 The 1980s gifted us with emerging and talented pop artists like Alisha Chinai, Biddu, Neeraj Sridhar, Raageshwari, Shweta Shetty and Suneeta Rao, among others. They released several albums in succession and threatened the marketability of Bollywood music. Playback singers also attempted to release independent albums (Udit Narayan, Anuradha Paudwal), only to fail. There was a clear demarcation between Bollywood and Indi-pop. However, this pop music in India went through a steady decline in late 1990’s and artists moved on to greener pastures — Bollywood — where they took up playback singing as a career.
Eventually, Hindi cinema lapped up Indi-pop styles into its music. Established singers like Sonu Nigam and Udit Narayan made way for artists like Lucky Ali for instance, who tasted success with his debut track, Ek pal ka jeena from Kaho na Pyaar Hai while Alisha Chinai created a rage with Kajra re from Bunty Aur Babli. As RJ Sanjay Das puts it, “Pop music in India was dying. Therefore, Bollywood music naturally became the only option through which pop artists could earn their bread and butter. It came down to artistic integrity vs survival.”
At one point of time, both these schools of music were churning out similar tunes. Why would the audience want to listen to similar songs from two different genres of music? And as redundancy crept into pop music, a decline in album sales and artist popularity ensued. Das explains, “Music in India is trend-based. A fad comes in, everyone jumps into the bandwagon, which leads to an overkill. Many artists have risen and fallen in the same fashion. Himesh Reshammiya is an apt example. He was criticised for his nasal tone but appreciated by the masses. He created non-film albums and composed songs for Hindi films. Reshammiya’s songs were catchy and extremely popular, but his ‘peppy’ music too wasn’t appreciated for long. It died a natural death.”
Unlike Hindi cinema, films in the Western market too have soundtracks but they aren’t banked upon by producers. Sowmya Raoh, singer, reiterates, “Indi-pop is dead and buried. Bollywood music is indispensable. Its power supersedes non-film music. Period.” Adarsh Gupta, music head, SaReGaMa, adds, “The past eight to nine years have seen a decline in the market for music. However, we are working on revival strategies.” According to Radio Indigo’s Trigam Mukherjee, “Bollywood pays and in the process becomes the key differentiator. Independent artists are left nowhere as they are unable to compete with the marketing strategies film producers undertake to promote their albums. Bollywood is a Frankenstein that devours Indi-pop talent in the country.”
However, Indian Rock is preferred to Indi-pop as music companies find them commercially
viable. Suresh T, managing director, EMI Music, says, “Our focus is on Indian bands and we believe that in recent times there has been a resurgence of audience interest in their music. Hindi cinema, due to its reach, is a good platform to showcase these upcoming and established bands.” Trigam believes, “Indian pop has always played second fiddle to Bollywood. But the industry is poised for some growth as more radio stations and record labels are willing to invest in talented singers who are different and unconventional when compared to the current crop of musical artists in the industry. All they need is a good marketing strategy.” He adds further, “An artist may be talented, but if you don’t have a solid record label backing you, then you cannot market your product. Now, to get a record label to support you, you need to be commercially viable. Unfortunately, when you seek a commercially viable project, you end up doing ‘Bollywood style music’.”
Despite the steady decline in demand for Indian pop artists, efforts are being made to resurrect the otherwise dead scene. Suresh T says, “Our representation of Western artists is greater as we resumed our operations in India in the late ‘90s. Today, we are increasing our Indian range of albums and work closely with many of India’s popular bands.” While SaReGaMa will be launching eight new artists; it is yet to be seen if it is enough to compete with the popular music market. Trigam says, “We work primarily with Western artists and continue to do so, but this does not mean we do not believe in Indian talent. We have now made a conscious effort to promote talented Indian musicians.”
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