Indian Songs Go Beyond Hollywood vs Bollywood Comparisons: Here’s Why

Although the country of India got its independence in 1947, the Indian civilization goes back to some 10000 years or perhaps even more. And in this civilizational history, is embedded the musical history of the Indian subcontinent. Songs of this country do not merely have their inception in the Hindi film songs or old Bollywood songs, but they have a whole saga beyond them.

 

Many music lovers like to draw a parallel between the music of India and that of the west and simply think of the Bollywood movies that include songs and Hollywood films that do not.

In order to remove doubts and have a clearer knowledge, here are the three reasons why Indian music is different from the western counterpart:

 

 

1.      The Spiritual Nature –

 

·         Indian music has always had some connection to spirituality whereas western songs have a closer relation to basic human experiences. Nature too plays an important role in the shaping of Indian music.

 

·         A very distinctive feature in this context are the ‘Raag’ or ‘Raaga’. Raag is similar to a note of melody and each Raga consists of at least five notes in it. A day of 24 hours is divided into three equal parts for different types of Ragas. For example: Bhairav Raga is sung in the morning and Raga Pahadi is sung in the evening.

 

2.      The Compositional Aspect –

 

·         Beethoven, the great Western music legend, lost his hearing and yet was able to compose music that is regarded as a master-piece even today. Before performing on stage, the western musicians already complete a musical piece by formally writing it on ‘Staff Notation’, thereby leaving no space or requirement for improvisation.

 

·         The Indian Classical Music has improvisation as a more recognizable feature. Musical creations are not written down on staff notes and are improvised as the singers move along. Elements such as taal (clap), shruthi (pitch), laya (tempo) are added on the musical blueprint

 

3.      Learning vs Reading –

 

·         There has always been a tradition of ‘Guru-Shishya’ (teacher-student) in the Indian music culture. Musical knowledge is learned with the instructions of a guru and it is extremely difficult to fathom, proper structure of music through books.

 

·         Western school of music does not involve this concept and anybody can self-teach themselves through books or even social networking sites India or social media.

 

It is always better to learn more about the both schools of music and not merely restrict them to Bollywood or Hollywood. Hope this piece is able to give some basic distinctions between the music of these two worlds.

 

Learn more about various Indian songs and hear them live online, visit https://sabakuch.com/music/ 

Source : http://www.sooperarticles.com/art-entertainment-articles/music-articles/indian-songs-go-beyond-hollywood-v-bollywood-comparisons-heres-why-1584608.html