| Indian pop | |
|---|---|
 Euphoria performing at the Red Bull SoundClash concert in Dubai, November 2014 | |
| Other names | Indi-pop • I-pop |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 1960s—1990s, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, United Kingdom |
| Subgenres | |
Indian pop music, also known as I-pop or Indi-pop,[1] refers to pop music produced in India that is independent from filmi soundtracks for Indian cinema. Indian pop is closely linked to Bollywood, Tollywood, Pollywood, Kollywood and the Asian Underground scene of the United Kingdom. The variety of South Asian music from different countries are generally known as Desi music.
Pop music originated in Pakistan with the playback singer Ahmed Rushdi's song "Ko Ko Korina" in 1966[2][3][4] and has since then been adopted in India, Bangladesh, and lately Sri Lanka, and Nepal as a pioneering influence in their respective pop cultures. Following Rushdi's success, Christian bands specialising in jazz started performing at various night clubs and hotel lobbies in various Southeast Asian cities. They would usually sing either famous American jazz hits or cover Rushdi's songs.[5]
Pop music began gaining popularity across the Indian subcontinent in the early 1980s, with Pakistani singers Nazia and Zoheb Hassan forming a sibling duo whose records, produced by Biddu, sold as many as 60 million copies.[6] Biddu himself previously had success in the Western world, where he was one of the first successful disco producers in the early 1970s, with hits such as the hugely popular "Kung Fu Fighting" (1974).[7][8][9]
The term Indipop was first used by the British-Indian fusion band Monsoon in their 1981 EP release on Steve Coe's Indipop Records.[10][11] Charanjit Singh's Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat (1982) anticipated the sound of acid house music, years before the genre arose in the Chicago house scene of the late 1980s, using the Roland TR-808 drum machine, TB-303 bass synthesizer, and Jupiter-8 synthesizer.[12][13]
In the late 2000s, Indi-pop music faced increasing competition from filmi music. Major pop singers stopped releasing albums and started singing for movies. Recently, Indian pop has taken an interesting turn with the "remixing" of songs from past Indian movie songs, new beats being added to them.
In 2022, Jaimin Rajani, an Indian singer-songwriter, fused the sitar's Indian classical sound with Western rock sensibilities in "Something Here to Stay," a track from his debut album Cutting Loose.
I-pop is a new and emerging music genre in India, blending Indian sounds with global pop influences. It features a mix of Hindi, regional languages, and English lyrics, with themes ranging from romance to social issues.Gaining popularity among youth, I-pop reflects a shift from traditional Bollywood music, driven by independent artists and digital platforms. Key contributors to the genre include groups like W.i.S.H., First5, Shrinkhal, Gilithigreams, Shevya, and OutStation.[14][15][16]
| Year | Song | Artist(s) | Language | YouTube streams (millions) | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | "Butta Bomma" | Thaman S, Armaan Malik | Telugu | 820 | [35] |
| "Brown Munde" | AP Dhillon, Gurinder Gill, Shinda Kahlon | Punjabi | 605 | [36] | |
| 2019 | "Rowdy Baby" | Yuvan Shankar Raja, Dhanush | Tamil | 1400 | [37] |
| 2017 | "Jai Deva Ganesha" | Abhay Jain | Hindi | 29 | [38] |
| "Lahore" | Guru Randhawa | Punjabi | 750 | [39] | |
| "Bom Diggy" | Zack Knight and Jasmin Walia | Punjabi | 720 | [40][41][42] | |
| "High Rated Gabru" | Guru Randhawa | Punjabi | 1168 | [43] | |
| 2014 | "Zaroori Tha" | Rahat Fateh Ali Khan | Hindi | 1427 | [44] |
| 2015 | "Dheere Dheere" | Yo Yo Honey Singh | Hindi | 625 | [39] |
| 2011 | "Why This Kolaveri Di" | Dhanush and Anirudh Ravichander | Tamil | 227 | [45][46] |
With her brother Zoheb Hassan, Nazia sold a staggering 60 million records and became an international name at the tender age of 13.
Tony Palmer knocked off a film account of someone called Biddu (LWT), who appears to have been mad enough to invent disco music.
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In 1982, armed with a now-iconic trio of Roland gear, the Jupiter 8, TB-303 and TR-808, Singh set out to update the entrancing drone and whirling scales of classical Indian music.
The video album was sold in 40 million number which is the record of most selling video album.
Daler Mehndi eventually switched from classical music to pop, and in 1995 his first album Bolo Ta Ra Ra, with tunes based on those given to him by his mother, sold half a million copies in four months and 20 million copies total, making him the best selling non-soundtrack album in Indian music history.
Abrar formally stepped into the limelight in 1995 with the release of his first album, Billo De Gar, which sold over 16 million copies nationwide.
Disco Deewane (recorded with legendary producer Biddu, who has given up music to be a writer, of all things…) went on to sell some 14 million copies worldwide, and the title track was a number one hit in Brazil.
The album sold 6 million units worldwide and broke his sound into World music stations across the US.
All of Chinai's previous success was eclipsed with the 1995 release of Made in India. A series of uptempo songs indebted to traditional Indian music but revealing a definite Western influence, the album reached #1 in the Indian charts and stayed there for over a year as it sold over 5 million copies.
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