MUMBAI: Singer- composer Amit Kumar has criticised certain music and recording companies, saying that these labels are damaging the standard of music.

Amit was interacting with the media on the occasion of the birth anniversary of his mother, Bengali actress and singer Ruma Guha Thakurta on Thursday in Mumbai. He also relaunched his YouTube channel, Kumar Brothers Music (KBM) on the occasion.

Asked what kind of music he will try to offer to the audience through KBM, he said, "I strongly believe that three basic elements of music -- melody, harmony and lyrical value -- have to come back, and we are going to focus on this aspect through KBM's YouTube channel because I am from the old school."

Amit reminisced how his musical learning process happened under his father, the late and legendary Kishore Kumar.

"I learnt everything about music from my father. Apart from him, I have been fortunate enough to work with legendary music composers like RD Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Kalyanji-Anandji, Rajesh Roshan, Shankar-Jaikishan and many others," he said.

Amit Kumar recorded many Bollywood and regional film songs since the 1970s, including 170 Hindi compositions by RD Burman. After Burman's death in 1994, citing a lack of quality, Kumar withdrew from the playback scene and concentrated on live orchestra shows.

He added, "When I was very small, I used to go with my father when they used to compose music, so by observing all these people I have learnt a basic thing -- a composer should work on melody of the songs."

"I am grateful that my father and mother told me not to lean all the time only towards Bollywood or Hollywood music. They told me learn and listen to classical music, western-classical music, jazz and rock. I feel current generation musicians are making good songs and they are making the other kind (vulgar) of songs as well, so that has to change. I want to maintain a certain standard of music on my channel. I feel that composition shouldn't be corrupted, as it is happening now. I am a very blunt person so I won't mind saying that there are some music and recording companies that are very unmusical. They have got a lot of money but they are damaging standards of music, so that has to be rectified,a said Amit.

Remembering his father and mother, and sharing the reason of the press conference, Amit said, aceToday is a special day because it's my mother's birthday. She passed away on 3 June. I had launched my music production company KBM five years back, but today I want to relaunch it in a very large manner and in a correct way."

Sharing his thoughts on the current remix rage, he said, "They (music composers, filmmakers and music companies) are doing it for commercial purposes. They have no option left and they are remixing old songs, because there was a certain weight to old songs. Remix is one thing I cannot accept."

(Source: IANS)