Music of India
The
music of India includes multiple varieties of
folk,
popular,
pop, and
classical music.
India's classical
music tradition, including
Carnatic and
Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and, developed over several eras, remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as sources of religious inspiration, cultural expression and pure entertainment. India is made up of several dozen
ethnic groups, speaking their own
languages and
dialects. Alongside distinctly
subcontinental forms there are major influences from
Persian,
Arab and
British music. Indian genres like
filmi and
bhangra have become popular throughout the
United Kingdom,
South and
East Asia, and around the world.
Indian pop stars now sell records in many countries, while
world music fans listen to the roots music of India's diverse nations. American
soul,
rock and
hip hop have also made a large impact, primarily on Indian pop and filmi music. Other highly popular forms are
ghazal,
qawwali,
thumri,
dhrupad,
dadra,
bhajan,
kirtan,
shabad, and
gurbani.
The earliest texts of Indian music are the
Natya shastra,
Dattilam,
Brihaddeshi, and the
Sangita-Ratnakara.
The biggest form of Indian
pop music is
filmi, or songs from Indian musical films. Independent pop acts such as Alisha Chinoy, Shaan, and rock bands like
Indus Creed, Indian Ocean, and
Euphoria exist and have gained mass appeal with the advent of cable music television.
Film
Many languages are spoken in India, and there are film industries for each of the major languages (see
Indian cinema). Film music is mostly used in commercial Indian cinema, which is mainly produced in the centres of
Mumbai (
Bollywood),
Chennai, and
Hyderabad. Indian films are best-known for their music and composers (music directors). Today's most popular music director,
A. R. Rahman, got his start in Tamil films and then moved to Bollywood. Other contemprary music directors include the
Shankar Mahadevan Ehsan Noorani Loy Mendonsa trio,
Jatin Lalit and
Anu Malik. Well-known music directors of the past include
Naushad,
Kalyanji-Anandji,
Laxmikant-Pyarelal,
S D Burman,
R.D. Burman,
Rajesh Roshan,
Shankar Jaikishan,
Bappi Lahiri, and
Ilayaraaja.
Most Indian films are musicals. The actors generally do not sing, but lip-synch to songs sung by such accomplished
playback singers as
Mohammed Rafi,
Kishore Kumar,
Lata Mangeshkar,
Asha Bhosle,
Mukesh,
Manna Dey,
K. L. Saigal,
Yesudas,
S. P. Balasubrahmanyam,
Jayachandran,
K. S. Chithra and
Alka Yagnik.
The extremely popular Hindi
filmi songs combine Indian classical music, with its sophisticated, melismatic vocals & traditional instruments, with catchy tunes and stylings from Western pop music. The novel experimentation (resulting in such mixes as "Indian hip hop") has been received well in India and continues to grow in popularity.
Binaca Geetmala was a very popular radio show presented by
Ameen Sayani giving popularity ratings of hindi film songs from
Indian cinema on a weekly basis, listened to by millions of Hindi music lovers (akin to
Billboard Hot 100 list of songs). It ran in various incarnations from
1952 to
1993. Annual lists of the most popular songs were played at year end. The list was compiled on the basis sales of records in
India.
[Reliving the Geetmala lore. S.K. Screen, Friday, September 22, 2000, transcript available online at [1], accessed online on 29 July 2006]It was the most popular radio program before
Satellite television took over in India sometime in
1990s. Currently, hindi filmi songs are sold on tape & CD compilations, played as promos and in programs on various cable & satellite television channels and radio stations, with different popularity ratings claiming different songs as being on the top.
Western fusions
In the late
1980s and early
1970s,
rock and roll fusions with Indian music were well-known throughout
Europe and
North America.
Ali Akbar Khan's
1955 performance in the
United States was perhaps the beginning of this trend, which was soon centred around
Ravi Shankar.
'
In 1962, Shankar and Bud Shank, a jazz musician, released Improvisations and Theme From Pather Pachali
and began fusing jazz with Indian traditions. Other jazz pioneers such as John Coltraneâ€"who recorded a composition entitled 'India' during the November 1961 sessions for his album Live At The Village Vanguard
(the track was not released until 1963 on Coltrane's album Impressions'')â€"also embraced this fusion.
George Harrison (of
the Beatles) played the
sitar, which he had learned from Shankar, on the song "Norwegian Wood" in
1965.
Jazz innovator
Miles Davis recorded and performed with musicians like Khalil Balakrishna, Bihari Sharma, and Badal Roy in his post-
1968 electric ensembles. Other Western artists like the
Grateful Dead,
Incredible String Band,
the Rolling Stones,
the Move and
Traffic soon incorporated Indian influences and instruments, and added Indian performers.
