IS INDIA'S MUSIC SCENE INCLUSIVE ENOUGH?

A deep dive into the diversity and disparities shaping the scene

- PEONY HIRWANI

India’s music scene is like a long, colorful road trip. You meet legendary masters, fresh new artists, and folks taking music in new directions. The place hums with Bollywood hits, indie experiments, ancient folk tracks, rap verses, and upbeat electronic beats. But as you travel along, you start to wonder: Is this big, exciting road trip smooth sailing for everyone? Or do some people hit more roadblocks, take more difficult detours, and always seem to be running out of gas?

BOLLYWOOD AND TRADITION

For some, Bollywood is gospel. For a long time, the biggest, busiest road in Indian music has been the one built by Bollywood movies. Bollywood playback music was, and still is, a powerful behemoth—a huge income driver (according to a 2024 research by F&IC Hindu, Bollywood still made up about 80 per cent of recording income in India in 2022). It’s an industry so massive that it often decides where the road goes and what music most people end up hearing, making it much harder for musicians outside these boundaries or legacies to get noticed.