Immature Attempt to Simplify India - III (Written for SAKAI - University of Rhode Island)

In India Pop Music would typically mean Movie Based Music/Songs, Individual Artist Modern Songs, Bands and Groups. In fact there is a term named Indi-POP where songs could be in Indian Language but are highly influenced by Western Rhythm. Indeed we do find a lot of influence of African Rhythms and Melodies too. Lately we have instances where Indian Pop is also influenced by music from the other Asian countries in the South East.

Indian Film Music is a concept that needs to be understood. In the West you had these musicals where acting and the story is based on music and songs. In India it would be a variation of this Most Indian movies would have a story and at regular intervals the actors and actresses will break into song and dance sequences that may or may not be relevant to the main story. Hard core fans would tend to believe that they do enhance the film!

Film Music in India could be based on Classical Music for melody or they could be based on Indian Folk that given the geography of the country is very diverse in nature. They would also be influenced by or sometimes tunes could be directly lifted from other genres or countries,

The majority of Indian Film Music is created in Mumbai (Bollywood) in Hindi the national language of India. The other major film producing centres are in Chennai (Tamil or Tollywood), Hyderabad (Telugu) and Kolkata (Bengali). There would be films in other Indian languages too but ALL of them without exception follow the concept of incorporating song and dance sequences in their respective productions. There are directors who do not follow this format but that are a minority. There is extensive public demand for Film based music. In fact there would be a rare Indian who would not be appreciative of Film Music.

Indi-POP is however sometimes restricted in their appeal and face major competition from Film Music. These types of music evolved in the late seventies but still have not been able to garner a major pie. There are exceptions as usual and a few artistes have done very well for themselves.
Music Bands are very rare and have very little sustaining power and that’s the statistics. In elitist educational institutions they have these rock festivals that most often than not are head banger balls. These bands typically die but some of them continue on. However the more successful bands are definitely the regional ones singing in the local languages.

Please do post questions and then one could answer in detail and specifics. Sphere: Related Content