Indian pop

[AcerBen]

Is there such a thing? I'm intrigued..

[ShariVari]

There are relatively few stand-alone pop stars. The Indian media is dominated by the Mumbai film industry which, in turn, is driven by music. The biggest stars tend to be playback singers - vocalists who record tunes for actors to mime to in musical sequences. Quite a few of the major ones are in their eighties but still provide the singing voices of the lithe young superstars.

Western interest in Hindi pop-culture does peak every few years but there's an awful lot of patronising rubbish talked. Although keeping a healthy sense of the ridiculous, it's not all the kitsch throwaway stuff you read about. Much of it is as sophisticated as pop from anywhere else.

Sunidhi Chauhan's worth a look - she's the biggest star of the new generation. Try and find Aa Tayar Hoja from the film Asoka. Actually, the whole Asoka soundtrack's wonderful (as is the film). There's usually something worth listening to on the Bobby Friction and Nihal show too - if you don't have the energy to go looking for it yourself.

[AcerBen]

So if I were looking for an Indian Britney I'd be dissapointed?

[konichiwaboy]

Nope....shes called Alisha Chinai.

[thetokenbrownone]

I think Indian pop can be found anywhere. Are you specifically looking for pop stars from India or just Indian-based music? Because there are lots of brit-grown acts that sing Indian music and when you say pop, we must look at it through whatever influences that area has, because our "pop" sound isn't necessarily what might be considered pop in the Indian sub-continent, which has a wide range of influences, ranging from traditional bhangra, religious music, poetry-like-ghazals.....

I think I've gone off on a tangent but there's something out there for everyone I reckon. As a massive market, I think the Indian consumers are quite savvy in terms of their own pop appreciation, as the sales of Bollywood soundtracks goes to show.