GayaksSingers of Hindi and Bengali music

Eras

A walk through the decades. Each era carries its own voices, its own composers and its own sound of the recording studio.

The Pioneers 1930s – 1940s

The first voices of the talkies — when the actor sang on the set, and the gramophone carried the song across the country.

The Golden Age 1950s – 1960s

Playback singing comes of age. A handful of voices, a dozen composers, and the songs most Indians still know by heart.

The Seventies and Eighties 1970s – 1980s

Kishore Kumar's decade, the rise of the music cassette, and a new generation trained on the radio.

The Nineties 1990s

Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik and Kavita Krishnamurthy sing for a new Bollywood; the audio-cassette boom peaks.

2000s to Today 2000 –

Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal, Arijit Singh and the singers of the streaming age.

Ghazal and Non-film

Begum Akhtar to Jagjit Singh — the singers who made the ghazal a living form outside the cinema.

Qawwali, Bhajan and Devotional

Voices of the dargah and the mandir — qawwals, bhajan singers and the devotional record.

Hindi Pop

From Nazia Hassan's Disco Deewane to the Indipop wave of the 1990s.