Albums that deserve a second listening
Gaana,India’s favorite music app, announces the launch of its exciting new original series, ‘The Unheard,’ in collaboration with music legend Shankar Mahadevan. Mahadevan, a celebrated composer, musician & singer, will curate and review rare, unheard and brilliant numbers that somehow got lost in the crowd amid the noise of mainstream music.The Unheard is our latest feature on our ongoing series of original content titled Gaana Specials.
“The Unheard’ will be a fortnightly program in which Shankar Mahadevan will lend his expertise to deep review Hindi albums released in the past decade: albums that had fantastic renditions by immensely talented musicians, singers & lyricists, but which perhaps did not get the airplay and traction that they deserved. These soundtracks were either from small budget films or didn’t have adequate marketing support or did not feature any mega star, and hence did not get showcased prominently on radio & television.
Prashan Agarwal, Chief Operating Officer, Gaana said, “Gaana Specials, our original content platform, is built on veritable research on the consumer preferences and all new content creation is fueled by this research. Over the years a lot of fantastic music has been released but did not get the love it deserved. As Shankar puts it succinctly ‘Songs are to be heard and not seen’. The Unheard is our effort to bring such beautiful works into mainstream and get them their audience.”
Shankar Mahadevan, said “This concept of The Unheard is extremely important in today’s times because what we “hear” are only those songs which have become visual hits. You will see nowadays TV’s Top 20 and Radio’s Top 20 tend to be the same. And then there are films that never reach to mass audience and because of that their soundtrack also dies a silent death. That is why I am really interested in this programme and I really thank Gaana for bringing this up – because it is our duty to bring ‘good’ music to listeners, and they WILL of course hear it.”
The first album featured to kickstart this series is an insanely humorous work Aiyya by Amit Trivedi & Amitabh Bhattacharya. This album has many shades of brilliance, bringing together Bhattacharya’s phenomenal writing finesse with Trivedi’s maverick work in composition & arrangement. And because musical brilliance is not restricted by seriousness of content.
Over the past few months, Gaana has roped in eminent celebrities for original audio programing covering music reviews, story-telling, romance, humor and classics. The Unheard with Shankar Mahadevan is another addition to the Gaana Specials repertoire which already boasts of successful streams such as The Asha verdict, Kahanibaaz with Ashish Vidyarthi, Mirchi Mugra with Naved, Riya’s Retro, Sarthak’s Documentary, The Classic showcase with Paran, Hansi ke Phuware with Sud & Planet Bollywood from Zoom.