Features :: Indian Rock...Through The Decades

Indian ROCK Music! What’s that?! Sulken faces, Irritating expressions that’s what u get if u speak about Indian Rock Music. Rock music has ALWAYS been frowned upon, and neglected by the overly-orthodox minded assholes.

Rock in India goes back in the late 60’s and early 70’s with bands like The Trojans, Atomic Forest, The Savages, Waterfront etc .Those were the days when radio ruled the waves…Beatle mania, Rolling Stones, etc were the perennial favourites in the early days. Like most bands of today they died an artificial and premature death!! Musicians from those bands went on to pursue solo musical careers like Biddu (ex-Trojan), Remo Fernandes (ex- Savages), Nandu Bhende (Ex- Velvette Fogg), Trilok Gurtu (ex Waterfront), Mr. Joe Alvares (now into music /event management), Mr. Bashir Shaikh (ex-Savages), now into music management etc .

But those were the earliest of the early days, and may be the seeds of Indian Rock were sown then. Lack of a proper audience, no record deals, were the obvious reasons for their premature death.

In the late 80’s, some amazing bands like Sabre Tooth, Rock Machine, Shiva, Exodus, 13 AD etc made waves. Rock Machine (now Indus Creed) made a successful career among their contemporaries . Today they considered as the all-time PAPAs of Indian Rock. But alas, circumstances and commercialization forced them to disband. Two of the members (Uday Benegal and Jayesh Gandhi) have formed ALMS FOR SHANTI, a world-music-meets-new-age-band.

The 90’s saw a barrage of promising bands and talented musicians. Thanks mainly to the advent of foreign satellite television (esp. MTV) which had a huge impact on the Indian Rock music scene. Bands came up like weeds and went down the same way! But some survived and lived to tell the tale…

MTV was a real turning point in the scene of Indian music and Indian Rock benefited greatly from it. For the first time Indians got to see a their favorite foreign Rock Musicians, new styles of rock like alternative, punk, country, etc Also the music scene in India totally changed after that. The number of Rock concerts went up amazingly! It was HAY DAY as far as Indian Rock Music scene was concerned. Some of the already known bands got a good exposure like Rock Machine (re-christened Indus Creed in this period,) Parikrama, Agni, etc. Indus Creed also won the MTV Asian Viewers Choice Award in this period and made a minor inroad internationally with almost negligible success.

Bands like Chakraview, Mayhem , Chaos (re-christened Vedic Chant,) Ravages, Shiva, Rosenkrutz, Vulcan Haze, Orphean Revival, Ezee Meat, Pentagram, Brahma, etc showed promise and amazing talent. However only today PENTAGRAM, BRAHMA, VEDIC CHANT, and AGNI have survived. Sadly again due to immense political pressure the amount of rock concerts went down and also went some bands and promising talent.

There was a lull in the rock music scene for some time due to this. There was only an the Annual Independence Day Rock Concert (Running successfully for the 17th year all efforts by Mr. Farhad Wadia, Thanks Dude!), and LiveWire at Mood Indigo at IIT Powai (considered to be the prestigious concert by many bands.)

Although Bombay was considered as the best breeding ground for rock music, the scene was just not happening! Bangalore meanwhile produced amazing metal bands like Millennium, Kryptos, Yama, etc. Chennai (Madras) is still known for the huge Pink Floyd cult following and bands like Down Sterling, Nemesis Avenue, Juravi, Burn, Grasshopper Green have a huge following. The north-east part of India has produced truly amazing teen metal, rock bands like Metal Teens, Great Society, Phoenix, Hoboes, Mojo, etc. But alas bands from this virgin land rarely move out of their home towns for obvious reasons. Delhi still has with them the crowd darlings Parikrama, Orange Street, Killer Tomatoes, Euphoria, etc. Kolkata also has produced amazing talents such as the indefatigable Shiva, Krosswindz etc

Geographical immovability is still one of the reasons few bands try to make it big. Also in some parts of our motherland even to this date ROCK is still unheard of!! (LOL)

But Rockers still have not given HOPE (I hope they never give up.) Thanks to the advent and easy accessibility of the Internet, Indian bands have a found a new medium to express their music. Free downloads, free music uploading sites, music-swapping sites, have considerably made a huge impact on the Indian Rock Scene. Bands like Dementra (winners of this year EMA award from Asia,) Demonic Resurrection, Pentagram, etc have a made their presence felt thanks to the net!

The press media has also been sort of kind, esp. mags like JAM, JLT, Raga to Rock, Rock Street Journal, have featured almost all upcoming and promising talent in their columns. Various newspapers like Mid-Day, The Times of India, The Afternoon also feature some rock musicians. Television channels like MTV, Channel [V], CMM, B4U, also feature some artists.

All said and done the future of Indian Rock belongs to the AUDIENCE! Yes, THE AUDIENCE!! The listeners mostly comprise of people who still prefer to listen to covers of their fav. foreign Rock artists, which is blasphemous for the up and coming Indian Rock. With prejudice towards none, the audience should listen to original compositions from talented rock musicians. And buy their albums, if they have any. Record companies, barring a few like Throatlatch Records, should also give up their age-old thinking towards Indian Rock and promote deserving and talented artists. Also encouraging signs are associations like Bombay Rock Association, Rock Bars like Razzberry Rhinoceros (Mumbai), MeTal Army Soldiers (Bangalore), people like Mr. Farhad Wadia, Mr. Amit Saigal (RSJ), press reporters like Mr. Narendra Kusnur, Ms. Dilnaz Boga, Rishu Singh, Indian websites like Gigpad.com, MetalIndia.f2s.com, RSJOnline.com, BodhiMusic.com etc have regularly featured promising talent. Also there are other unsung heroes in Indian rock history (names that don’t pop up in my mind at this juncture of time!)

Talented bands like Demonic Resurrection, Pin Drop Violence, Acquired Funk Syndrome, Mindsnare, Zero, