This two-part study was designed to investigate the influence of melodic activity (ornamented and plain) on the perception of tempo. Additional variables were an audible beat (present or absent) in Experiment 1 and the size of the tempo change (92 and 118 beats per minute) in Experiment 2. Subjects, 46 third graders and 49 sixth graders (Experiment 1) and 47 fifth graders (Experiment 2), indicated whether the tempo of the second example in each paired comparison item was faster, slower, or stayed the same. Melodic activity was the only influential variable affecting tempo discrimination.

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.Nanzan University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Asian Folklore Studies. AbstractThe commercial Hindi cinema has been subjected to domestic and foreign criticism for its exceptionally formulaic and stereotypical feature productions. These productions, however, have their sources in the oral and written epics and the popular dramatic genres of traditional Indian culture. Content borrowed from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and other pan-Indian tales frequently enlarges and reinterprets the characters and plots of the commercial cinema. The disconcerting emotional melange presented by Hindi films is consistent with aesthetic theories of emotional content found in Indian epic narrative. The stereotyping of characters and of interpersonal relationships reflects the influence of traditional Indian epic structure, while the growing frequency of self-reflexive humor in the medium suggests yet another connection between contemporary Hindi cinema and the historically powerful traditions of Indian drama and narrative.

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IntroductionThe commercial Hindi language cinema is among the largest and oldest music film traditions on the planet. One of the most widely remarked and inflexible conventions of this highly stylised popular film genre is the regular appearance of song and dance scenes in almost every commercial Hindi film. A huge body of over 40,000 film songs (filmī gīt, as they are known in Hindi) has grown along with the thousands of Hindi sound films produced since 1931; unlike the more recent development of music video in the west, Hindi film songs have been intimately connected with larger narrative traditions and visual images from their very inception. Filmī gīt comprise one of the most intensely consumed popular music repertoires on the planet. Across the range of visual and sound media and on into live performance, the audience for film song must be numbered in the hundreds of millions throughout the South Asian subcontinent and diaspora.