Indian pop
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Indian pop music, often known as Indi-pop or Hindi pop, is a term that refers to pop music of India. It is based on various Indian folk or classical music, influenced by modern beats from different parts of the world. Indian pop was relatively non-existent until the late 1970s to early 1980s. The major push to bring South Asian music into a "pop" motif was by Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan. Much if not most of Indian Pop music comes from the Indian Film Industry, and coincides with the filmi genre.
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[edit] Western Music
Several Indians have gained popularity in mainstream popular Western music, especially rock., however Indian Pop as a genre remains relatively unknown. Artists of Indian descent include Freddie Mercury of British band Queen, born in Zanzibar, Tanzania, who started his first band in an Indian boarding school in Panchgani. During the '90s in the UK, the Asian Underground or Asian Massive scene gave rise to numerous Indo-Brit musicians and producers such as Talvin Singh, who in turn influenced mainstream pop music. Indie Indo-British band Cornershop also fuses Indian and Western music.
In the US, popular rock musicians of Indian descent include Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, Tony Kanal of the group No Doubt, and guitarist Anand Bhatt. Grammy-winning jazz singer Norah Jones is half-Indian, her father being sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, who himself was a famous artist in the West.
In Canada, Indo-Canadian musicians include: Dave 'Brownsound' Baksh, a former Sum 41 guitarist who is now forming his own band, Brown Brigade; percussionist Safwan Javed of the pop-rock trio Wide Mouth Mason; bassist, vocalist, and producer Chin Injeti, formerly of the trio Bass is Base; and Ashwin Sood, drummer and husband of Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan.
In the Scandinavian extreme music scene, Indian musicians include Yusaf Parvez of the Norwegian black metal bands Dimmu Borgir/DHG/Ved Buens Ende/Code.
[edit] Earlier artists
It started in the 90s and that time there were very few singers who were popular as non-film singers viz. Usha Utthup, Sharon Prabhakar and Peenaz Masani. Then as the industry expanded, came Baba Sehgal, Alisha Chinai, Shantanu Mukherjee aka Shaan, Sagarika, Colonial Cousins (Hariharan and Leslie Lewis), Lucky Ali, Sonu Nigam etc.
[edit] Current artists
Some of the popular Indipop artists include Sonu Nigam, Rageshwari, Bombay Vikings, Asha Bhosle, Shaan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Bombay Rockers, Anu Malik, Jazzy B, Malkit Singh, Hans Raj Hans, Baba Sehgal and more recently Raghav, Jay Sean, Juggy D, Rishi Rich, and Bally Sagoo, Punjabi MC, Bhangra Knights.
[edit] Global appeal
Many Punjabi Indian film and pop songs are finding their way into mainstream American music, like in the case of Britney Spears with Rishi Rich, Jay-Z with Panjabi MC, Timbaland, Missy Elliott, and Truth Hurts, with her song "Addictive" (for which they were sued for copyright infringement of a Lata Mangeshkar song). The beginning of mainstream Indian music finding its way into America began with the movie Moulin Rouge!. In the movie, the main number, "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend (Hindi)", featured Alka Yagnik's song "Chamma Chamma" from the Indian movie "China-Gate".
In the UK, the growth of South Asian musical subcultures began to influence mainstream pop by surfacing in songs and remixes by the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Erasure, Bananarama, and Samantha Fox.
Recently Indian pop has taken an interesting turn, with the 'remixing' of oldie songs from past Indian Film songs and adding new beats to them. Most of the Indian music, whether it be Filmi, Classical, Pop or Folk, still incorporates the eternal beats of India, making it one of few pop music cultures, e.g. Turkish and Arabic music, that keep traditional beats and sounds even with the modernization of music.
