Indian rock is a music genre in India that incorporates elements of Indian music with mainstream rockmusic,and is often topically India-centric. While India is more often known for its classical music and Bollywoodfilmimusic, the Indian rock scene has also produced numerous bands and artists. Moheener Ghoraguli, a Bengali independent music group from Kolkata, is arguably India's and Bengal's first popular rock band.
India, in the 1950s and 1960s, uniquely amongst developing markets, had a record industry in the Gramophone Company of India (an RCA/HMV/EMI subsidiary), and LPs, EPs, and 45rpm records were freely available, including those of rock and roll acts from the USA and Britain, but also of contemporary pioneering Indian rock bands. The president of the firm, Bhaskar Menon (who later became the President of Capitol Records in the United States) was the leading promoter of Western pop music in India. Later in 1970, Polydor, the German Label, began an India label distributing rock music.
Like Western rock musicians at the time, Indian musicians also began fusing rock with traditional Indian music from the mid-1960s onwards.
One of the most popular Indian music forms is the Filmi music. Hindi film industry, popularly known as Bollywood, along with Indian regional film industries, produces thousands of films a year, most of which are musicals and feature elaborate song and dance numbers. It is interesting to note that some of the movies become successful because of their music only. Movie soundtracks are released as tapes and CDs much before the movie is released. Earlier, radio was the main media of Film music but with the coming of satellite TV and FM radio the scenario has completely changed.
It is because of the huge popularity of the Indian film music that a large number of talented music directors, singers, composers and lyricists are attracted to the Indian Film industry. India is a land of great musical heritage. It is mainly because of the same reason that almost all our means of entertainment are inspired by music. The Indian film music has given a number of great music talents over the years. Some of the notable are Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, K L Sehgal, Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, R D Burman, S D Burman, A R Rehman, Khaiyyam and many others.
Indian Film Music is said to have begun with the release of Alam Ara in 1931. In the early years of Indian cinema, the music was mainly classical and folk of inspiration, with some Western elements. A fascinating part of Indian film music is its evolution with time. The Indian film music experts have always experimented with new things to cater to the changing tastes of music lovers. Another trend in Indian film music is that of integration of some popular regional languages such as Punjabi, Oudhi etc. Though in the process of evolution, music experts have flirted with western influences too yet the Indian flavor has always remained there.
Indian pop music, often known as Indian-Pop, Hindi Pop, Indipop or Indi-pop, refers to pop music originated in the South Asian region with the playback singer Ahmed Rushdi's song ‘Ko Ko Korina’ in 1966 and has since then been adopted in India, Bangladesh, and lately Srilanka, and Nepal as a pioneering influence in their respective pop cultures. FollowingRushdi'ssuccess, Christian bands specialising in jazz started performing at various night clubs and hotel lobbies in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mumbai,Dhakaand Lahore.
The term refers to studio albums in contrast tofilmii.e., motion picture soundtrack music, for Indian cinema. The term Indipop was first used by the British-Indian fusion band Monsoon in their 1981 EP release on Steve Coe's Indipop Records. Pop music began gaining popularity across the Indian subcontinent with Pakistani singers Nazia Hassan and Zohaib, forming a sibling duo whose records, produced by the Indian Biddu, sold as many as 60 million copies. The launch of MTV India and Channel V inlate 1990sgave a huge push to India-pop music. It was this time when the music reached its greatest heights. In the late 2000s, Indi-pop music faced increasing competition fromfilmimusic.Majorpop singer stopped releasing albums and started singing for movies. The recent notable Indi-pop albums are Viva!'s - Reloaded, Himesh Reshammiya's Aap Ka Suroor, Mikey McCleary's, Bollywood reprise-B seventy by the band The Bartender.
Since the 2010s,non soundtrackmusic in India is mostly dominated by classical and folk music. In 2016 Arnie B released "Saaya" with Sony Music, and the video got over million views on YouTube. Being dubbed "The New POP Sensation" and bringing international style audio and video is giving hope to pop music to take center stage in India like it has around the world.
Music to human ears is heavenly. And if it's purely devotional, it's truly divine. Such a genre of music is the bhajan. Nothing can be more deeply rooted in the Indian tradition than bhajans. Bhajans are simple songs in soulful language expressing the many-splendoredemotions of love for God, a complete submission or self-surrender to him through singing.
