The soundtrack to the film Dil Chahta Hai (2001) was arguably the first hit soundtrack in Bollywood created by a rock band. In this presentation, Prof. Beaster-Jones illustrates how the collaborative approach for this Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy soundtrack generated momentum for a new kind of Indian film song.

He highlights the changing tastes of India’s urban youth audiences in the twenty-first century and shows how Dil Chahta Hai paved the way for the rock and EDM-oriented compositions of Hindi-language cinema that came to dominate the first decades of the 21st century. This influence, he argues, makes Dil Chahta Hai among the most influential soundtracks in Indian cinematic history.

Beaster-Jones is a professor of music in the Global Arts Studies Program at UC  Merced. He is author of three books, a co-edited volume, and numerous articles; his research focuses upon the popular music and media industries of India, with a particular emphasis on the Hindi film industry and linguistic/semiotic approaches to musical/social analysis. He is currently co-editing the Routledge Handbook of Cinemas of South Asia (with Ajay Gehlawat) and the Oxford Handbook of Music Industry Studies (with Kaleb Goldschmitt). His recent research centers upon the relationships between music, autobiographical memory, and aging.