Guitarist (and former
Miles Davis associate)
John McLaughlin experimented with Indian music elements in his electric
jazz-rock fusion group
The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and pursued this with greater authenticity in the mid-
1970s when he collaborated with
L. Shankar,
Zakir Hussain and others in the acoustic ensemble
Shakti.
Though the Indian music craze soon died down among mainstream audiences, diehard fans and immigrants continued the fusion. In the late
1980s, Indian-British artists fused Indian and Western traditions to make the
Asian Underground.
In the new millennium, American
hip-hop has featured Indian Filmi and Bhangra. Mainstream hip-hop artists have sampled songs from Bollywood movies and have collaborated with Indian artists. Examples include
Timbaland's "Indian Flute",
Erick Sermon and
Redman's "React", Slum Village's "Disco", and
Truth Hurts' hit song "Addictive", which sampled a
Lata Mangeshkar song.
British-born Indian artist
Panjabi MC also had a Bhangra hit in the U.S. with "Mundian To Bach Ke" which featured rapper
Jay-Z. The
Canadian-born
Raghav has achieved UK success by fusing Bhangra with
garage and other western styles.
Asian Dub Foundation are not huge mainstream stars, but their politically-charged
rap and
punk rock influenced sound has a multi-racial audience in their native UK
The arrival of
films and
pop music weakened folk music's popularity, but cheaply recordable music has made it easier to find and helped revive the traditions. Folk music (
desi) has been influential on classical music, which is viewed as a higher art form. Instruments and styles have had an effect on classical ragas. It is also not uncommon for major writers, saints and poets to have large musical libraries and traditions to their name, often sung in
thumri (semi-classical) style.
Brass bands
Brass bands, descended from
English traditions, are now very popular especially at weddings and other special occasions.
Bhangra
Bhangra is a form of
dance-oriented
folk music that has become a
pop sensation in the
United Kingdom and
North America. The present musical style is derived from the traditional musical accompaniment to the folk dance of
Punjab called by the same name,
bhangra.
Lavani
Lavani is a popular folk form of
Maharashtra. Traditionally, the songs are sung by female artistes, but male artistes may occasionally sing
Lavanis. The dance format associated with
Lavani is known as Tamasha.
Dandiya
Dandiya is a form of dance-oriented folk music that has also been adapted for pop music worldwide. The present musical style is derived from the traditional musical accompaniment to the folk dance of
Dandiya called by the same name, dandiya.
Rajasthan
Rajasthani has a diverse collection of musician
castes, including langas, sapera, bhopa, jogi and manganiyar.
Bauls
The
Bauls of
Bengal were a mystical order of musicians in 18th, 19th and early 20th century India who played a form of music using a khamak,
ektara and dotara. The word Baul comes from
Sanskrit batul meaning
divinely inspired insanity. They are a group of mystic minstrels. They are thought to have been influenced greatly by the Hindu tantric sect of the Kartabhajas as well as by
Sufi sects. Bauls travel in search of the internal ideal,
Maner Manush (
Man of the Heart).
The two main traditions of classical music have been
Carnatic music, found predominantly in the peninsular regions and
Hindustani music, found in the northern and central parts. While both traditions claim
Vedic origin, history indicates that the two traditions diverged from a common musical root since c. 13th century. For more, see
Indian classical music,
Hindustani music and
Carnatic music.
Hindustani music
Since the 13th century, most of north India was under Islamic rule, and Hindustani music is the result of a fusion of
Mughal,
Arabic and
Persian traditions with traditional Indian music.
Carnatic music
Carnatic music traces much of its contemporary concert repertoire to a series of composers and musicologists in the 15th and 16th centuries including Govindacharya, Venkatamukhi,
Purandaradasa,
kanakadasa,
Tyagaraja and
Muttuswami Dikshitar.
A towering figure of Indian music was
Rabindranath Tagore. Writing in
Bengali, he created a library of over 2,000 songs now known by Bengalis as
rabindra sangeet whose form is primarily influenced by Hindustani classical
thumri style. Many singers in
West Bengal proudly base their entire careers on the singing of Tagore musical masterpieces.
Qawwali is a
Sufi form of devotional music based on the principles of
Hindustani classical. It is performed with one or two lead singers, several chorus singers,
harmonium,
tabla, and
dholak.
*Maycock, Robert and Hunt, Ken. "How to Listen - a Routemap of India". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.),
World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 63-69. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
*Hunt, Ken. "Ragas and Riches". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.),
World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 70-78. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0.
*
Indian musical instruments*
List of regional genres of music*
Bulbul tarang*
Glossary of terms*
List of Indian fusion and rock groups*
Indian music link directory
