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If you give a search for the word hate in Orkut communities, among the top 5 results two of them are anti-Himesh Reshamiya communities. Both of them ahead of one of the I Hate Exams Communities and in the company of personalities like Kareena Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor. Now I being allergic to Himesh's nasal crooning was obviously very pleased but a little surprised too.
Atleast till the last month or so, he was the hottest thing in India. There was no escaping him. You could hear him mooing from every damned radio or loudspeaker in your vicinity. At any given period of time atleast 2 of his songs were always there in the top 10 lists. If he had a fan base like that then why this massive anti Himesh following on Orkut?
I have been thinking and have even cooked up a theory. Orkut just like G mail was, is a 'join-by-invite' thing. Just like there was this huge craze for getting into Gmail when it was launched, there was a mad rush for getting into Orkut too. I have experienced that myself, so many people, friends and friends of friends had called me up requesting an invite.
Now who are the people who were members of Orkut at first? They were the so called 'in' crowd. As Malcolm Gladwell would have explained, they are the trend setters . Now one thing that sets apart trendsetters from the usual crowd is their general disdain for popular culture. Because of this reason or because they genuinely hated Himesh, they made these communities.
When new people came into Orkut, they were eager to fit in and as it happens in all societies and communities, they started following the trend setters. Suddenly hating Himesh achieved that elusive aura of 'cool'.
Once I asked my friend Richa that when everybody seems to hate Himesh, then why are his albums selling like anything? Who buys them? Her reply was that the 'ghaati' crowd buys them. I dont know Marathi but I suppose 'ghaati' is like uncool.
But Orkut is expanding everyday. Almost everyone I know is on Orkut these days. Consequently the 'cool' kids will become more and more invisible. If he doesnt burn himself out with over exposure then pro Himesh communities will grow. Moreover the in crowd will start moving away from Orkut once it looses its appeal. This is no prediction. Too many variables to determine anything.

P.S. All of this could be bull shit and the only reason for the number of people in anti Himesh communities could be the fact that they genuinely hate them and through a wierd twist of statistics all of them landed on Orkut.

1 comments:

  • Anonymous said... 8:23 am

    Good sociological analysis, and pickup from Malcolm Gladwell. But I dont think the analysis is quie accurate.

    There are lot of people not on Orkut who hate Himesh, or people who hated Himesh before they went onto Orkut.

    Maybe it has to do with the fact that he is a nasal singer. Nasal singers are generally irritating but the really good ones manage to mask the irritation value. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a genius at that. Lucky Ali, too, knows how to select the instruments and background music so that his singing sounds acceptable.

    Himesh doesnt. And his constant repetition of the same tune, same line and same style of music in every song doesnt help either.

    Anyhow, this is a good Blog. Well written and the views, even though I dont agree to them, are expressed clearly and properly.

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