In recent years though, ‘vanity pop’ has gone from being a novelty to a legitimate phenomenon, with Bollywood stars making serious inroads into the pop music space.The most obvious example was Priyanka Chopra, who was signed up by Universal Music Group in 2011 with the hope that her celebrity status and existing fandom could make her India’s first international pop star. It didn’t work out exactly as planned. Despite Universal’s significant backing, and Chopra’s attempts at playing to the American gallery with singles like ‘Exotic’, featuring the cringey lyrics “cool me down, I’m feeling so exotic/ Ya right now, I’m hotter than the tropics”, Chopra’s career as a pop star never really took off. Autotune and guest appearances from will.i.am and Pitbull can only take you so far, after all. But Chopra’s stalled music career hasn’t stopped others from trying to expand into the independent (ie non-film) music space
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