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Not Music To My Ears

Not Music To My Ears

Contributors

About the Initiative

Bollywood has always had a telling impact on India’s youth. In recent times however, songs with lewd lyrics, had become commonplace. Leading to the normalisation of women being objectified under the guise of song-dance routines.

Love Matters sought to address this. By waking audiences up to this reality. And getting Bollywood to take a stand against the use of demeaning lyrics.

The campaign put listeners in the same spot as the actress in the song by creating customised audio capsules in which the lyrics were translated into English. These capsules were then strategically played immediately after those specific songs played, on India's most popular music streaming app. Having disrupted routine listening behaviour, we 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.

 

Within minutes of its launch, #NotMusicToMyEars was the top trend in Mumbai - the home of Bollywood. In two hours, it was trending nationally.

 

The campaign triggered a conversation that was covered by national and international media, leading to earned PR worth up to $1.2 million. At a cost of $1400.

 

Most importantly, some of Bollywood's most celebrated actors, singers and lyricists made public commitments that they would not use lewd lyrics as part of the movies they make.

 

Thanks to the uproar generated by the campaign, the Chairman of India's Censor Board issued a statement that lewd lyrics in any form would not be permitted in movies even if they had an 'Adults Only' rating.