🎻 Ethnic and folk music — India

Indian classical music comprises two major traditions: Hindustani in the north and Carnatic in the south. Both rely on ragas, melodic frameworks, and talas, rhythmic cycles, but their repertoires, vocal forms and instruments differ. The sitar, sarod and tabla are mainly associated with the Hindustani tradition, while the veena, violin, venu flute and mridangam play a major role in Carnatic music. India also has countless religious, folk and regional musics: qawwali, bhajan, baul, bhangra, lavani and film traditions specific to several languages. Bollywood represents only Hindi cinema from Mumbai; the Tamil, Telugu and other regional film industries also produce a considerable share of popular music.