What's with these jhankar beats
sm...@lehigh.edu
affliction in the audio world and had carefully avoided cassettes plagued by
this corruption. However, it took me by surprise to find b/w video cassettes
with the jhankar virus on them. What hurt most was that the selection of songs
on the video was one of the best I've come across. And these bozos spoilt the
whole fun with their idiotic innovation. There should be a law passed
against such intrusions. Atleast the T-series people re-record the entire
song and leave the original alone. Imagine the shock when I heard drums
playing all over CR's tabla in "Dil ki duniya basaake sanwariya..." AARRGH!
Sami Mohammed (A Naushad fan)... totally disgusted with the jhankar virus!
S44218
I would like to hear about the origin of the jhankar beats too... It has done a
lot of harm in all forms of music... flimi and non-filmi. I know it is popular,
but am not sure about when this started and why.... If anyone has any info,
please let us all know.
Yours,
Sandip
Afzal A. Khan
I am entirely in agreement with you that intrusion of jhankaar
beats in old music must be banned, if at all possible. But
nobody in authority seems to have initiated any steps to plug
the kind of loopholes which the likes of (the late) Gulshan
Kumar exploited to the hilt.
I was also happy to see that you rented a video cassette (with
an excellent selection of old HFM). And I was under the
impression that you did not like videos at all and preferred only
CDs/audio cassettes instead. Seemingly an erroneous impression.
Afzal
>
Dragun32
I have one question: What's a jhankar beat?
Remove 'KILLSPAM' to reply.
Newspaper Headline: "Kids make nutritious snacks."
RBModi
low cost tapes without breaking the copyright law. I think there is a loophole
in the copyright law that permits music companies to produce remixed versions
of original songs. So instead of paying for a new singer to re- sing the song
(like the Gulshan Kr. - Anuradha Paudwal tapes), they just added an instrument
to the original song.
The drum beats in these songs were made popular by rickshaw/taxi drivers, who
got 'jhatka' music for a cheap price.
Rakesh
Ikram A. Khan
>
> The jhankaar beats started in the age of remixes.
I think they started a little earlier than that.
I seem to remember Jhankaar beats at least as early as Saajan.
I don't remember any "remix" cassettes on the market around that
time.
As to origin, I have a theory... Navratri is really popular in
Bombay and a beat is generally necessary for the rhythm-impaired
among us. Tho' quite a few gujarati songs were played, quite a
few filmi songs would also be played. Here, it seems to me, people
added the drums to give the beat so that people can get/stay
synchronized. This meant that people didn't necessarily have to
choose only a specific song with a noticeable beat but could get
virtually any song, say 'bahut pyaar karte haiN tumko sanam' from
Saajan and dance to it, too.
The other reason that you mention (the copyright loophole) probably
provided the cover to make those cassettes. The festival provided
the excuse to flood the market and have lotsa people buy into it.
Later,
Ikram.
Afzal A. Khan
>
>RBModi wrote:
>>
>> The jhankaar beats started in the age of remixes.
>[snip]
>
>I think they started a little earlier than that.
>
>I seem to remember Jhankaar beats at least as early as Saajan.
>I don't remember any "remix" cassettes on the market around that
>time.
>
>As to origin, I have a theory... Navratri is really popular in
>Bombay and a beat is generally necessary for the rhythm-impaired
>among us. Tho' quite a few gujarati songs were played, quite a
>few filmi songs would also be played. Here, it seems to me, people
>added the drums to give the beat so that people can get/stay
>synchronized.
>
>provided the cover to make those cassettes. The festival provided
>the excuse to flood the market and have lotsa people buy into it.
>
>Later,
>Ikram.
"Sajan" was released around '91. The infusion of "jhankaar'
beats in re-recorded music goes back at least ten years earlier.
I think this was introduced in the early eighties. At that
time, other music companies like Venus, Tips etc. had not yet
come up in a big way. HMV still cornered a good deal of the
market share and, in their greed, had marked up the price of
their cassettes. I remember buying a cassette of "Umrao Jaan"
for Rs. 52/=. I think it was around this time that the late
Gulshan Kumar thought up this idea of re-recording the music
of old movies with "jhankaar" beats and came up with a great
many cassettes which were priced quite low, around Rs. 14/=
or so. The basic stuff was there and the price differential
huge. People lapped it up. He started in Delhi and later
his "T" series cassettes came to be sold nation-wide. He
was very clever to exploit the legal loopholes. It was
nothing but PIRACY permitted by law. Nobody took any steps,
to my knowledge, to plug these loopholes. In interviews,
both in magazines and on TV, he would most innocently plead
innocence.
As regards the "Navratri" festival, the scale of its cele-
bration in Bombay has escalated only in recent years. I
do not think the nightly revelries used to be on such a
scale in the early eighties. In Delhi, where Gulshan Kumar
started churning out his cheap cassettes, the celebration
level may have been even lower than in Bombay.
Many of the cassettes brought out by "T" series were not
available in their original HMV format. Much against my
will, I remember buying "T" series cassettes of "Sohni
Mahiwal" (Naushad) and "Shola aur Shabnam" (Khaiyyam) as
there was no way to get hold of the originals. Later,
realising the error of their ways, HMV brought out fresh
"editions" of old classics on a fairly massive scale,
which were priced around Rs. 25/= or so.
The people who bought the cheap cassettes of "T" series
belonged to all towns and all classes. It was not con-
fined to Navratri revellers or taxi drivers. They had
the twin incentive of getting hold of their favourite
music which was largely unavailable and the lower price
they were required to pay. In the process, they were
willing to make a compromise with "jhankaar" beats.
Taking all factors into consideration, I think
the origin of this practice has to be sought in the general
desire of Gulshan Kumar to profit by the loophole available,
compounded by HMV's efforts to increase their own profits.
Afzal
Kenzbenz
The Jhankar "VIRUS" - Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
More like "Bhangar Beats" (as in "junky"- as Gujus say!)
Well, (gotta get a hold of myself here..0-: )
The Jhankar beats were an original attempt at remixing Filmi sound tracks to
western beats by Indian record companies. The instrument primarily used for
this purpose was the Roland SPD-11, a version of the OCTAPAD, a portable drum
set popularly owned by Desi musicians across the world.
However, fueled by better remixing by Bally Sagoo and others. A new level of
quality appeared that put the Jhankar beats out of business as quickly as they
had come in.
Later,
-Kenz-
>>Jhankar beats: Is there any logic behind this cacophony ? I was aware of
>this
>>affliction in the audio world and had carefully avoided cassettes plagued by
>>this corruption. However, it took me by surprise to find b/w video cassettes
>>with the jhankar virus on them.
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Yashovardhan Borad
Bhaskar Saha
Jay Padia
I fondly remember Jhankar beats as they had become quite common when I started listening to music on audio cassettes (1990 onwards).
Love this thread - such wonderful history (something I have always wondered).
Alas, there's nothing about the original Jhankar beats on the internet except for this thread. Such a wonderful conversation, guys (and gals?).
Anand Kaushal
Sukesh Hoogan
Some of them active then are no more.
Regards
