Indian Music

Hello everyone!

Well, I was thinking about a topic to share with you and suddenly I remember this. I want to talk about Indian music and how this type of music contrasts with our pop-rock culture. Basically I want to show you some videos :)

First of all, for Indian music is very important the "raga" (musical scale) and "tala" (rhythm). Also it has many variants, but now I just want to talk about classical, folk and pop-rock music.

Classical divides in Carnatic and Hindustani music. The first one is played in Southern India, it evolved from ancient Hindu traditions and it was often inspired by religious devotion. Their main emphasis is on vocal music; most compositions are written to be sung, and even when played on instruments, they are meant to be performed in gāyaki (singing) style. Improvisation plays an important role. This is a video of Dr. KJ Yesuda, a singer of this type of music. The song is very misterious and the singer has a deep voice.

The second one is played in Northern India, it has been evolving since the 12th century and it uses voice and some instruments plucked, bowed string, of wind and percussion. This is another song :) I liked it so I hope for you too.

Also is Folk music, which has at least six varieties. One of them is Dandiya, which is a form of dance-oriented folk music that has also been adapted to for pop music. The curious thing about this, at least for me, is that people who dance are hitting 2 sticks with each other, following the rythmn of the song. I found it very nice :)

Another is Ganasangeet, which is generally sung in chorus carrying some social message. The songs are usually about Freedom, community strength and patriotism. Due to the British occupation in India, a lot of protest songs about anti-imperialism/pro-socialism have been written in India. Apni Azadi Ko Hum Hargiz Mita Sakte Nahi (in English: We cannot ever erase our freedom) is a song from a film called Leader, so here it is.

Now we go to pop music and obviously I'm talking of Bollywood, because Filmi (songs from Indian films) is the biggest form of Indian popular music. One example is this song, Jai Ho! That is from the famous movie Slumdog Millionaire.

Finally I want to show you “Raga rock”, which is a term used to describe rock or pop music with a heavy Indian influence, (either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of instrumentation, such as the sitar and table). Raga and other forms of classical Indian music began to influence many rock groups during the 1960s; most famously The Beatles. So this is the last song, it is called Norwegian Wood.

As you can see, this type of music is very different to Madonna, Michael Jackson or Justin Bieber. What do you think about these songs? Did you like them?

See you!

                                                                                            By Constanza Ureta