Music Videos

9XM is the MTV-ish channel I get here. It’s all in Hindi and all the songs are from Bollywood movies. There is a separate channel that plays some Kollywood music vids but 9XM is 24/7 music. Some observations:

The channel doesn’t have VJ’s at all- in between songs there are little computer animated skits by one of three sets of characters: The Betel Nuts, who are obviously the Beetles, this rat that is always singing the blues and having bad things happen to him, and my personal faves, Bade and Chote. Bade is the three-eyed guy and is the straight man while Chote is always joking and jonein on him and he cracks me up. I’m picking up a little Hindi by watching, especially with the help of my roommate.

I think it’s really interesting that EVERY SINGLE SONG played on this channel is from a movie, it shows how big and far-reaching the movie industry is here. On top of this, you never see any of the musicians that actually sing or play, it is always the actors from the movie dancing and lip synching. These two things are the biggest difference between the pop music industry here in India and back home. The music, however, is pretty danm similar to what you’d see on MTV. A lot of love ballads, dance tunes, and soft rock. Kinda like what’s on TRL all the time or something, that’s the best analogy I can make. This by far isn’t the only kind of music found here in India, the traditional Indian music is fascinating and there is lots of rock and hip hop going on, unfortunately of this makes its way to the TV though.

The Autotune- you all know what this awful piece of technology is- Cher has used it in the past and then Kanye West brought it back this year on his new album. I hate it- it makes my ears bleed but unfortunately it is now all the rage here- arrghh! No. More. Autotune!!

Here is my favorite vid they play on 9XM, it’s only two minutes so check it out, it’s from the Delhi 6 movie. I love the mix of traditional music with the breakbeat and the grandma dancing is adorable, she has actually been a famous Bollywood actor for years now. Enjoy- I did!