Need for Revival
(Publication: Deccan Herald)
Indi-pop gave us a whole new generation of talented artists like Suneeta Rao, Alisha Chinai and Biddu. Sadly, this genre is now extinct. Puja Goyal wonders if it can ever be revived to its former glory.
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 Luck