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The music in India has a history as rich as its existence. Having a huge variety of genres from classical, folk and pop, Indian music is spread over different states of the country, depicting the essence of their social and cultural essence in its lyrics, instruments and rhythm.
Indian music can widely be divided in many categories, one of which is classical music, which is of two types: Hindustani music and Carnatic music. The origins of both these types date back to time as old as the 13th and 14th centuries. The Hindustani music was influenced by ancient Vedas, religious manuscripts and also has an array of semi-classical forms. The classical music was appreciated very much by the Persian rulers and many of the famous Indian musicians at that era were even appointed as official musicians in theMughal courts of the rulers.
Carnatic music, on the other hand has its origination from the southern states of India and in this music the vocals are supposed to be performed with a signature style, called Gayaki.
A big part of Indian music resides in its genre of folk music, where each and every state of India has its own set and style of music, be it instruments or melody. Some of the popularly known forms of folk music and dances in Indian states are, Dandiya and Garba in Gujarat, Rabindra Sangeet in Bengal, Bihu in Assam, Lavani in Maharashtra, Langas in Rajasthan and many more.
The genre of Indi-pop too was a welcome change in the country with melodies that gained immense popularity and attention immediately after their release.
Over the years, the country has witnessed many changes and transitions in its music with globalization and the fusion between eastern and western culture. This has led to the birth of new genres in the music industry, such as Indo-jazz, Indo-western, Bollywood, Sufi, Indi-rock and a lot more genres.
There are a plethora of Indian musicians who have made a name for themselves not only nationally but also internationally. Some of them are A.R. Rehman, Pandit Ravishankar, Zakir Hussain and H. Sridhar among many others.