Indipop – India’s answer to the MTV generation
It’s known by many names – Indipop, Hindi-Pop, Indian-Pop – but they all refer to the same thing. Ever since legendary Filmi playback singer Ahmed Rushdi released ‘Ko-Ko-Korina’ in 1966, pop music in India has steadily risen in popularity, and muscled its way into the Indian Filmi scene to grab the attention of the country’s youth. After the Indian music revolution of the 1990s, Indipop broke away from Filmi to become an independent industry altogether, and continues to grow in popularity around the world to this day.
Although the genre itself was born in the 1960s, the term itself wasn’t used until 1981, when British-Indian fusion band Monsoon released an EP on Steve Coe’s new label, Indipop Records. During the 1980s, Indipop began to feature on the soundtracks of Indian movies – known as Filmi – however, apart from a few independent singers like Usha Uthup and Peenax Masani, the genre made little chart impact in its own right.
This all began to change in the 1990s. First off, the popularity of playback singer Alisha Chinai really began to peak. Her Indipop style was beginning to catch on, and she started to record a number of pop songs outside of her Filmi career. By the time MTV India was launched in 1996, a revolution in Indian music was underway. Under the tutelage of music mogul Shashi Gopal, Chinai had a smash hit with ‘Made in India’, which went on to become one of the highest selling Indipop albums of all time. A new branch of Indian music had been born, one that was completely independent of the movie industry.
Stylewise, Indipop is a mixture of traditional Indian music – both classical and folk – and more modern rhythmical styles popularised in other areas of the world. In more recent times, it has also become fashionable to remix classic Filmi songs, with new beats and samples laid over the original vocals.
As well as taking hold in India, Indipop is also becoming increasingly popular in the rest of the world, particularly with second-generation Indians living in the west. In the UK, artists like Talvin Singh have built careers by fusing Indipop with domestic musical styles, while in the USA, the likes of Britney Spears and Jay-Z have worked with Indipop artists like Rishi Rich and Panjabi MC.
As well as Alisha Chinai, notable Indipop acts include Colonial Cousins, Himesh Reshammiya, Shantanu Mukherjee, Papon and Raghav Sachar. If anything, the genre is continuing to grow in popularity, and may well replace Filmi as India’s most popular chart music at some point in the future. And with ethnic music beginning to taste mainstream success in western countries, perhaps it won’t be long before everyone is familiar with Indipop. You may not have heard of it now, but the chances are you will do in the not to distant future!
