[VoxSpace Selects] Understanding Telugu Lyrics 101 – What They Actually Mean

Decoding Lyrics 101

Off late, the lyrics of most of the Telugu songs make little to no sense. They are a weird mix of words from different languages trying, to relate to the millennial lingo ruining the entire essence of the song. Going back to the 80s and 90s,  songs back then had references to situations in the film and each word had a specific meaning and was intended to convey something. There was no deliberate attempt to make the songs peppy or famous.

The present generation writers are just aiming at rhyming the words in a nonsensical manner and are trying to making them as catchy as possible, with remixes and incomprehensive sounds and beats in the background. The words are objectifying and demeaning most of the times. Also we, the audience, are so clueless and are least bothered about the words used their meanings and relevance. We just go bonkers over it because it’s some huge star’s or a famous musician’s song.

Decoding lyrics aims at highlighting this hypocrisy. It is a satirical take on the lyrics of Telugu songs. The setup has a lecturer, who is trying to decode lyrics, and a couple of students, who are trying to understand the lyrics of the song. In each class, the lecturer carefully breaks down a couple of lines of a famous song and tries to make some sense of it. Each video has an underlying tone of humour and satire to it.

The lecturer teaches the meaning with utmost conviction, metaphorically representing the writers and presenters of the song. While one of the students is always found to be blown away with whatever the lecturer says, cleverly representing fans who blindly follow and put the makers and presenters of such songs on the pedestal. The other student represents the few sensible audiences who actually understand how insensible and obscene the lines are, but are always paid a deaf ear to. Thus decoding lyrics is a cocktail of smart comedy and sensible satire, entertaining the viewers and also questioning our writer’s authenticity.