 Rock guitar weeps stridently, drums reverberate to a vigorous beat and the keyboards provide the electronic tenor. Bangra, reggae, folksy rock, metal and rap, everything you wanted to hear and more. Welcome to the Indian Pop Music Factory, which is today belting out a smorgasbord of sounds and new voices as its shining stars gyrate and hip-hop their way into the high energy MTV generation. In the 80s, the Indian pop scene had only a few stars to boast of. In a climate not encouraging anything much original and innovative, the effervescent go-and-singer Remo Fernandez struck a chord with the masses with his home-strung renditions replete with Indian flavour. Things began to change in the 90s. Indiscreet, earlier known as Rock Machine, the country's leading rock band started the search for trendy, world-class music videos with their MTV Asian viewers award-winning endeavour Pretty Child from their second album, The Second Coming. First pop star to exploit the medium of music videos was the desi rapper Baba Sagar, who scored runaway successes like Tanda Tanda Pani and Dil Dharke. The Indian Madonna sound-alike Alisha Chennai, known for her foot-tapping albums like Baby Doll and Bombay Girl, opted for the more popular Bhangra Reggae beat in her album Made in India, launched in the market last year. In the West, Hindi pop music too is attracting the not-too-successful and the lesser stars from Tinseltown. The best example is screen and television actress Suchitra Krishnamurthy, whose album Dole Dole was one of the hot-selling releases of 1995. Here's a show that explains to you how and why not to get hooked. Here we go with this week's special. Where Indian pop is finding acceptance, music groups like the Bangalore-based Pulse are experimenting with newer forms of fusion. With a string of pop releases slated in the coming months, the Indian music charts might never look the same again. And more interestingly, these non-film numbers could be giving Hindi film music a stiff run for the listener's ear and money. But perhaps in the not-too-distant future, the new competition, spurred by the spurt of music channels in the country, could throw up talent that would find a ready place in any international hit parade.