Indian Pop Music Stars: Still to find their Groove

chillibreeze writer — Bokul Bhowmick

Popular music or “pop” music by definition is that kind of music that has mass appeal. It is the music that caters to a large number of people and contrary to what we understand it to be, it is not a genre. According to Wikipedia, Pop music is music charted by the number or sales, plays, etc., that the work receives.

So what’s the deal with this pop culture and why are so many artists drawn towards it? Pop music gives one an opportunity to be individualistic. Since it is not any particular style of music, an artist gets an opportunity to experiment with a wide range of instruments as well as vocals. Pop music traces its root back to WorldWar2 when sound recordings were made accessible to the masses for the first time.

Looking more closely at Western pop, one can easily appreciate the global appeal it has created. From Madonna to Cher, ABBA to Robbie Williams, western pop has produced some of the best and highest paid artists. Western pop music encompasses in it music from various regions such as Latin America, African American, etc. Pop music in America has become one of the most profitable industries since the 19th century.

There’s no denying however, that pop here was influenced by jazz, the rock ‘n’ roll era and soul music. However, even amongst all these emerging genres, it maintained it’s unique sound and mass appeal. Pop stars in the west have the world swooning at their music, selling record-breaking copies of their albums and creating numerous firsts in the music industry. With American Idol making pop music larger than life and the music awards such as the Grammys bringing it closer to the audience, western pop music has definitely carved a niche for itself in the global music industry.

India, on the other hand, best known for its classical music also has its fair share of pop stars. With pop music being predominantly clustered around Hindi movies, the pop culture movement is far more restricted here than in the west. While the western pop culture has various sub genres such as baroque pop, dance pop, space age pop, etc, the Indian pop music is yet to evolve.

What is common in the two regions, is the audience that is drawn towards it. While we may not have Kylie Minogue or Britney Spears, we have a nation of over a million music lovers who sway to the music of Sonu Nigam and Himesh Reshamiya.

Without doubt, western pop artists have more global appeal than our Indian pop stars. While one can easily recognise Madonna, Kenny Loggins, Mariah Carey, ABBA , the Indian counterparts are yet to leave a mark on the word map.

However, with Indian artists experimenting, and often learning some styles from their western peers, the Indian pop artists have come a long way. A significant shift has been observed, for instance, in some of the Hindi music videos. While the earlier pop videos were unstructured, often boring and low budgeted; several new artists have begun experimenting with new and innovative ways of capturing the audience. However, one has to admit - the Indian pop artist still have a long way to go in terms of style, lyrics and instruments.

Needless to say, one of the primary similarities that these artists share, are the fans. The faithful audience that follows these artists and make them what they are. And as yesteryears boy band NSync once sang:

Do you ever wonder why
This music gets you high?
It takes you on a ride
Feel it when your body
Starts to rock
Baby you can't stop
And the music's all you got
Come on now
This must be, pop

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—About our writer:

Bokul says, "What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail? I am an internal communication executive at an IT firm. Traveling, reading and music are something that help me get through - be it the day, or life."

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