Tag: Bollywood

  • 1930s Hindi Film Music – Now Available on MySwar

    We had promised in February to complete the task of cataloguing the first decade of Hindi film music, starting with “Alam Ara” (1931), by April. We’re happy to report that the task is done right on time. MySwar now lists all the films released between 1931 and 1940 and their songs. At this point, the data for film…

  • MySwar Updates

    We’ve been busy making MySwar better these past few months and although we’re far from done, it’s a good time to review two of these updates: A few months ago, we started entering information for Hindi films released between 1931 and 1940. In a first pass, we entered the most important films released in this decade – films like…

  • 2016 Bollywood Music Review and Top 20 Songs

    As in the past, critics were not happy with the state of Hindi film music in 2016. The charge – yet again – was that it Hindi films were using an “assembly line” approach to create songs using multiple composers and re-packaging hit songs from the past. One thing is certain – music is no…

  • The Top 100 Hindi Film Songs Of 2015

    As 2015 draws to a close, it is time to revisit the best songs of the year. This is the first draft of the year’s top 100 songs based on rankings on MySwar. We will finalize the rankings in a few weeks. This list excludes singles released recently for which the album will likely not…

  • MySwar Mobile Web Version Now Available

    Over the last few weeks, we rolled out mobile web updates to the MySwar website. When you access myswar.co from a mobile device, you’ll see an easy-to-navigate, mobile-friendly version. Almost every feature available available on the desktop website is available in the mobile web version. While the UI is different, the flow is very similar to the flow…

  • Thoughts On Amit Trivedi’s “Bombay Velvet”

    This is not a review of Amit Trivedi’s Bombay Velvet. I loved the album to bits and wanted to share a few things that stood out for me as I was listening to it: It struck me as a rare album in that it is so thematically consistent. We hear Neeti Mohan’s voice in six…

  • 2014 Bollywood Music Review

    2014 was not a great year for Hindi film music. The Indian Express carried a bleak piece discussing the death of Hindi film music in 2014. We have observed the rise of multi-composer albums and albums riding on one or two item songs for a few years now. This trend continued in 2014. The other…

  • The Top 100 Hindi Film Songs Of 2014

    It is that time of the year again. The snobs may look down on it, but “best of” lists are a simple and effective way to record and revisit great music over time. We like to think that the lists on MySwar are a little different from the rest because they are based on ratings from many people…

  • Non-Film Albums Now Available On MySwar App

    So far we had only Hindi film albums available on the MySwar app. Over the weekend, we rolled out an update that makes non-film albums also available. This means that the best works of artists like Jagjit Singh, Indian Ocean, Shubha Mudgal, Raghu Dixit, Swarathma and Vasuda Sharma are now available on our app. It also means…

  • Best Of Bollywood 2014 – Call For Your Rating

    As 2014 draws to an end, we are getting into the list season. The Best Of Bollywood lists we drew up for 2012 and 2013 are immensely popular and understandably so. Many of us don’t have as much time as we would like to immerse ourselves in music and a crowd-sourced “best of” list is…