Abstract
Music and soundtrack are integral parts of a Bollywood film’s script. Hindi film songs are released before the film which helps generate an audience for the film, create its first impression and contribute to its popularity (Vijaykar, 2013) A genre of songs that largely contribute to the popularity of Bollywood films is the item song. Despite their popularity, item songs are seen to be problematic as they reinforce patriarchal norms and stereotypical portrayals of women, as objects of male desire and gratification (Jain et al., 2019). The aim of this study is to assess whether there has been an increase in the level of vulgarity of item songs in the last three decades.
Quantitative content analysis was used to analyse 30 Bollywood item songs between 1990 and 2019. Vulgarity was measured in terms of four elements: lewdness of song lyrics, lewdness of choreography, male gaze and sexualisation through skin show. The rationale behind this study can be tied to the fact that we live in a patriarchal society governed by male oriented ideologies. Findings showed a significant increase in sexual innuendo, objectification of item girl, sexually suggestive choreography, and skin show thus pointing to a significant increase in the level of vulgarity of Bollywood item songs in the past three decades.