All That's Wrong With Punjabi Music

I'm at my friend's wedding celebration party. The room's totally packed. Everyone's dancing. I stand by the DJ and tell him how horrible the lyrics of the song he's playing are. He gives me a look but changes the song. And again I object. He does that again but I keep staring at him in disgust. He packs his bags and leaves. All the people in the room charge at me, banning me permanently from any probable future events.

I've imagined this happening to me time and again. And am I to be blamed? But nowadays I just go along and dance away to the fast beats of almost all the regressive/crappy Punjabi songs, making a mental note to talk about the lyrics later. I rarely remember the songs later. Because they more or less say the same thing.

I'm not saying Punjabi music sucks. I have a long list of some beautiful songs that I intend to share with you someday. Of course, I will have to check first if the videos of those songs are appropriate. Too much of a task, really.

If you're unaware of the charming world of the Indian Punjabi music industry, read along.

Buy me Stuff

There is no dearth of such songs in the industry. I remember when a song had come out in which the guy says that a lady tells her to buy a said expensive car and then only would she love him. In retaliation, a female singer released a song saying she couldn't care less about the car if the guy loved her dearly. It had become an instant hit. But of course, nothing changed.

There came a song a few years ago in which the singer says that the woman he loves keeps telling him to buy her shoes and traditional suits and other stuff but he has only one reply for her always: "Na goriye". How romantic!

There's another song that had last year become really popular. The woman in the song tells her guy to get her a costly lehnga. The song was played repeatedly at weddings. I just heard another song recently where the woman is asking the guy to get her a permanent designer and keep buying her traditional Punjabi suits.

What's funny is that every year in Punjab girls does better than boys in exams. And almost every girl I know of is working; while there are guys who still act as non-serious jerks, roaming around streets, going on vacations on their dads' money. So it's one thing joking around with someone telling them to buy something for them, there's another pointing the gun at women only, and making a hell lot of songs on this topic. My husband asks for a gift from me too at times. Make a song on that, won't you?

Brands! Brands! Brands!

There are so many songs in this category that I had a hard time picking out the best example. Because in almost every other Punjabi song, there are more brand names than there are proverbs. Even if some girl says she doesn't care about anything else but her guy's love and commitment towards her, she counts away all the brands he owns anyway.

There's one particular song in which the singer begins by saying that she doesn't need an expensive necklace from the guy as he holds more value for her. But don't rejoice yet. In the rest of the song, she goes on and on about the branded stuff he owns or has gifted her on numerous occasions.

If you still don't believe me, think of a brand's name. Open Google, and type the name along with 'Punjabi song'. I'm pretty sure you'll find something.

Homely Woman Needed

Women are not only presented in the songs as money-diggers, there are songs that tell them exactly what is required of them after marriage.

Many won't even find such songs objectionable because of course, there are legendary Punjabi singers who've often sung songs telling women what to wear, how to behave, and what not to eat/drink while they themselves enjoy drinking and partying with friends.

But the most cringe-worthy song I had found once was the one in which a guy tells his lady-love exactly what he wants from his wife. She is told exactly how to behave in front of his brother, his father, his mother, and other family members. She is also supposed to keep the veil on in front of her father-in-law as his mother likes women who are coy and submissive.

And then, of course, recently a famous Punjabi singer released a song in which he tells his lady that he dislikes her going to work. He would rather have her sit at home and wait for him to come back. Because that's exactly what women are supposed to do.

Shame on You

Now there's one thing talking about the brands one owns, but there's entirely another naming and shaming someone for being rich or out of bounds. But turns out that for Punjabi singers there is no in-between There's either the male singer telling his girl that the total cost of everything she uses to get fully ready is equal to the cost of the guy's shoes only.

Or there's the brigade of those who shame women for being rich and fashionable and not paying attention to them. Poor little "pendu (village guy)" not being fancy enough for her taste is also her fault. There's also a singer who says that the girl is fortunate to be born rich and that she can easily ask her father to buy her a car. But his father cannot afford it. Only if he focuses more on studying rather than drooling over the woman, he might get one on his own someday. But no.

There is another song in which a woman tells another woman to think again before leaving Chandigarh for their village as there aren't enough facilities there for her. But see, if Bollywood actors can bring NRIs and abroad-born and brought-up women to their rusty old villages, then anyone can do that. All one needs to do is break the woman. Because to hell with her career and aspirations. Love rocks.

And don't even get me started on the songs that feature Chandigarh as something extraordinary fancy and the women there deserving to be tamed. No doubt eve-teasing cases have increased there manyfold.

I Will Die for You

Now there are some sad songs that I genuinely liked. But their videos made me puke. I don't know what's wrong with these people lately. In every other video, there is a guy who's clearly cheating on his wife. She keeps on singing a sad song and ignoring his behavior, almost begging him to love her back. And in every single song, the girl ends up killing herself. Not only women, but sometimes men kill themselves too. How dare they then ask people not to commit suicide over broken relationships?

There are other songs in which the man wants a son and tortures his wife for it, in a song or two I also saw the guy bringing home another woman. The woman is never seen retaliating but cries her pain away, loving him anyway.

Such videos are problematic to the core. I say with experience that there is absolutely no one in life you cannot live without. Self-respect and self-worth are things these people clearly don't understand.

There's a world these people have created that isn't how Punjab actually is. Not all of it anyway. What they've helped doing is encouraging men to be jerks. And telling women they need not earn when they can have men to pay for them. I say this because I've spent three years in a class of undergraduates, if not more, full of people who were high on adrenaline and cared only about getting their love life started, instead of having dreams about their careers.

Also read: Are women nothing but a lifelong debt?