Indian Folk

There is no single folk music in India -- it's as varied as the hundreds of tribal and ethnic groups that make up the country. Indian folk is also the very antithesis of classical music; there is no rigorous or formal training and few finely crafted instruments. People learn the songs simply by hearing them, and there are tunes for all major life events: births, deaths, weddings, funerals, planting and harvesting, to name a few. Instrumentation can range from classical (e.g. the tabla) to hand-crafted instruments which, while similar to each other, go by different names from town to town. Among the famous folk musicians are the Bauls of Bengal, itinerant performers who sing songs of praise and mystical devotion, and Ila Arun, Rajasthan's queen of folk-pop.