Module description
This module looks at one of the world's great popular-music success stories: the music and soundscapes of Bollywood films and their enormous impact both in India and abroad, from the Middle East and Malaysia to New York and London. Three billion of the world's people consume the Hindi-language films produced by the Mumbai film industry, now well into its second century, with great composers like A R Rahman winning Oscars (for the score to Slumdog Millionaire), play back singers like Lata Mangeshkar clocking up awards for the largest number of recordings in the Guinness Book of Records, andthe songs themselves entering the emotional lives and daily experiences of billions thanks to compact recording technologies from the cassette to the mobile ringtone. Although Bollywood is one of the most distinctively "Indian" globalsounds, it is in fact a highly cosmopolitan soundworld. Since the dawn of sound cinema in 1931, Hindi film music directors(i.e. composers) have drawn extensively on global musical forms from Western jazz and light classical to Middle-Eastern toLatin-American to modern RandB, rock, and hip hop, as well as traditional musics closer to home. In this module, we will encounter the music of key composers and major films, and consider what Bollywood sounds mean to the different kinds of people who listen to, sing along with and dance to them, historically and in the present day, as they circulate from smalltown India to the studios of the major labels in the West.
Assessment details
800-1000 word seminar journal (10%)
3000 word essay (60%)
48 hr takeaway examination (1200-1500 words) (30%)
Educational aims & objectives
To present a broad survey of the music of Hindi films from the beginning of sound cinema to the present day in historical and cultural context.
To introduce students to the compositional techniques of key music directors (i.e. composers) working in the commercial Hindi film industry centred on the city of Mumbai (Bombay); and
To introduce students to a range of analytical techniques for the critical study of film music in Indian, global, and comparative context.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module the student will be able to:
Demonstrate detailed knowledge of well-established theories and concepts in the study of film music in general, and in music, sound, and listening in Hindi cinema in particular.
Identify accurately by ear and be able to analyse musically and visually a limited set of film songs and soundtracks byiconic Hindi film composers from the 1930s to the present day.
Understand and articulate the historical and cultural contexts of the production and ongoing reception of Hindi film music within 20–21C India and the global Indian diaspora.
Undertake independent research to provide new information and/or to convincingly explore existing data on Hindi film music that identifies the significance of that data, both within appropriate theoretical models and within historical and cultural contexts.
Be able to articulate and communicate all of the above verbally and in writing.
Teaching pattern
Combination of lectures and seminars.