia collaborated with Biddu and came out with her debut album Disco Deewane soon after that, which sold a record number of copies and topped charts in India, Pakistan, and even West Indies, Latin America and Russia.

Nazia and Zoheb Hassan whom Biddu set up after the Western brother-sister trio The Carpenters

India woke up to disco half a decade late but by the late 80s disco fever had gripped India for good, a term which has taken as many ambiguous twists of meaning as Xerox, Fevicol, rock and Chinese food in desi parlance. Disco was an outlet for the youth, an idiom for freedom, rebellion and a certain indulgence.

In the bootlegged social scenario of the 80s (Kraftwerk’s percussionist Wolfgang Flur wrote in his memoir how he remembers being flabbergasted at finding several of their cassettes in thrift shops of Bombay while on their Computer World Tour, especially since it was illegal to have them in India as they had no representation whatsoever here.)

Minimalist Disco

80s also laid the cornerstone for electronic music renaissance with the forays into minimalist disco by Charanjit Singh, RD Burman and Sunil Ganguly who had entered the scene technically as commercial artists. Burman enjoyed a rockstar-like status, a predecessor of AR Rahman if you will in his super stardom.  A silent storm was brewing as far as experimenting went with people like Charanjit Singh. Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat, Charanjit Singh’s album in the late 90s, did not  appeal to a lot of people when it was released in the late 80s, but has later been claimed as the first acid house record in the world. Recorded by his band the Charanjit Singh Orchestra, which largely made its money singing the latest Bollywood hits at weddings, the sound of this album was like none of his other albums, which were mostly covers. This album remains his stroke of genius, recorded over two days with a Roland TR-808 drum machine, a Roland TB-303 and a Roland Jupiter 8 keyboard.

Charanjit Singh loved tinkering with the latest synth

Sunil Ganguly, Ajoy Chakraborty’s guru played the Hawaiian Electric guitar and had a musical career which spanned over 4 decades. Dabbling in all kinds of music from Rabindra Sangeet to recording ghazals with Jagjit Singh and Mehdi Hassan, Sunil would produce curious versions of Indian music synchronized to a distinctly Western synth-electro sensibility.

High NRG with Pancham da

Burman introduced a strong indie trend towards high-speed, electronic dance music bared down to the minimum in commercial music with huge success. Burman went all over the spectrum with his jazz, funk, rock, disco and even Bengali folk elements in his music. Towards the late 80s, Burman faced stiff competition from Bappi Lahiri’s success as disco had established itself in commercial mainstream music.

The Asian Underground and the Rise of Pop

Belting out Bhangra Pop from the diaspora

The Asian underground meanwhile had been mushrooming with the diaspora.  London saw the rise of bhangra pop, often categorised as a sub-genre of electro-pop, and it became the direct successor of disco. Alaap had formed in Southall and Bhujungy in Birmingham. In 1982, Alaap produced “Teri Chunni de Sitarey” to wide appeal and there wasn’t any looking back from there on. Apna Sangit, Chirag Pehchane, Malkit Singh and Premi were the other bands that had come up. Atin Dasgupta’s band The Firangees  perhaps comes the closest to capturing the sensibility and the experimental spirit of that generation of musicians to pop music. Heera came up with its folk rhythms mixed with a western influence in its music and was an instant hit. (So much so, “Teri Meri Ek Jind” might still be clapped in enthusiastically at Punjabi weddings till today). The base for Bally Sagoo and company, (and much of what became commercial music for the next two decades) came from bands such as these, and later metamorphosed into Punjabi rap, hip hop and electronic and funk mixed with ethno-rhythms.

The Introduction of Sampling and the Fusion Doctors

Indo-Western compilations were going ahead at breakneck speed. It wasn’t a question of one Norwegian Wood here, and one Baul band at Woodstock, the whole world had opened up to music like never before. Hitherto unthought of combinations were appearing even in the world music scene as the walls of musical apartheid also fell through. Shaktee and The New Pardesi Music Machine had introduced the concept of sampling for the first time in fusion music. People like Talvin Singh and Nitin Sawhney were adding to the hybrid breed of musicians with excellent command over both Western and Indian classical and folk.

The 80s might well be described as German expressionist film, bizarre at times, but unforgettable. A lot of bad music resulted from all the experiments that were indulged in, but overall, it was a decade that laid the foundation for the variety and fearlessness, even the format that was to follow for the next few decades, with the introduction of new technology, new sensibilities and most importantly, a new aesthetic.