curtains & valances
behind the curtain making music in mumbais film studios
beginning in the 1930s men and a handful of women came from indias many communities marathi parsi goan north indian and many others to mumbai to work in an industry that constituted in the words of some the original fusion music . they worked as composers arrangers assistants and studio performers in one of the most distinctive popular music and popular film cultures on the planet . today the songs played by mumbais studio musicians are known throughout india and the indian diaspora under the popular name bollywood but the musicians themselves remain in their own words behind the curtain the anonymous and unseen performers of one of the worlds most celebrated popular music genres . br now gregory d. booth offers a compelling account of the bollywood film music industry from the perspective of the musicians who both experienced and shaped its history . in a rare insiders look at the process of musical production from the late 1940s to the mid 1990s before the advent of digital recording technologies booth explains who these unknown musicians were and how they came to join the film music industry . on the basis of a fascinating set of first hand accounts from the musicians themselves he reveals how the day to day circumstances of technology and finance shaped both the songs and the careers of their creator and performers . booth also unfolds the technological cultural and industrial developments that led to the enormous studio orchestras of the 1960s 90s as well as the factors which ultimately led to their demise in contemporary india . br featuring an extensive companion website with video interviews with the musicians themselves behind the curtain is a powerful ground level view of this globally important music industry .