Links to the Hindi song collections for the periods covered in this section:
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1970s (All) 1970s GEMs
Note: I have made YouTube playlists of Hindi song GEMs from the 1970s – see below for the links:
GEMs: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975-1976 1977-1979
Commentary:
The 1970s represented the sunset of the Golden Age of Hindi film music. Although many wonderful songs were created during this period, by the end of the decade many of the luminaries in the field had either passed away or faded in significance. Those who passed away included:
- Mukesh (1976), Rafi (1980)
- Jaikishen (1971), Madan Mohan (1975), S.D. Burman (1975)
- Shakeel Badayuni (1970), Sahir Ludhianvi (1980).
For a variety of reasons, the following became less of a presence as the decade progressed:
- Mahendra Kapoor, Manna Dey, Suman Kalyanpur
- Naushad, O.P. Nayyar, Ravi, Shankar Jaikishen
- Hasrat Jaipuri, Indeevar, Kaifi Azmi, Rajendra Krishan, S.H. Bihari.
There were specific reasons for the reduction in influence in some of the above cases. The most obvious was the loss of Jaikishen, half of the famous Shankar-Jaikishen duo. Although Shankar valiantly carried on the S-J name many years after Jaikishen’s death, it was never quite the same, and this also affected the fortunes of their close collaborator Hasrat Jaipuri. Then there were the tiffs that O.P. Nayyar had with his two favorite singers Rafi and Asha; without them, his songs no longer had the same magic. This also affected his close collaborator S.H. Bihari.
On the other hand, there were other luminaries who not only survived but continued to thrive during the 1970s and beyond:
- Asha, Lata, Kishore
- Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal, R.D. Burman
- Anand Bakshi, Gulzar, Majrooh Sultanpuri.
In the 1970s, there was a lot of new blood in the form of playback singers, music directors and lyricists, including:
- Amit Kumar, Nitin Mukesh, Shailendra Singh, Yesudas
- Bappi Lahiri, Rajesh Roshan, Ravindra Jain
- Amit Khanna, Anjaan, M.G. Hashmat, Naqsh Lyalpuri, Verma Malik, Yogesh.
However, the quality and consistency of the songs produced by these new players was nowhere near that of their predecessors. In particular, the two offspring of Kishore and Mukesh (Amit Kumar and Nitin Mukesh) could not hold a candle to their illustrious fathers, and in a way this exemplified the decline of Hindi film music in the closing days of the Golden Age.