In just the last two years, the music stage in India has seen tremendous progress. Internationally acclaimed artistes like Coldplay and Jay-Z, who played in Mumbai as a part of the Global Citizen campaign, Justin Beiber, and Ed Sheeran performed to cheering crowds of thousands, right here in the city.
Seeing how pop music is making its way to the eager ears of the Hindi-speaking majority, I believe 2018 is going to prove fruitful for music genres other than just commercial Bollywood.
And so, with more and more listeners of English pop music coming in, we will have more creators of the genre as well. In 2018, I hope to see more artistes venture into the space of English language music, as well as experiments in the genre. In fact, this year, I think commercially, western music did way better than what Bollywood music managed to accomplish.
Speaking of genres, there are two I would like to see emerging in 2018 — rock and blues.
Another thing I see happening in 2018, is that remixes might not be all that relevant to Bollywood music. In 2017, we saw several songs failing to please the audiences, simply because they were remixes of older songs. And now, I hope, the film and music industry knows that the public doesn’t prefer listening to remix versions of old classics. They want to listen to freshly created music.
All in all, I think 2018 will prove to be a positive year for music in the country, with several advancements and trials being carried out in different genres. It will be good to be part of a music industry where different kinds of music genres do well.
Ehsaan Noorani is a music director
