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Artists
Desi
Artists
Desi
Sunidhi Chauhan
2010–2025
·
5 albums
Listen
5
/5
Genres
Hindi Indie
Hindi indie is a contemporary Indian independent music movement in which artists write and release primarily Hindi-language songs outside the traditional Bollywood film system. It blends the intimate storytelling of singer-songwriters with the textures of indie folk, alternative rock, and mellow pop, often presented with understated, DIY production. Sonically, the style favors acoustic guitars, light percussion, piano, and atmospheric synths, with warm, close-miked vocals that foreground lyrics. Thematically, Hindi indie tends toward introspective and romantic subjects, urban coming‑of‑age narratives, and everyday imagery expressed in colloquial Hindi (often seasoned with Urdu vocabulary). The result is a relatable, low-key aesthetic that contrasts with the scale and spectacle of mainstream film music.
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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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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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Marathi Pop
Marathi pop is contemporary popular music performed in the Marathi language, emerging as a non-film counterpart to Marathi cinema songs and older non-film bhavgeet traditions. It pairs Indian pop and Bollywood-style production with regional melodic sensibilities and rhythms from Maharashtra. Typical tracks use verse–pre-chorus–chorus structures, catchy hooks, and polished vocals with light ornamentation drawn from Hindustani classical practice. Production ranges from acoustic band settings to synth-driven, dance-oriented arrangements, often featuring dholki-inspired grooves, electric bass, guitars, keyboards, and programmed drums. Lyrically, Marathi pop explores romance, friendship, youth culture, everyday life, and regional pride, and it is distributed through private albums, television music programs, and—especially in the 2010s and 2020s—streaming platforms and short-video apps.
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Indian Pop
Indian pop (often called Indi-pop or I-pop) is pop music created in India outside of film soundtracks. It adapts Western pop and rock songcraft—catchy choruses, verse–chorus forms, synths, drum machines—to South Asian melodic and rhythmic sensibilities, drawing on Hindustani and Carnatic ornamentation, regional folk grooves, and urban club production. While closely linked to Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood and the UK’s Asian Underground scenes, its defining trait is independence from cinema: artists release singles and albums marketed on TV, radio, and—today—streaming/video platforms. Lyrics are usually in Hindi, Urdu, or Bengali (often mixing Hinglish), but Punjabi, Tamil, and other Indian languages appear too, reflecting a pan‑Desi pop ecosystem spanning India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
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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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Show all 7 genres
Albums
2025
The Bhootnii (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Mika Singh, Hansraj Raghuwanshi, Sunidhi Chauhan & ICONYK
Desi
Hindi Indie
Hindi Pop
2024
Kahan Shuru Kahan Khatam (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Dhvani Bhanushali, Sunidhi Chauhan & Varun Jain
Desi
Hindi Indie
Hindi Pop
2018
4
/5
Aiyaary (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Sunidhi Chauhan
Bollywood
2013
Tagore & We 2
Stoppok, Sunidhi Chauhan & Sraboni Sen
Desi
Hindi Indie
Hindi Pop
2010
Damlelya Babachi Kahani
Salil Kulkarni, Nandesh Umap & Sunidhi Chauhan
Indian Pop
Marathi Pop
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5
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A.R. Rahman
Bollywood
Filmi
Sufi
5
/5
Amitabh Bhattacharya
Bollywood
Desi
Hindi Indie
4
/5
Yo Yo Honey Singh
Hindi Hip Hop
Punjabi Hip Hop
Bollywood
4
/5
Jasleen Royal
Gujarati Pop
Bollywood
Desi
4
/5
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Bollywood
Desi
Hindi Pop
4
/5
Shankar Mahadevan
Marathi Pop
Bhajan
Tamil Dance
4
/5
Tanishk Bagchi
Bollywood
Hindi Indie
Pop Urbaine
4
/5
Amit Trivedi
Bollywood
Indian Indie
Bangla Pop
5
/5
Irshad Kamil
Bollywood
Filmi
Pop
5
/5
Atif Aslam
Qawwali
Sufi
Bollywood
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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.