Remember Lucky Ali, Daler Mehndi, Alisha Chinai?

Remember the magic they spun with their non film music back in the 80s and 90s, when the genre funnily christened Indi pop touched  dizzying heights, glowing as much as Hindi film music.

'Indipop's real breakthrough came with Baba Sehgal, Alisha Chinai, and like, followed by bands and individuals like Lucky Ali, Silk Route, Euphoria, Colonial Cousins and Punjabi singers like Daler Mehndi, Sukhbir and others. Their music came as a wave of fresh air for a generation that wanted to grow out of Bollywood music Even Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan joined the bandwagon with "Eir Bir Phathe". These artistes and a host of others made Indi-pop a money-spinning option.

Ghazal Singers like Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas and Hariharan and even Classical and Sufi Singers like Shuba Mudgal and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan tried their hand and were rewarded. Singers like Shaan and KK also chipped in to rake in the moolah. Music labels like Magnasound and BMG Crescendo milked the business, followed by Universal and Sony. Indi-pop was the flavour of the music market.

Cut to 2009.Plummeting physical sales, an overnight turn in the fortunes of the music majors has today made the Indi-pop genre hit its nadir. Gone are the days when releasing an album was a green card to secure place and fame in the industry. The genre seems to have gone into the comatose stage 

Bollywood killed the Indipop star

Hindi film music has proved to be the main thorn in Indi-pop's flesh.

Mohit Chauhan who was the lead singer of the band �Silk route' which churned a couple of hit songs in the mid-nineties says, Indi-pop is not working currently because not a lot of people are coming up with original good music. The music either isn't good enough or not reaching the masses....

Explains Palash Sen, lead singer of band Euphoria, Films today have started using music as their main marketing tool. Hence, the budgets are enormous. As compared to this, the budget of a non-film album is peanuts! Neither the labels invest too much nor the artistes have that amount of money to promote themselves. Hence albums do not get much mileage. Yet when it comes to assessing the success it is measured with the same yardstick as film music....

Says singer Sona Mohapatra who is all set to launch her second album, The genre doesn't exist and hasn't for a long time. There was a time in the 90s when almost any rubbish sold and while we had some genuine pop artistes like Alisha, Daler Mahendi and Lucky Ali with distinctive singing styles, individual visual imagery too, the rest were truly worthless and slowly the audience realised the same and rejected the music outright. So now, we largely have a film industry with the music industry being a mere 'sub-set' of the same. There is a rare act like Kailasa which manages to put out their own music with the band every now and then but one or two acts don't make a scene happen....

Composer singer Raghav Sacchar who also launched an album recently, says, It is a war between Bollywood music and Indi-pop where Bollywood seems to have gone ahead in the race particularly because of the huge amount of money that the film producers are ready to spend on music in films. Music labels also do not promote artistes....

Says singer Anushka Manchanda, Bollywood has changed the face of Hindi music. It has received a complete transformation and has reached a point where it suffices the people's need and they don't need to look for alternative music. The grade for Bollywood music is on an all time high. A Bollywood number is more likely to play in the clubs today rather than a song from some pop album. Bollywood has changed from being filmi music to having a more contemporary feel. It has received a complete transformation.

Also the reach that films have is way beyond. The budget and promotions for music of films is much more than that is spent on a non-film music album,... she adds.

Music labels also have the same story to tell. Big Music CEO Kulmeet Makkar justifies, Bollywood is doing well, which is the reason Indi-pop is not doing well. Worldwide there is no film industry which is so musically oriented as ours. The film music has the advantage of film stars which is why it grabs eyeballs. If a pop album has a film star singing or featuring in the video, the channels will also air it and people will stack the CDs... 

Times Music CEO  Aadarsh Gupta says, There has been an overwhelming effect of films on this genre. The current downturn of pop genre is a function of a downward spiral which started four years back. The music conceived then wasn't good enough or there wasn't enough promotion which led to the tightening of the rope around the genre's neck... 

Slowing down with the slowdown

The current economic slowdown has also affected the industry. Young artistes who want to release their solo albums are facing disappointment from the hands of music labels or are waiting for the right time to launch their albums....

Mohit quips, Though the slowdown has affected the music labels who are skeptical about putting money into a genre that doesn't seem to be working. But slowdown cannot suppress creativity. If the music is good the audience will appreciate it....

Says singer Kailash Kher who has been on the forefront of Indi-pop on the launch of his album to a website, Although the recession made the happening of this album really doubtful but after a roller coaster ride of discussions and many round table conferences, this album is happening …...

Yes slowdown has affected the genre,... says Raghav. Record labels also do not promote artistes. The rights are with the labels and the artistes hardly get any thing....

Singer Shibani Kashyap adds, Indi-pop market is dull currently. Also the media doesn't give it any air-time which fuels the fire. The slowdown has just made things go worse....

Sneha Khanwalkar who composed music for 'Oye lucky Lucky Oye' says, Looking at the current market scenario, I have canned my plans to launch an album. Labels will not fund into something that will not guarantee them returns....

Re-mixed but not heady enough

The remix trend which reached the peak few years back also proved to be near fatal for the genre. Says composer Suhas of Sidharth Suhas duo, Indi pop market currently is dormant. The remix trend that soared some five years had its repercussions. Also there were too many albums being released which were downright bad or mediocre, hence the audience shunned it....

Though Anushka puts across a different point of view, Whatever sort of music was selling at the end of the day, it did help to swell the figures. There was a surge in the pop market and the industry also picked up....

The singers who were earlier a part of the non-film album scene have also shifted loyalties towards films hence giving another blow to the genre. I think it is a natural progression. The singers have shifted to Bollywood because non-film scene is not very great and also the reach is very limited....

Echoes Anushka, At the end of the day the singer wants his voice to be heard. If pop space is not working, the shift to films will be automatic. Also, the reach that Bollywood has is way beyond all the genres put together....

Obviously, it is more lucrative and gives them a better mainstream reach. It would be great if they had continued to put out their individual albums parallelly and way used their celebrity status to smartly fuel the same,... says Sona.

Says Gupta, If the album has good music and it is appealing visually, there is no reason why the channels will not air it. But there is great talent. If they keep their focus things would definitely be better....

The channels look for face value which they get from the film stars. But that doesn't mean that they do not want to air pop music. If the album is good, it will receive the air time that it is liable to,... quips Makkar.

The revival of the genre is something that both the singers and music labels are keenly looking forward to. It's only a matter of time that it will pick up again. We need some good marketing budgets and couple of good album to hit the bull's eye. I am sure things will be more glowing. The obsession for film music will stay but indi-pop will carve its own niche,... says Anushka.

Sona adds, For me going to an ice-cream parlour and having only one flavour on sale would be really boring. In all this we forget that we have several other genres like Ghazals , Classical ,Sufi, Folk , regional indigenous music like even Bangla rock & the whole North East live scene that is thriving in its own way . I dont believe things are that bleak. We need a couple of committed and persistant artistes who want to put out their own original, individual music and eventually we'll have a scene....

Films have over the years developed infrastructure of halls/multiplexes, distribution systems and media networks that provide a great platform to reach out to the audience, hopefully the same should happen for non-film music too, even if it starts in a smaller way,... she says enthusiastically.

It is the matter of right talent at the right time. I am sure the picture will be rosier soon,... adds Makkar.

Not everyone is as optimistic. Says Raghav, Unless something tremendously different happens, the genre will not recover. Digital format is where the industry has to go forward to. Sales need to digitalised because physical sales will not work. We constantly need to reinvent....