What is Hindi Music?
Hindi music refers more to the language of the music than the particular musical style. Hindi is a language spoken in the so-called “Hindi belt” in India – a large swath across the north of the country. Although the Hindi belt is the main area where Hindi spoken, there are other pockets in India where various Hindi dialects, such as western Hindi, are spoken. Hindi may be limited linguistically to a specific region, but its importance in Indian pop culture is immense. The first spoken word film in India – Alam Ara – was a Hindi language film. That film, and the seven Hindi language songs in it, started an important film and music tradition in India that persists to this day. Many films produced by the country’s so called Bollywood film industry, which actually creates many more movies than Hollywood each year, are Hindi language films. Bollywood movies rely heavily on music, and the music featured in the films tends to be Hindi music. Indian TV shows, radio, and music of all genres are
