Bollywood Songs Going Global

Just like Indian cinema, India’s music Industry has not just endured but also survived the onslaught of western music despite the economic liberalization and has turned it to its advantage.

Bollywood movies and their trademark songs and dance sequences are becoming more and more familiar to people around the globe. Bollywood music now grants the rhythm for advertisements marketing goods ranging from biscuits to mobile phones. Not just that, they even provide the rhythm for remixes to underground bands. These musical spectacles have even inspired scenes in scores of Western films such as Vanity Fair and Moulin Rouge

Now, a Slumdog and two Oscars for the hindi songs of the movie later A R Rahman has put his music firmly on the world stage, but will Rahman’s win help Indian Bollywood music to conquer the western audience, which is used to the likes of Madonna, Akon, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears?

Bollywood’s renowned singer Asha Bhosle’s series of duets with Western singers, composer cum singer Himesh Reshammiya’s performance at the famed Wembley Arena in London, and legendary composer A.R. Rahman’s “Bombay Dreams” world tour clearly indicate that the world willingly awaits the ascent of the Indian tune and Hindi Songs. Rahman’s recognition will definitely stimulate demand for Indian music and add to its growing popularity. Also with a growing number of Indian filmmakers hunting for International applause, the Indian music industry is rapidly adapting to the taste of global audience. An example of this would be the use of rock music in the Bollywood film, Rock On.

Rock music is one the most popular genres of music internationally. Earlier as far as Indian music industry was concerned, rock was not taken very seriously, it was a very shallow and superficial genre used just as a spice and sprinkled in tiny amounts to make songs more amusive and peppy but Farhan Akhtar’s ‘Rock On’ has reinvented the hold of rock in Bollywood with its proplar Hindi Songs and its popularity and mass appeal has ensured that this is just the beginning.

Today Bollywood music and Indian Hindi Songs has set new standards for popular music and broken old molds. Bollywood music industry is forever evolving and re-inventing itself. It now covers all music styles and song genres and uses cross-country melody. Since the 90s, popular music has gradually translated out of the singular orbit of cinema and now has started revolving in multiple trajectories such as bhangra-pop, remixes, Indipop and ghazals, though the glory of the last genre has now diminished. It is this diversity and variety that has made it popular across all cultures and regions. Now, Bollywood melodies and songs possibly will join the global music mainstream as Latino did through the nineties.

Popularity of Bollywood music is growing abroad with more and more people enjoying dancing to peppy bollywood numbers. Several Bollywood film stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bacchan, Katrina Kaif, Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai Bacchan, Saif Ali Khan have done multiple stage shows to a sell-out crowd abroad, where they performed on Bollywood numbers.
To say the least bollywood music and Hindi Songs are fast becoming the brand ambassador of brand India and has been propelling its mass appeal just like Taj Mahal and Chicken tikka did in the past!