Indian Pop Music Stars: Still to find their Groove

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.

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