Shunning the Music Industry — Dusk or a new Dawn?

The recent unfortunate and sudden announcement of his retirement or should I say "temporary break" by the legendary and one of the most versatile singer the Indian music industry has ever witnessed has sent shockwaves through the world of music. Arijit Singh proclaimed he would be away for sometime from playback singing with hints of renewing his focus upon independent music creation. This was the exact wording used by him regarding this on social media: "Hello, Happy new year to all. I want to thank you all for giving me so much of love all these years as listeners. I am happy to announce that I am not gonna be taking any new assignments as a playback vocalist from now on. I am calling it off. It was a wonderful journey." While this incident has set the hearts of his fans and supporters ablaze, many have also started to question this "sudden retirement" — was it voluntary or some series of misfortunes provoked it? Arijit Singh is one of the most widely revered playback singers of his time or plausibly the best of all time as is claimed by many. He has done playback singing for many major music labels, record labels and production companies. Fans claim that his voice is an extremely fine-tuned one with the power to stir the emotions of the listeners of his songs. He is really a self-made man who hails from a very humble background. His "ground-to-Earth" nature is another important aspect of his persona which makes him tremendously popular among his lovers. It's also worth mentioning that his dedication and devotion towards music is a genuine one and knows no bounds! While there have been many theories floating around his retirement, sources claim the major one is his frustration arising from the restraining and greed-driven policies imposed upon him by the major record labels or corporations with the sole intention of increasing their revenues and profits. It is a grim fact that artists working for corporations in India enjoy little to no freedom at all. He said he is taking retirement from singing for music companies, not from music! His stage shows will continue as usual, and so will his musical journey as an independent artiste. This bold move shattered the yoke around his neck and gave a tight slap to the vile corporate entity. Corporations only know how to suck out the juice from hard-working talented spirits. It reminds me of the poem by Vikram Seth — "The Frog And The Nightingale". It is also being believed that the opposition by Javed Akhtar on recreating old songs from "Border" movie, have influenced Arijit to become vocal about it and take such a drastic step. Needless to say that this decision has opened many new avenues for the legend, be it allowing greater flexibility for more collabs in the future such as the one with Ed Sheeran on "Sapphire" or the venture of launching his very own music label! Just imagine the vigour he would be emanating with each new release. The jealousy of his former employers would have been worth seeing at that time; might I ask what the dynamics were then? Whatever the future holds, this is definitely a dawn for the legend himself. What do you think?