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Artists
Bollywood
Artists
Bollywood
Sajid-Wajid
1998–2014
·
3 albums
Listen
4
/5
Genres
Indian Indie
Indian indie is the umbrella for independent, non-film music made in India across languages such as Hindi, English, and numerous regional tongues. It is defined more by its DIY production and artist-led release model than by a single sound. Musically, it spans indie pop and rock, folk-fusion, singer‑songwriter ballads, dream‑pop/shoegaze textures, and electronic‑leaning productions. Artists often blend Western harmony and song forms with raga‑tinged melodies, Indian rhythmic feels, and occasional use of traditional instruments like tabla, bansuri, or sitar. The scene grew rapidly with college festivals, small venues, and digital platforms (YouTube, streaming services, Bandcamp), plus boutique labels and festivals such as NH7 Weekender that created national visibility. Lyrically, it tends to be intimate and contemporary—touching on romance, urban life, identity, and nostalgia—while maintaining accessible hooks and warm, organic sonics.
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Desi
Desi is a contemporary umbrella term for South Asian–rooted popular music made both in the subcontinent and across its global diaspora. It blends Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu (and other regional) lyrics with Western pop, hip hop, R&B, and EDM production, while retaining melodic sensibilities from filmi/bollywood and classical/folk traditions. The sound ranges from romantic, hook-forward ballads to high-energy dance tracks driven by dhol- and tumbi-influenced rhythms. It is less a single formula than a shared aesthetic: flexible code-switching (Hinglish, Punjabi-English), raga-tinged melodies, and club-ready beats that connect Bollywood lineage, Punjabi bhangra, and global urban music.
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Modern Bollywood
Modern Bollywood is the contemporary sound of Hindi‑language film music that emerged in the 2000s and crystallized in the 2010s. It blends classic filmi songwriting with global pop, EDM, hip‑hop, and R&B production, resulting in hook‑forward, polished tracks designed for both cinematic scale and streaming virality. Stylistically, it keeps melodic DNA from Hindustani ragas, ghazal, qawwali, and regional folk (especially Punjabi/Bhangra), while adopting Western harmony, four‑on‑the‑floor grooves, trap drums, and glossy synth textures. Hinglish lyrics, prominent topline hooks, and dance‑ready choruses are common. The era also popularized re-creations of older hits alongside original songs, with tight, radio‑friendly structures and high‑impact mixes that translate from theaters to reels.
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Hindi Pop
Hindi pop (often called Indipop when referring to non-film Indian pop) is Hindi-language popular music created primarily outside of Bollywood film soundtracks. It blends Western pop, dance, rock, R&B, and electronic production with Hindustani melodic sensibilities, Indian rhythmic motifs, and Hindi (often Hinglish) lyrics. The genre rose to mass popularity in the 1990s through music television and an emerging independent label ecosystem, foregrounding standalone singles and artist-driven albums. Signature features include catchy chorus hooks, glossy synth-driven arrangements, light classical ornamentation, and videos that emphasize youth culture, fashion, romance, and dance.
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Chutney
Chutney is an Indo-Caribbean dance music that blends North Indian folk and devotional song with Caribbean popular rhythms. It features lively percussion (especially dholak, dhantal, and tassa), harmonium-led melodies, and singable choruses in Hindi, Trinidadian Hindustani, and English. Emerging among the Indian diaspora in Trinidad and Tobago, chutney grew from intimate house-music traditions into amplified stage performances and recordings. Its lyrics typically revolve around love, weddings, teasing banter, and festive “bacchanal,” and its upbeat feel makes it a staple at family functions, fetes, and Carnival events. While classic chutney retains a rootsy Indo-folk core, modern productions often incorporate calypso and soca grooves, electric bass, guitar skanks, and synthesizers. This evolution helped give rise to the high-energy fusion subgenre chutney soca.
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Bollywood
Bollywood is the popular film-music tradition associated with Hindi-language cinema from Mumbai, India. It blends raga-based melodies and Hindustani vocalism with Western orchestration, jazz/big-band legacies, pop hooks, disco/funk grooves, rock energy, and contemporary electronic production. Songs are typically designed for on-screen performance and storytelling, featuring lush arrangements, memorable refrains, and emotive playback singing. A common formal scheme is the mukhda (catchy refrain) and antara (stanza/verse) structure, often with instrumental preludes, interludes, and dance breaks. Because it serves narrative and spectacle, Bollywood music ranges widely in mood—from romantic ballads and devotional pieces to high-energy dance numbers—and has continuously absorbed global influences while remaining rooted in Indian melodic and rhythmic aesthetics.
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Filmi
Filmi is the song tradition of Indian cinema, encompassing Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, and other regional film industries. It is built for on-screen storytelling and "playback" singing, where actors lip-sync to pre-recorded vocals. Stylistically, filmi blends raga-informed melodies from Hindustani and Carnatic classical music with Indian folk forms, devotional currents (ghazal, qawwali, bhajan), and an evolving palette of Western popular idioms—big band, jazz, rock, disco, synth-pop, and EDM. Arrangements often feature lush orchestration, prominent melodic hooks, and dramatic modulations, supporting narratives of romance, devotion, comedy, and spectacle. As one of the most-heard musical practices in South Asia and its diaspora, filmi has defined the sound of commercial Indian culture for nearly a century while continually adapting to technology, audience taste, and cross-cultural exchange.
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Soundtrack
Soundtrack is music created to accompany and enhance visual media such as film, television, and video games. It includes original scores (instrumental or vocal music composed specifically for the picture) and, at times, curated compilations of pre-existing songs. Stylistically, soundtrack is a meta-genre that can encompass orchestral symphonic writing, jazz, electronic and synth-driven textures, choral forces, popular song, and experimental sound design. Its defining trait is functional storytelling: themes, motifs, harmony, rhythm, and timbre are shaped by narrative needs, character psychology, pacing, and editing. Common features include leitmotifs for characters or ideas, modular cues that can be edited to picture, dynamic orchestration for dramatic range, and production approaches that sit well under dialogue and sound effects. Because it must synchronize to picture, soundtrack often uses clear dramatic arcs, tempo maps, and hit points.
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Show all 8 genres
Albums
2014
4
/5
Heropanti
Mustafa Zahid
Modern Bollywood
Filmi
Soundtrack
2003
4
/5
Tere Naam
Udit Narayan
Chutney
Bollywood
Filmi
1998
4
/5
Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya
Udit Narayan
Modern Bollywood
Chutney
Similar artists
4
/5
R. D. Burman
Bollywood
Filmi
Pop
5
/5
A.R. Rahman
Bollywood
Filmi
Sufi
1
/5
Various Artists
Afro-Funk
Alternative Rock
Ambient
4
/5
Jatin-Lalit
Bollywood
Chutney
Hindi Pop
4
/5
Anand Bakshi
Bollywood
Hindi Pop
Chutney
4
/5
Himesh Reshammiya
Bollywood
Modern Bollywood
Chutney
4
/5
Anand-Milind
Bollywood
Hindi Pop
Chutney
5
/5
Pritam
Bollywood
Filmi
Pop
5
/5
Udit Narayan
Chutney
Bollywood
Desi
5
/5
Vishal-Shekhar
Bollywood
Filmi
Pop
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Melodding was created as a tribute to
Every Noise at Once
, which inspired us to help curious minds keep digging into music's ever-evolving genres.