#NotMusicToMyEars

Background

As the most popular genre among India's youth, Bollywood music has had a telling impact on behaviour and psyche. Lewd lyrics, however, had become a regular feature of 'item' numbers for big banner productions. And because they were masked by soul-stirring melodies, they had stopped mattering. Leading to the normalisation of women being objectified under the guise of playful song-dance routines. Love Matters, a global non-profit programme fighting gender-inequality, sought to address this. By waking audiences up to this reality. And through them, getting Bollywood to take a stand against including demeaning lyrics in its songs.

Idea

"How many kisses are you going to run from? Come, be my whore." "I've behaved long enough. I've sighed long enough. It's now time to talk dirty. Like dirty, dirty." "Don't be shocked I'm following you. I have a right over you. So don't try stopping me."   These are lyrics from Bollywood songs India's youth danced to at discos and sang, as part of contests on national TV. Decades of conditioning had immunized audiences to demeaning lyrics. To the extent that what they said or meant, was irrelevant. All that mattered was they had a tune and beat everyone could gyrate to. So the lyrics were translated into English – India's language of choice on social media. Also the language that had the power to jolt the urban populous. The music was then stripped of them. Finally, innovatively used media ensured audiences unwittingly became 'victims' to whom these songs were played back. The campaign ran on two platforms - Saavn, India's most popular music streaming app and Twitter. A music app, because that's where viewers have their most intimate listening experience. A playlist was created consisting chartbuster songs with offensive lyrics. And it was promoted using smartly disguised click-bait. Immediately after the third song played, the listener heard an audio capsule that had the translated english lyrics sans the music. Likewise with the seventh and eleventh song. (Audio capsules uploaded separately). The realization invited them to let Bollywood know lewd lyrics weren't okay, by using #NotMusicToMyEars. On Twitter, three youth icons tweeted the lyrics as though it was an experience they had. For the next four hours, they got responses that ranged from 'call the cops, now!' to 'Chop off his b*@*s'. After which, they revealed these were actually lyrics all of us have been unwittingly singing and dancing to, using #NotMusicToMyEars.

Results

 #NotMusicToMyEars trended nationally. And with over 50 million impressions (so far) made its way to national and international media, including the United Nations. (Earned PR not yet calculated.) More importantly, it caused a stir through the Bollywood music industry. And attracted the attention of those that had the power to trigger a change. Over the next few days, leading Bollywood directors, actors and musicians made public commitments – not to use lewd lyrics in the movies they make. And that's definitely music to our ears : )