The music of India includes multiple varieties of folk, popular, pop, and classical music. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and, developed over several eras, remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as sources of religious inspiration, cultural expression and pure entertainment. India is made up of several dozen ethnic groups, speaking their own languages and dialects. Alongside distinctly subcontinental forms there are major influences from Persian, Arab and British music. Indian genres like filmi and bhangra have become popular throughout the United Kingdom, South and East Asia, and around the world.
Indian pop stars now sell records in many countries, while world music fans listen to the roots music of India's diverse nations. American soul, rock and hip hop have also made a large impact, primarily on Indian pop and filmi music. Other highly popular forms are ghazal, qawwali, thumri, dhrupad, dadra, bhajan, kirtan, shabad, and gurbani.
The earliest texts of Indian music are the Natya Shastra, Dattilam, Brihaddeshi, and the Sangita-Ratnakara.
The biggest form of Indian pop music is filmi, or songs from Indian musical films. Independent pop acts such as Alisha Chinoy, Shaan, and rock bands like Indus Creed, Indian Ocean, and Euphoria exist and have gained mass appeal with the advent of cable music television. As far as Western rock music is concerned, one of the greatest personalities in rock history, Freddie Mercury of the legendary band Queen had Indian Parsi roots, starting his first band in the Indian boarding school of St. Peters in Panchgani.
Many languages are spoken in India, and there are film industries for each of the major languages (see Indian cinema). Film music is mostly used in commercial Indian cinema, which is mainly produced in the centres of Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. Indian movies are best-known for their music and composers (music directors). Today's most popular music director, A.R. Rahman, got his start in Tamil films and then moved to Bollywood. Well-known music directors of the past include Naushad, R.D. Burman and Ilayaraaja.
Most Indian films are musicals. The actors generally do not sing, but lip-synch to songs sung by such accomplished playback singers as Yesudas,Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Alka Yagnik, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar,S.P. Balasubrahmaniam and Jayachandran.
Filmi songs are extremely popular; they are sold on tape and CD, played on the radio, and featured on television programs. They combine Indian classical music, with its sophisticated, melismatic vocals and traditional instruments, with catchy tunes and stylings from Western pop music. The novel experimentation (resulting in such mixes as 'Indian hip hop') has been received well in India and continues to grow in popularity.
