Well, to talk about the Indian film music would be equivalent to making a sea route from India to the United States of America!!! Ha, I am just exaggerating. But fact remains that it is one of the most expanding and powerful empire. Thanks to an overflowing talent bucket and an overgrowing musical exposure, there is no dirth of people in the industry. Thus as more and more people get absorbed into it, there is more n more competitive music that reaches our ears and puts us in a fix as to which sounds more better though each is distinctively amazing and natural. Indian film music is also famously known as Bollywood music, which is written and performed for Indian cinema. It was in 1931, that Ardeshir M. Irani`s Alam Ara, was the first Bollywood film to be released with a proper soundtrack. But, during those days, Bollywood music was only confined to Indian (classical and folk) in inspiration, with some Western elements usually comprising of orchestras. But over the years, the Western elements have increased significantly and there have been a lot of changes in the pattern of the Bollywood music. Most of the Bollywood films today are musicals. There are films which have as many as 30 tracks in their audio CDs. Since most of the movies were based on social and political issues, even their songs were restricted to such issues. Gradually, other forms of songs like ghazals, romantic songs, instrumental and wedding songs came up. Along the line there were tracks similar in rhythm to great western artists like the Beatles and Elvis Presley. The dashing Disco era was also witnessed for a prolonged period in the music industry. Bollywood songs then changed from slow songs to soft music, patriotic to wedding songs, soft numbers to dance numbers and classical songs to remixed versions. The changed style and mood of the Bollywood latest Hindi songs is greatly due to the influence of the youth and teenagers of the present generation. Some legends from the music culture have observed that “the deterioration in the modern-day film music is primarily because of the advent of new generation and convent educated directors in the film industry, who have neither any sense of Indian culture nor are conversant with the country’s music, including Indian classical music as well as the folk music.

The styles, trend and choice of Bollywood songs kept on changing with the changing generation but many astounding singers still exist in the industry because of the inexpressible contribution they have made. So we see that music is-was and will be ever changing because it can never be set to a particular boundary or limited in its creativity. A big point to note here is a dialogue by the great santoor maestro, Pt Shivkumar Sharma, “the music belonging to the golden era of films had two main achievements to its credit; one, popularizing various raags in the Indian as well as the Carnatic classical music among the masses, and two, allowing the music directors from various states, who had come down to Mumbai, to use the folk music from their native place, for films.” Today anybody who is over the age of 40 can easily make out that the film music is greatly based on the commercial aspects of the same. As films need to churn out bigger and bigger profits hence music too is under the constant pressure of being in sync with the Gen Y and their likes and dislikes. So now that the youth has been blamed for decline of trends in the Indian film music we shift our focus to globalization which made it possible for the people here in this country to get a very close and clear insight of the cultures and trends in the world outside our national borders. Incidentally, western influence always existed in the film industry, but unlike today the foreign source of music was not detectable in most Hindi film songs then. The public today demands scantily clad girls performing an item number, a soft sensuous track for the couple in romance, a fast paced track for tapping their feet and a remixed version of almost every classic song, to dance in the discothèque. Though there did exist musical tracks that were inspired by foreign tunes, every one of them was very unique and had a completely altered base tune and rhythm. Today commercialization has hampered creativity so much so that music directors have to employ people who scan music tracks from other countries and their respective genres so as to be copied completely bit by bit into a Bollywood tune. The changing times need. Change is inevitable and those who live in present times survive while those who long for past and refuse to come to terms with this moment are no better than dead people. Today’s music is for today’s people, irrespective of its quality. But then there are quite a few of noted people who still have a sense of music and its production. There are loads of artists who are mastering not only the Indian but folk instruments from other countries, there are singers who have humbly started from various “Gharanas” and classical backgrounds, there are directors who have still kept the Indian culture and musical originality alive. So with a few bad things we still have a majority of best ones as well.
Technology has made it all the more easier to record, compose, edit and produce music. As compared to the tedious and laborious work that people at earlier times had to undergo to bring out just one song, today’s scenario gives many added advantages. Computers, hi end softwares, digital musical instruments that play almost any note of any musical instrument that is required, its all becoming more and more compact. Though the quality is becoming better and better day by day the naturalness of a tone is losing its value. So today’s trends have not completely changed the cultural ethics of music, it does exist but since there are 100s of films being produced every 12 odd months there is a possibility that some really good songs may be over shadowed by the not so good ones. The other problem is the media hype that is created by continuously hammering songs into the public, to a point that it forcibly makes its way into their minds and hearts. Satellite television, radio, internet sites, mobile phones, music has lost its approachability. Gone are the days when people used to throng and wait for hours outside shops for records and cassettes to be the first ones to buy their favorite songs which they heard on the radio from the latest film. One used to have a very limited access to music hence it was a treasured art. But today music is carried around like a wallet. It has become a very essential part of billions of Indians. People relate to music with every part of their life, either good or bad. There are people who eat, sleep and drink music. They can see nothing beyond this finer art form. Indian film music still has an inspirational value, it still makes people lose themselves in varying moods and emotions and connect to it as it has always since ages. The fact of life remains that for good to exist bad needs to exist too or else there won’t be any distinction between them. Lets not forget that even in this modern and fast-forward era, classic music made in the earlier ages of Indian Film industry still holds its Golden and vintage value amongst almost every Indian who would have heard them just once thus proving that music is priceless, timeless, and ever fresh. Every song suited the culture and trend that prevailed during its times and will follow to do so forever. We have to grow and let things grow too, since that’s what the law of mother earth says.