Hindi film music

For the music genre, see Filmi.

A group of Bollywood at the Indian Singers' Rights Association (ISRA) meet in 2013. Standing (L to R) Kailash Kher, Sonu Nigam, Sowmya Raoh, Javed Ali, Shaan, Udit Narayan, Manhar Udhas, Kunal Ganjawala, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Hariharan, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Sitting (L to R) Mohammed Aziz, Pankaj Udhas, Alka Yagnik, Sanjay Tandon, Chitra Singh, Suresh Wadkar, Mitali Singh.
Tyagaraju known for his extensive contributions to Carnatic music.
Music of India
Genres

Traditional

Modern

Media and performance
Music awards
Music festivals
Music media
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem
Jana Gana Mana
Other
Vande Mataram
Regional music

Hindi film songs, more formally known as Hindi Geet or filmi songs and informally known as Bollywood music, are songs featured in Hindi films. Derived from the song-and-dance routines common in Indian films, Bollywood songs, along with dance, are a characteristic motif of Hindi cinema which gives it enduring popular appeal, cultural value and context.[1] Hindi film songs form a predominant component of Indian pop music, and derive their inspiration from both classical and modern sources.[1] Hindi film songs are now firmly embedded in North India's popular culture and routinely encountered in North India in marketplaces, shops, during bus and train journeys and numerous other situations.[2] Though Hindi films routinely contain many songs and some dance routines, they are not musicals in the Western theatrical sense; the music-song-dance aspect is an integral feature of the genre akin to plot, dialogue and other parameters.[1]: 2 

The first song recorded in India by Gauhar Jaan in 1902 and the first Bollywood film Alam Ara (1931) were under Saregama, India's oldest music label currently owned by RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group.[3] Linguistically, Bollywood songs tend to use vernacular Hindustani, mutually intelligible to self-identified speakers of both Hindi and Urdu, while modern Bollywood songs also increasingly incorporate elements of Hinglish.[4] Urdu poetry has had a particularly strong impact on Bollywood songs, where the lyrics draw heavily from Urdu poetry and the ghazal tradition.[5] In addition, Punjabi is also occasionally used for Bollywood songs.

The Indian Music Industry is largely dominated by Bollywood soundtracks, which account for nearly 80% of the country's music revenue. The industry was dominated by cassette tapes in the 1980s and 1990s, before transitioning to online streaming in the 2000s (bypassing CD and digital downloads). As of 2014, the largest Indian music record label is T-Series with up to 35% share of the Indian market, followed by Sony Music India (the largest foreign-owned label) with up to 25% share, and then Zee Music (which has a partnership with Sony).[6] As of 2017, 216 million Indians use music streaming services such as YouTube, Hungama, Gaana and JioSaavn.[7] As of 2021, T-Series is the most subscribed YouTube channel with over 170 million subscribers.[8]

  1. ^ a b c Gopal, Sangita; Moorti, Sujata (16 June 2008). Global Bollywood: travels of Hindi song and dance. U of Minnesota Press. pp. 1–6. ISBN 978-0-8166-4579-4. Archived from the original on 3 April 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  2. ^ Gokulsing, K. Moti (4 February 2009). Popular culture in a globalised India. Taylor & Francis. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-415-47666-9. Archived from the original on 3 April 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  3. ^ "Evergreen Hindi Songs, Ghazals & Devotional music from Saregama". Saregama. Archived from the original on 26 October 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  4. ^ "Decoding the Bollywood poster". National Science and Media Museum. 28 February 2013. Archived from the original on 16 July 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  5. ^ Dwyer, Rachel (2006). Filming the Gods: Religion and Indian Cinema. Routledge. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-134-38070-1.
  6. ^ Malvania, Urvi (21 April 2014). "Sony Music eyes numero uno position in India". Business Standard. Archived from the original on 9 January 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  7. ^ "Spotify's plan to beat Apple: sign the rest of the world". Financial Times. 3 January 2019. Archived from the original on 9 January 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. ^ Malik, Daniyal (3 March 2021). "Here Are The Channels With Most Number of Subscribers On YouTube". Digital Information World. Archived from the original on 10 March 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2021.