In this second volume, he talks about another 35 singers, most of whom sang playback for films. In Melody Singers 1, the author had written mostly about the contributions of such top-ranking subcontinental singers as Madam Noor Jehan, Lata Mangeshkar, Mehdi Hasan, Muhammad Rafi and Talat Mahmood. An engineer as well as a musicologist, Parvez has written several books among them are Melody Makers, about the music directors of the subcontinent, and Melody Makers 1, which comprised research on 27 singers. Music lovers, and especially musicologists, have always been interested in discovering more about the backgrounds and histories of these singers and their contributions to film - Dr Amjad Parvez, author of Melody Singers 2, is one such enthusiast. Consequently, a number of individuals possessing unique voice qualities and singing abilities thrived in both the Indian and Pakistani film industries. A year later, the entirely musical film Indrasabha was released, featuring an astonishing 69 songs. Nowhere else in the world was this practice in vogue.ДЄnother film, Shirin Farhad, released in May 1931, had 18 songs. Both the film and its music were hugely successful and set a trend for the next seven decades, of featuring at least seven or eight songs in every film. The first subcontinental talkie film was Alam Ara it premiered in March 1931 and had seven songs in Urdu. Prior to the advent of вЂtalkieвЂ™ films, going to watch live theatre was a popular means of entertainment and such venues usually took on performers who could not only act, but also sing. The people of the Subcontinent have always been interested in listening to light music, geet, ghazal, qawwali, folk songs and Sufi music.

Shamshad begum volume 2