ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how film songs are integrated with films in terms of their actual musical style, and how far they can be said to constitute an independent style of popular music. It examines how important a cinematic analysis of film songs is to an understanding of their style. The chapter takes as its starting point Alison Arnold's musicological research on Hindi film songs in her unpublished thesis, reviewing her findings. Scale patterns in Hindi film songs are mostly diatonic, modal scales, and many of the older film songs were based on classical rags. An important characteristic of film music, which places it 'firmly within Indian musical tradition' is the predominance of the vocal melody. One of the most significant changes in female vocal style was a move to a lighter, thinner vocal timbre. Eclecticism is to be seen not only in the music of Hindi films, but also in the locations, clothes, sets and so on.
