Blaring out of roadside tea stalls, on buses, in concert halls and public parks, music is very much a part of India’s everyday life. Songs are sung to convey devotion to gods, to a beau, to parents, to friends, in playfulness, in sad sombre tones, in all seriousness as well as to tease the pretty girl walking on the street. While classical, folk, semi classical and the purely devotional are genres that anyone anywhere in the world is familiar with, what isn’t as commonly known is the category of “filmi” music. And what is even less common is the genre of “Indipop”.

Classical music in India is elevated to a science and this can be gauged from the description of it as shastriya sangeet, or ‘scientific music’.Central to the classical music tradition in India is what is known as the guru-shishya parampara, literally the teacher-pupil tradition. To be elevated to the status of a guru, a musician must have achieved the mastery of his art. These maestros are entitled Pandit if they are Hindu, as in Pandit Jasraj and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, or Ustaad if they are Muslim, as in Ustaad Zakir Hussain and Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan. It is only a recent phenomenon that music is taught in music schools and such institutions. Traditionally the knowledge was passed from father to son, and other pupils who in fact looked upon the guru as a de facto father. While the basics remain constant, there are differences in style and flourish that distinguish one gharana from another; gharana literally means ‘household’. The major gharanas are those of Kirana, Gwalior, Agra, Lucknow, Jaipur and Patiala. While the guru-shishya paramapara is common to the teaching of classical music all over the country, the tradition of gharanas is unique to the north Indian fom of Hindustani classical.

India has not one but two streams of classical music, that of the north called “Hindustani” and that of the south, known as “Carnatic”.The development of two distinct streams is usually attributed to the fact that northern India absorbed the impact of Muslim rule in its culture, as is betrayed in the fact that Hindustani is a Persian word (used for those of the land of the river Sindhu or Indus) while South India did not. Hindustani classical music was greatly patronised by the Muslim rulers of northern India, particularly by the Mughal and Awadhi (Lucknow) courts.

Hindustani music has two major vocal traditions: dhrupad, which is an austere rendition of the chosen raga, and khyal, which has a great degree of embellishment and is lighter on the ear. Besides these there are many lighter semi-classical vocal forms such as bhajans, dadra, thumri, ghazals and quawwali. Ghazals are Urdu love lyrics spiritual and temporal, whereas quawwalis, also sung in Urdu are religious songs in the Sufi tradition.

Carnatic music is more obviously religious than Hindustani. The most common venue for a performance is a temple, and more often than not, the songs are dedicated to a god. This “temple music” of the south is easily distinguishable from Hindustani classical even for a casual listener. Far less restrained than its northern counterpart, Carnatic music is less subtle and more elaborate in its decorative flourishes. Unlike Hindustani where performers may be heavily influenced by their gharana, Carnatic musicians, since they do not have a gharana tradition, are far more individualised as performers.

The major contributors to the development of Carnatic music are Thyagaraj, the late 18^th century poet and composer, Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri. Today's eminent musicians include Gangubai Hangal, M Balamuralikrishna and M S Subbulakshmi, and the veena virtuoso
S. Balachander.

Despite stylistic differences both streams are essentially similar in philosophy and structure. Sa re ga ma pa dha ni are the seven swars or the seven notes that make up the scale. The words of a song are set to a raga (pronounced ‘raag’), which is a combination of swars. Notes are combined in different ways for every raga, producing a melody that represents a particular mood or emotion. There are thousands of ragas but only some few hundred are regularly performed. A particular time of day, month or year is ascribed by tradition for the singing (or playing) of a certain raga. Poorva Ragas (‘ragas of the west) are performed between noon and midnight whereas Uttar Ragas (ragas of the east) are reserved for the first half of the day. Another important component of music is taal or a cycle of rhythm consisting of a fixed number of beats. Hindustani music has fewer ragas than Carnatic.

A drone instrument that provides the pitch accompanies performances of classical music. This is the tanpura (or tambura). Indian classical music encompasses a range of musical instruments, which may be used as accompaniment in a vocal performance or played solo. Hindustani and Carnatic music have developed distinct sets of instruments. Commonly heard instruments in the north are the sitar, santoor, sarod, sarangi (string instruments), the tabla and the pakhavaj (drums), and the harmonium, shehnai and flute (wind). In the south, the veena is the most commonly seen and heard stringed instrument. Percussion instruments like the mridangam and the ghatam are used in solo performances as well as to accompany a vocal performance. 

Committed to the revival of Indian classical music and dance is the movement called SPIC MACAY - The Society for the Preservation of Indian Classical Music, Art and Culture Among Youth. It organises concerts and festivals and has met with a great degree of success in its endeavour to reintroduce classical music and dance into the mass consciousness.

Folk music is integral to the cultural scenario. Each state, community, tribe and people has its own musical tradition and repertoire of songs. These songs are sung during weddings, harvests, the birth of children and other festive occasions. 

The music on the streets, regardless of whether it is an urban metalled road or a village dust track, is film music. Worth crores of rupees, (1 crore = 10 million), the music business of Indian films is almost as integral to Bollywood as film making itself. Sometimes the sale of music rights itself recovers for the producer more than half the cost of production. Unlike Hollywood movies, where OSTs are a motley collection of old hits and a few new numbers, the Bollywood (Hollywood’s Bombay counterpart) movie maniac has access to a wholly dedicated soundtrack of original (and sometimes not-so-original) compositions. Song and dance, such an integral part of Indian life, is an integral part of the Indian movie too. The songs don’t simply play unobtrusively in the background but take centre stage at opportune moments in the film. 

The biggest name in Hindi film music of course, is Lata Mangeshkar whose voice gave expression to a thousand emotions from the playful to the painful. She’s been the singing voice of innumerable actresses for the last 50 years. Today’s big phenomenon is the composer A R Rehman, whose scores blend the Indian with the Western. Film music is by far the most popular form in India, uniting the east and the west, the north and the south. 

Taking its cue from the popularity of film music and from the liberalisation of the airwaves, Indipop or Indian popular music enjoyed huge success initially. Music videos on new 24-hour music channels became the vehicles of their success, and anybody who had even half a voice but a nice face and a good body became an overnight sensation. The initial boom has subsided somewhat now but Punjabi pop, which with its robust rhythm and beat was the most successful, is still on the scene. Just tune into MTV India, and you’ll see what we mean!