The chauvinism that oozes out of Bollywood’s item songs is awful. Objectifying through these music videos, putting woman in the light of being promiscuous is the content Bollywood fetches for entertainment. Enough for any sensible person to cringe, the mainstream presence of item songs has normalized among the people. Raising an eyebrow in rebel, Love Matters India voices it out on social media saying #NotMusicToMyEars.
Voice against objectification
Considering the impact of art on the society, arguably Bollywood seems to be the most influential of all to this country. When the counter argument boldly states how cinema is just a reflection of the society, we also cannot forget the influence it holds on the minds of youngsters, to which a brand has finally stood up.
According to a research conducted by JustSmartMandate, 97.4 million people out of the 168 million internet users that means over 63% of the urban Indians listen to their music online and Bollywood is the most preferred genre of all; the impact generated by these songs is so strong that it directly influences the behavior of young listeners.
Love Matters shared that #NotMusicToMyEars was strategized after keeping in mind the recent events of censorship and acts of atrocities against women in India. The campaign aimed at deciphering the actual meaning behind these lyrics and the imbalance that trails behind, by sharing a few creatives by translating these messages into English and putting these sleazy meanings on our screens.
Sharing the objective of this campaign, Vithika Yadav, Head India RNW.org & Love Matters India, said, “While everyone loves dancing to a soul-stirring song, the lyrics often go unnoticed. And it doesn’t take much of an effort to discover just how many popular songs have lyrics that are down-right derogatory of women’s rights and even their bodies. Love Matters aims to break this pattern and ensure that pop culture is aligned to ethics of gender equality and respect.”
This is the first phase of the campaign, the brand will build on it more in next phases by talking about how Bollywood often normalizes violence in relationships as something okay and normal and hence perpetuating stereotypes.
"One cannot turn a blind eye towards Bollywood as an influencer, the item numbers have become the ‘popular culture’ and it is something to be worried about when young boys and men aspire to the lyrics these songs are propagating; It is not wrong to say that their perception and outlook towards young girls and women is to a major extent being carved out through these item numbers,” Yadav added.
Social media buzz
A powerful topic that could have been executed with a stronger content, the brand at least chose to bring these translators to our notice through illustrations.
The brand claims that the campaign has been trending on Thunderclap as one of the Top 5 social campaigns. Love Matters will further be reaching out to Bollywood stars, directors, producers, lyricists to show their support to this campaign and say no to sexist and misogynistic lyrics.
"On Facebook, we'll be asking people to rewrite lyrics of these sexist songs to build more action and awareness and uproar on the issue. Members of the fraternity have shown their support to the campaign, Gul Panag and Manasi Scott (a songwriter herself) have supported the initiative and tweeted about it,” shared Yadav.
In comparison to Facebook, Twitter reach of this campaign was much larger where the Twitteratis tweeted in support of the campaign and through their tweets slammed these lyrics, thus creating a wave of uproar.
Love Matters managed to create a difference by touching on a topic that the majority stir away from.
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