B-Town's changing face

The post-millennium decade will go down in records as the one that changed the face of Hindi film music forever. Contemporary Bollywood music has evolved considerably. The songs of today are hybrid products of globalisation and a technological invasion. They have a different sound, attitude and even language. This new generation of music has managed to crossover and woo audiences the world over. Purists may not recognise it as Indian anymore, but this brand is clearly here to stay. Here are ten things that led to this dramatic change.

Orchestration. Enter synthesiser, exit acoustic instruments. That's the simple if bitter truth about today's orchestration. Sitar, sarangi, santoor, tabla, dholak, strings (violins), accordion, mandolin, conga - practically every major acoustic instrument has been put aside in today's music.

Recording technology. The advanced multitrack technology has done away with live recordings. The song is less important and the sound is everything. The software-doctored sound loops sometimes get more mileage than the singer's voice.

Pop and remix era. The success of Indian pop and remix era in the beginning of this millennium brought a few things to Hindi film music. Bollywood learned that with the right beat-driven packaging, any voice (sorry! any sound) sells. Now the original soundtrack album itself features remixed versions of its own songs!

Reality music shows. The growing popularity of reality music shows (Saregamapa, Indian Idol and Voice Of India) gave a new platform to many young talented singers. But their overkill also ensured that practically none of the singers today would ever reach the revered status of yesteryears legends.

Different voices. Bollywood music never before enjoyed such a multitude of voices as it does today. Voices from the old world such as Sonu Nigam, Shaan and Shreya Ghoshal to the new world voices of KK, Kunal Ganjawala, Kailash Kher, Sukhwinder Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan, the variety of vocal textures in Bollywood is simply amazing. And then there is the phenomenon called Himesh Reshammiya...

Star- singer disassociation. No longer are heroes and heroines associated with playback voices. Today, the singer has to be flexible depending on the situation. So in any film, we often routinely see stars lip-synching to different-sounding voices in a variety of songs. In Om Shanti Om, Shah Rukh Khan used five playback singers (KK, Sonu Nigam, Abhijeet and Sukhwinder Singh) in five different songs!

New composers. A R Rahman showed the way and others followed. The new breed of composers (Shankar-Ehsan-Loy, Pritam, Vishal-Shekhar and the likes) remain largely unaffected by classic Hindi film music's influences.

New language. "Shining in the setting sun, like a pearl up on the ocean, come and feel me!" Could you imagine hearing these lines in a Hindi film song ten years ago? Hindi- Urdu dominated songs have become a thing of the past. Hinglish has become an accepted norm in contemporary songs.

Changing song genres. Lots of song genres, which were once popular have become obsolete in today's times and are being replaced by new alternatives. When do we get the chance to listen to traditional Bhajan, Ghazal, Mujra, Qawwali, Lori (lullaby) and Indian semi-classical songs in Bollywood films today?

International appeal. Bollywood songs are no longer the exclusive domain of Indian performers. From across the border, Pakistani singers (Atif Aslam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Adnan Sami and others) to the western world (Snoop Dogg, Kylie Minogue and the likes) - now we see so many different international singers bringing their musical talents to Bollywood!

Interestingly even the West has realised that this new sound of Indian music is fun to hear and Rahman's Oscar-win just points that out.