Golden Era of Bollywood: The Popularity Of Bollywood Songs

Hindi, in all its various dialects, is actually one of the most popular languages in the world after Chinese and English.Hindi films are now very popular in throughout the world.Bollywood Dance and Music is becoming popular everywhere. The popularity of Indian films has impacted fashions as far away as Nigeria, and new releases frequently enter the top 10 lists of popular films in European regions, including the United Kingdom.
Hindi film songs are present in Hindi cinema right from the first sound film Alam Ara (1931) by Ardeshir Irani which featured seven songs. This was closely followed by Shirheen Farhad (1931) by Jamshedji Framji Madan, also by Madan, which had as many as 42 song sequences strung together in the manner of an opera, and later by Indra Sabha which had as many as 69 song sequences.
In the 30s Radio was a luxury very few households had a radio,so the songs were not reaching to the majority of the people.The music was not popular among the masses. The first few songs to hit the nation as a whole may well have been from ACHHUT KANYAA and some contemporary Sagar Movietone productions.
The nation wide popularity of hindi songs started with the music of Khajanchi in 1941.. Master Haider consciously broke away from the dull and monotonous delivery of the ’30s songs. KHAZAANCHI has gone down in history as the movie that defined the very structure of the modern Hindi song, much in the style of Von Neumann.The ’40s witnessed some of the quickest changes in the way the industry operated.The days of stable employment were coming to an end.
Artists, young and old, high and low profile, from all walks of the industry, were now on their own. New studios emerged notable among them being the one founded by Abdul Rashid Kardar. His musical soulmate, Naushad Ali, injected a new sound into the spirit of the young Indian movie. Mehboob started his productions with a flourish. Bombay Talkie brought in Anil Biswas and brother-in-law Pannalal Ghosh. New singers, better sounding and accomplished than those of the previous decade, suddenly appeared in the recording studio. Parul Ghosh, Kanan Devi, Amirbai Karnataki, Arun Kumar, Snehprabha, Zohrabai Ambaalewaali, and to be complete, Noorjehan, were all household names already.
After Independence most of the movies were based on social and political issues, even their songs were restricted to such issues. Gradually, other forms of songs like ghazals, romantic songs, instrumental and wedding songs came up. Over the years, the Western elements have increased significantly and there have been a lot of changes in the pattern of the Bollywood music. In the 50s and 60s Caberet songs were popular and later Disco music was popular in the hindi films.
The music belonging to the golden era of films had two main achievements to its credit; one, popularizing various raags in the Indian as well as the Carnatic classical music among the masses, and two, allowing the music directors from various states, who had come down to Mumbai, to use the folk music from their native place, for films.” Today anybody who is over the age of 40 can easily make out that the film music is greatly based on the commercial aspects of the same.
In the 50s a radio Programme started from Radio Ceylone Binaca Geetmala started It was the weekly countdown programme which increased the popularity of Hindi film songs throughout the world.
Today theSatellite television, radio, internet sites, mobile phones, music has lost its approachability. Gone are the days when people used to throng and wait for hours outside shops for records and cassettes to be the first ones to buy their favorite songs which they heard on the radio from the latest film.
It’s almost impossible to choose just fifteen great songs from over seven decades of popular Hindi cinema, so here my fav songs of each decade.
.The 1930s:
The first decade of Hindi film songs was the decade of composers like RC Boral, Pankaj Mullick,K L Saigal and Hindi cinema’s first female music director, Saraswati Devi (of Main ban ki chidiya fame).

Song from President 1937

The 1940s:

The 1940s saw the rise of Rafi, Lata, Noorjehan, Suraiya, and Mukesh. Among the music directors, there were Anil Biswas, Khemchand Prakash and Naushad.

Song from Mahal 1949

The 1950s:

The 50s were the golden age, the names associated with the songs of this period a veritable who’s who of Hindi film music: Manna Dey, Rafi, Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum, Lata, Asha, Suraiya, Talat, Mukesh, Hemant, Kishore… and, among the music directors, greats like SD Burman, Salil Choudhary, Roshan, Madan Mohan, Naushad, O P Nayyar and Shankar-Jaikishan.

Song from Shree 420 (1955)

Song from Taxi Driver (1954)

Song from Sujata 1959

The 1960s:

Song from Taj Mahal (1963)

Song from Guide 1965

The 1970s:

In Hindi film music, too, there was a new wave—with RD Burman, despite the presence of Kalyanji-Anandji and Laxmikant-Pyarelal, being the undisputed king.

Song from Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1972)

Song from Kabhi Kabhie (1976)

The 1980s:

The 80s saw the nadir of Hindi cinema, both in terms of stories and music. ‘disco’ songs that became the hallmark of 80s Hindi films. There were some films having different music like Umrao Jaan