Anirudh Ravichander and the New Generation Sound

Anirudh Ravichander debuted as a film composer with 3 (2012)'s 'Why This Kolaveri Di,' a song whose deliberately unpolished 'Tanglish' lyrics and viral spread made it one of the first Indian songs to become an international internet phenomenon well before Indian streaming culture matured. Since then, Anirudh has become the dominant sound of contemporary Tamil mass-entertainer cinema, known for propulsive, bass-heavy dance numbers, anthemic 'mass' introduction themes for star heroes, and a production style drawing on EDM, hip-hop, and trap alongside Tamil melodic and rhythmic sensibilities. His scores for directors like Lokesh Kanagaraj and frequent collaborations with younger-generation stars have made him arguably the most commercially dominant Tamil film composer of the 2020s, continuing the lineage from M. S. Viswanathan through Ilaiyaraaja and Rahman into a digitally native, globally distributed era of Tamil music.