Music Director vs Music Composer

Music Director vs Music Composer




“Music director” is not really a Music Composer. He is basically the guy who makes the tunes for the songs. Then he gives it to the lyricist for the lyrics. This works vice versa too. Lyrics first and then the tune. Now comes the major difference between “Music directors” and “Music Composers” like A R Rahman and Ilaiyaraaja.

Andrew Lewiss

The Music Director hands over the tune and lyrics to the Music Arranger who will fill in the music into the song according to his knowledge and experience. The Music Director will only direct the music as in supervising the process but does not necessarily compose the BGMs, the rhythms, the chords, basslines etc. in the song. These are done by the Music Arranger, who will arrange for the violin sections, the brass sections, the percussions, the beats etc. acccording to what he knows.

Needless to say, the Music Director, more often than not, is not even proficient in playing a musical instrument. He need not be with the method mentioned above.



This is why most Music Directors sound the same movie after movie after movie. Because the tunes are different but the arrangement is the same. The Music Arranger guy is only doing his job and ending the works as per deadline. No creativity there. There is no effort to innovate.



A R Rahman though, it seems, sits and works on each piece of music in his songs. Each sound and each element of the notes are heard by him, evaluated and then entered into the song. Plus he has great musicians to bring out quality sounds.



In other words, Rahman actually designs the sound for each of his songs. To all those who scoff at use of technology in music this sound design is enhanced only because of the technology.

This sound design combined with great tunes make great masterpieces. Any surprise his songs are so good ?