Bhajan has no prescribedform,or set rules, is in free form, normally lyrical and based on melodic ragas. It belongs to a genre of music and arts that developed with the Bhakti movement. It is found in the various traditions of Hinduism but particularly in Vaishnavism, in Jainism, and as Shabad Kirtan form in Sikhism.
Ideas from scriptures, legendary epics, the teachings of saints and loving devotion to a deity are the typical subjects of bhajans. It is usually a group event, with one or more lead singers, accompaniedwithmusic, and sometimes dancing.[4] A bhajan may be sung in a temple, in a home, under a tree in open, near a river bank or a place of historic significance.
The groundwork for bhajans was laid in the hymns found in Sama Veda, the fourth Veda in the Hindu scriptures. They are distinguished from the Sanskrit shlokas (hymns that accompany religious rituals) by virtue of their easy lilting flow, the colloquial renderings and the profound appeal to the mass. These are sung in a group comprising devotees, with a lead singer. The fixed tunes, repetition of words and phrases lend a kind of tonal mesmerism. Anecdotes, episodes from the lives of Gods,preachingof gurus and saints, description of God's glories have been the subject of bhajans.
Indian folk music is diverse because of India's vast cultural diversity. It has many forms including bhangra, lavani, dandiya and Rajasthani. The arrival of movies and pop music weakened folk music's popularity, but saints and poets to have large musical libraries and traditions to their name, often sung in thumri semi-the folk music of India is dance-oriented.
Bhavageete
Songs are but poetry set to music some would argue. In Kannada, such poetry set to music, is called Bhavageethe. From the vachanas to the dasarpadas to the poems of Kuvempu, composers have added to the allure of the poetry, by setting them to music. Vachanas are devotional octets composed by Veerashaiva saints from Karnataka such as Akka Mahadevi and Basavanna. They are characterized by simple lyrics that speak directly to the listener. By bringing poems to non-readers, Bhavageethe have enjoyed great popularity in Karnataka.
As with many fields, specialists that focus singing Bhavageethe have emerged. One such popular singer amongst the current crop of performers is M.D. Pallavi. This weekend, as part of the Sontakke Global Music festival, Pallavi gave a short performance at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja. Despite its brevity the session had a tremendous impact on the audience. As she presented the work of composers Mysore Ananthaswamy, and HS Venkateshmurthy's Kannada translation of a Surdas Bhajan in raag Bhairavi, the lyrical nature of the songs had some people in the audience singing along.
Poetry set to music is not confined to Kannada literature alone. Vernacular poetry from the Divya Prabandham of the Alwar saints in Tamil, Kabir’s dohas, Sangam literature such as the verses from Silappadikaram (MS Subbalakshmi singing Vadavaraya Mathakki at her UN concert in 1966) have all been brought to life by composers and musicians. In modern times poets such as Bharathiyaar and Kannadasan in Tamil or Gulzar in Hindi have been a great source of popular songs that started their lives as poems.
Bhangra and Giddha
Bhangra and Giddha are traditionaland lively form of folk music and dance which originated from Punjab. People in Punjab traditionally perform Bhangra and Giddha while celebrating the harvest. During Bhangra or Giddha at least one person plays the dhol drum, and other people may play the flute, dholak drum, or other music instruments. Bhangra or Giddha eventually became a part of weddings and New Year celebrations. Bhangra or Giddha is the popular music genre which emerged around mid-to-late 20thcentury. Today, this music blends with various Western popular music maintaining its original form.
Lavani
Lavani is a genre of music popular in Maharashtra. Lavani is a combination of traditional song and dance, which particularly performed to the beats of Dholki, a percussion instrument. Lavani is noted for its powerful rhythm. Lavani has contributed substantially to the development of Marathi folk theatre. In Maharashtra and southern Madhya Pradesh and North Karnataka, it is performed by the female performers wearing nine-yard long saris. The songs are sung in a quick tempo.
Uttarakhandi
Uttarakhandi folk music had its roots in the lap of nature. The pure and blessed music have the feel and the touch of nature and subjects related to nature. The folk music primarily is related to the festivals, religious traditions, folk stories and simple life of the people of Uttarakhand. Thus the songs of Uttarakhand are a true reflection of the cultural heritage and the way people live their lives in the Himalayas. Musical instruments used in Uttarakhand music include the dhol, damoun, turri, ransingha, dholki, daur, thali, bhankora and masakbhaja. Tabla and harmonium are also used but to a lesser extent. The main languages are Kumaoni and Garhwali.
Pandavani
Pandavani is a folk singing style involving narration of tales from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. The singing also involves musical accompaniment. Bhima, the second of the Pandava is the hero of the story in this style.
This form of folk theatre is popular in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh and in the neighbouring areas of Madhya Pradesh, Orissaand Andhra Pradesh.
Jhaduram Dewangan and Teejan Bai are the most renowned singers of this style. Among contemporary artists, Ritu Verma is popularalong with others such as Shantibai Chelak and Usha Barle.
The origins of this singing style are not known and according to its foremost singer Teejan Bai, it might be as old as the Mahabharata itself, as few people could read in those times and that is how perhaps they passed on their stories generation after generation.Traditionally, Pandavani was performed exclusively by men. Since the 1980s, however, women also began to present Pandavani.
Pandavani can be understood as a part of the tradition of the tellers-of-tales present in every culture or tradition, where ancient epics, anecdotes and stories are recounted or re-enacted to educate and entertain the masses.
Indian classical music is the art music of the Indian subcontinent. Bharat's Natyashastra was the first treatise laying down fundamental principles of dance, music, and drama.
Indian classical music is both elaborate and expressive. Like Western classical music, it divides the octave into 12 semitones of which the 7 basic notes are, in ascending tonal order, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni for Hindustani music and Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni for Carnatic music, similar to Western music's Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti . However, Indian music uses just-intonation tuning, unlike most modern Western classical music, which uses the equal-temperament tuning system. Also, unlike modern Western classical music, Indian classical music places great emphasis on improvisation.
Indian classical music is monophonic in nature and based on a single melody line, which is played over a fixed drone. The performance is based melodically on particular ragas and rhythmically on talas. Because of the focus on exploring the raga, performances have traditionally been solo endeavors, butduetsare gaining in popularity.
Carnatic
Carnatic is the classical music of Southern India. The basic form is a monophonic‘Sa, Re, Ga, Ma,’song with improvised variations.
Imbued with emotion and the spirit of improvisation, it also contains a scientific approach. This is mainly due to the contributions of such inspired artists as Purandara Dasa, known as the Father of Carnatic Music, and other scholars who codified the system and gave it a clear format as a medium of teaching, performing, prayer and therapy.
The basis of Carnatic music is the system of ragas (melodic scales) and talas (rhythmic cycles). There are seven rhythmic cycles and 72 fundamental ragas. All other ragas are considered to have stemmed from these. An elaborate scheme exists for identifying these scales, known as the 72 Melakarta Ragas.
Carnatic music abounds in structured compositions in the different ragas. These are songs composed by great artists and handed down through generations of disciples. While the improvised elaboration of a raga varies from musician to musician, the structured portion is set. These compositions are extremely popular, with a strong accent on rhythm and lively melodic patterns. Three saint composers of the nineteenth century, Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri, have composed thousands of songs that remain favorites among musicians and audiences.
An important element of Carnatic music is its devotional content. The lyrics of the traditional compositions, whether mythological or social in nature, are set entirely against a devotional or philosophical background.
Carnatic for beginners....
Hindustani
Hindustani music is based on the raga system. A raga is a melodic scale, consisting of notes from the basic seven known assa, re,ga, ma, pa,dha, and ni. Apart fromsaandpawhich are constant, the other notes may be in major or minor tone, and this gives rise to innumerable combinations. Ten basic scales are recognized, and other ragas are considered to have evolved from these. A raga must contain a minimum of five notes.
Depending on the notes included in it, each raga acquires a distinct character. The form of the raga is also determined by the particular pattern of ascent and descent of the notes, which may not be strictly linear. Melody is built up by improvising and elaborating within the given scale. The improvisation is at times rhythm bound and at other times free from any overt rhythm.
Formal compositions (songs or instrumental compositions in a fixed meter) are juxtaposed with the improvised portion. Khyal and Dhrupad are two major types of compositions within the Hindustani genre. Of the two, Dhrupad is an older form and requires rigorous training in rhythm control as well as voice culture. Khyal developed as a more popular alternative as it contains both slow and lively compositions, though it retains its totally classical character.
