After a record-shattering Eras Tour, Taylor Swift stepped foot into the billionaire club, surpassing industry giants like Beyoncé or Rihanna. However, Indian female singers, including modern legends like Shreya Ghoshal have not yet achieved this feat.
Speaking to Raj Shamani on his podcast – Figuring Out, Shreya Ghoshal, National Award Winner, has long been compared to Bhosle and Mangeshkar, but never to Swift. To understand this billionaire gap, Raj Shamani and Shreya Ghoshal discussed gender parity in the industry, which is often ignored but very real today.
Interestingly, years ago, when Asha Bhonsle or Lata Mangeshkar dominated playback singing, they were sometimes paid much higher than their male contemporaries. But, not today, noted Ghoshal.
Shreya Ghoshal questions Punjabi songs and attracting male audience
Speaking about dominance on global charts and the number of hit songs, Ghoshal revealed how modern female singers are barely spotted on the list. “The fact is, India is still patriarchal,” she remarked.
“If you look at the top 50 in global charts, Indian female artists will hardly have 5-6 songs on the list,” she shared, calling the trend ‘lopsided’. “This was not how it was in our country. It is very ‘now’. This lopsidedness has come now,” referring purely to successful female artists in India. Explaining how this trend is a combination of dilution, confusion, and fusion, the Indian Idol judge explained how the industry will eventually gain clarity.
At the same time, she also gave insight into the collective psyche of many singers who started off as playback singers. She shared how they have an eventual and potential desire to break away from that image to be an independent performer or artist. This comes after the shocking yet historic announcement from Arijit Singh and his departure from playback singing. While he continues his independent work, he has shifted focus to live gigs and more.
Shreya Ghoshal on gender parity in music: ‘It starts at home’
“Everyone wants to break away from the ‘film tag’. All the people who are coming, who started singing and songwriting on their own, people have started noticing them, now,” she shared, including labels, brands, and fans. “The confidence of making their own songs starts at home,” explaining how familial support is extremely important for an independent artist to flourish.
It is true that several artists, including Taylor Swift and Shreya Ghoshal herself, started very young with immense support from their parents. From packing stadium shows in her teen years to doing that on a global level, it is a long way before Indian artists have that magnitude of fan-following, shared Ghoshal.
However, there are other factors that contribute to stardom in modern times; talent alone is not enough. “Opportunity windows are very few. Not everyone can be a great singer and a great songwriter,” Shreya explained. In today’s time, newcomers are expected to be great performers, have a social media following, and more. “Let them make music! At the start, you have to come up with numbers, social media followers,” remarked Ghoshal, as she revealed how labels ask such questions from the upcoming artists.
At the end, she concluded that female singers need to appeal to the male audience. While it may not be from narrating their life story, much like Taylor Swift, they have to follow the steps of famous Punjabi songs, centred around flexing money, cars, luxuries, and more – purely for commercial success.