English songs, through its signature style, have had a profound influence on Hindi music over the past two decades. There are several factors that have aided this influence to morph itself with the conservative style of Indian music itself. There are no prizes for guessing that both these styles are at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the language and style that it uses to create a finished product from a musical point-of-view. Almost all popular music in India stems from Bollywood movies until the 80s when Indi-pop became the rage of our time, thanks to the influx of several Western artists and bands in a way that it changed the way music was made in India. The popularity of Indipop changed the way Bollywood produced as well, shifting from traditional sounds to contemporary sounds with the use of Western style and sounds. But as there will always be people who love the changes, there will be purists who don’t appreciate it. The transformation was much-talked either in favor of the shift or not, with people reminiscing about the ‘good old days’. In conversation with folks from the older generation especially, most of whom considered this shift as sacrilege, which saw the production of music focusing more on the tune rather than the lyrics and the singers. In particular, the music composition of Anu Malik was viewed as copying music from other cultures, as in this example where the song bears an uncanny resemblance to the Macarena, the greatest one-hit wonder of all time. Here’s the song and video for the ‘Macarena’ released in 1996: And one year later, Anu Malik blatantly copied the song (which was too huge a hit at that time to not notice) for which he received a lot of flak. Anyways, just so this is not misconstrued as an Anu Malik basher, he redeemed himself with a well composed list of songs for the movie ‘Border’. Here’s a song and its video from the movie called ‘Sandese Aathe Hai’: Also, in the wake of the acceptance of Western sounds and the liberalized culture, English lyrics found their way into Indian music, from radio jockeys making announcements just like Western counterparts to movie songs to ad jingles and of course, Indipop. With this gradual metamorphosis occurring for over a decade, the influence of English songs by artists such as Michael Jackson (God rest his soul!), Madonna and a blast of music videos… thanks to the popularization of MTV. Fast forward to 2009 almost two decades later, the floodgates have opened and it is safe to conclude that virtually every sub-genre of Hindi music is shifting to a more ‘Hinglish’ mode in lyric and style. From regional music in both North and South India to the popularized Bollywood and Indipop, what you have is a cultural mish-mash that is presented far more aesthetically than their offerings over the last decade of the 21st century. And somehow, it’s all for the best… Kishore ‘da’ would’ve agreed!