Bollywood Dance

In most Bollywood movies, the actors randomly break out into song and dance. Its pretty amazing.  Here are some examples of modern day Indian dance and music:

Pretty popular song from the movie Dostana:

Although not portraying India as it really is, this song is awesome, mostly because the lead male actor has two thumbs on his right hand.

A song from 3 Idiots a very recent Bollywood movie:

Another song:

Sources:

Jaya Sharma

Youtube.com

(and Netflix from watching Bollywood movies)

Ancient Indian Music: History

Ancient Indian Music By Emma Williams

When one thinks of ancient Indian music, one might recall the sitar. However, the Indian sitar is a redesigned version of an instrument originally from the ancient Middle East known as the shetar. Also, some ancient Indian musical instruments, such as the laddishah and the ravan-hatti are now only available in museums. As the interest in them dwindled, so did their numbers, causing craftsmen to make less and less money off of them, so that people who knew how to make them became fewer and fewer. In other words, as classical Indian music dropped out of the public eye, classical Indian instruments became scarce.
Hindu religious songs were called bhajans. They originated from the Sama Veda, the fourth Veda. Bhajans are typically sung in groups, with one lead singer on melody. They are also very repetitive. This is one of the reasons that bhajans are sometimes used to relieve stresses of the moment. The repetition allows for freedom from thinking.
http://hinduism.about.com/od/audiomusic/a/bhajan.htm .
http://cnx.org/content/m12459/latest/

Technical Ancient Indian Music

Ancient Indian Music By Emma Williams

In western music, an octave has eight commonly used notes, in contrast to the twelve commonly used notes of the Indian octave. In music terms, an octave higher means that all the notes in the tune are twelve notes higher than the melody, but have the same relation to each other and follow the same pattern. An octave can also be twelve notes lower. There are two western scales, major and minor. In ancient Indian music, however, there are many scales, called thats. There are ten popular thats in Ancient Indian music. Many of the ascending Indian scales, called arohas, differ from the descending scales, called avarohas. However, this is not unique to Indian music, as the harmonic minor scale in western music follows this same pattern.

Ancient Indian Instruments and Songs

Ancient Indian Music By Emma Williams

Ancient Indians used music as their source of basic religious knowledge. When one thinks of ancient Indian music, one's mind often goes right to the sitar. However, the Indian sitar is a redesigned version of an instrument from the ancient Middle East known as the shetar. Some ancient Indian musical instruments, such as the laddishah and the ravan-hatti are now only available in museums. Their numbers dwindled because interest in them dwindled, causing craftsmen to make less and less money off of them, so craftsmen who knew how to make them became fewer and fewer. In other words, as classical Indian music dropped out of the public eye, classical Indian instruments became scarce. http://cnx.org/content/m12459/latest/ (music in religion) Hindu religions songs were called bhajans. They originate from Sama Veda, the fourth Veda. Bhajans are typically sung in groups, with one lead singer on melody. They are also very repetitive. This is one of the reasons that bhajans can relieve stresses of the moment. The repetition allows for freedom from thinking. http://hinduism.about.com/od/audiomusic/a/bhajan.htm .