From progressive to popular changing cultural aesthetics of Hindi film lyrics from 1950 onwards

Abstract

This study explores the Progressive writers as lyricists in the Bombay-based Hindi mainstream cinema from 1950s to post 1990s. It focuses on the Progressive sentiments (particularly in the Hindi film lyrics) in the Hindi cinema (Bombay-based) and subsequently, a gradual paradigm shift is observed in the nature of lyrics almost after every decade. The study further witnesses the gradual decline of the general tendencies of the mainstream Progressive writers (as lyricists) in the Hindi mainstream cinema from the 1970s onwards and precisely, in the post 1990s with the advent of ultra-modern techno music, era of visualization, rise of malls, multiplexes, jazz and rock culture, parody, kitsch and remixing. In the post 1990s, music takes precedence over the refined lyrical faculty of the Progressive and non-Progressive writers. Progressive lyric has suffered erasure in post 1990s. newline