The Great Indian Rock Movement.

These days people seem to breathe metal. metal's in the air. metal seems to be everywhere i go. though not a big fan of metal. I would most certainly see it to it that my knees touch the ground and head bow in devotion to anyone who could strum a guitar. Rock's something which ain't completly new to us. Rock movement has started in india back then in the 60's. The 60's indian bands like The Mystiks from bombay. beatx from calcutta and the flinstone's from madras have enjoyed notable success during their period. They were regularly seen playing on the indian university music circuits. The all india radio dedicated an hour a day to play pop music. My brother always wished that he was one among those 60's youth with a hippie cut and a beard that could scare the shit out of a child. People back then had thing's which money couldn't buy us now. They knew they were on to something big. And now, after everything's been done we have nothing left to look out for. shit, coming back to the 60's rock shit. U.s had rolling stones which made Rockstar's out of garage band's overnight. NME did the same to U.K band's. On these lines was formed Junior Statesman which closely followed the Indian rock culture in the 60's but to lesser success, almost empty success. Because there never existed a culture to follow. Because all that these bands did was play western music which topped the chart's. 60's also saw a great movement. The movement which involved Band's like the Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Doors and The Byrds getting influenced by indian classic music. Music critics cite this movement as something which was undertaken to create and reinforce psychedelia in their music.


The 70's 80's didn't contribute much to the Indian Rock Movement. The atmosphere was rather dull until the 90's when the orientalist trend of the 60's, 70's and 80's came to an end. India began to produce Rock Music of it's own. With the invasion of band's like rock machine. The rock movement gained some momentum. Not just rock but the sub-genre's alternative and progressive covered some ground in the 90's. " Raga Rock " a blend of rock and classic indian music which was started back then in the 60's gained more popularity in the 90's. and this is considered as an important achievement in Indian rock history. " Euphoria " a delhi born rock band that specialises in Raga Rock was born in the 90's. The band was the First indian band which mixed Electric guitar with traditional indian tabla and dholak to applauding and mesmerising effect's. The band's first album Dhoom became such a big hit that Fan's created a name for themselves and even now Euphoria fan's are called the " Dhoomers".


2000 saw the invasion of heavy metal into the blood of Indian Rock Culture. Delhi has been the homeland of some of the most talented and super successful indian rock band's.
" Parikrama " the delhi based superstar's of indian rock were formed in the 90's but gained stardom in the 2000's. 2000 also saw the birth of band's like menwhopause, them clones and Indian Ocean in delhi. Rock Scenes have proved to be more than just a great paltform for up coming rockband's. The first major Rock scene " Great indian rock festival " started in calcutta followed by " Independence Rock festival " in mumbai" and " June out rock " in chennai. These Rock scenes met with a tremendous Success. We had everything except a journal which covered all these and made it public. and this hole was blocked by the " Rock Street Journal " the first ever exclusive rock magazine that covered a to z of rock. Not to forget " Vedic Metal " the sub genre of indian rock which was first of it's kind and coupled rock music with vedic lyrics. Rudra is the first indian vedic rock band which was followed by others like aryaveda, asura, advaita, kaliyuga and narasimha the band.


Indian Rock today has definetly made it's ground. With rock band's playing music in their regional languages. Avial has started this in kerala and achieved a cult status. Would definetly love to see a rock band that play's in telugu.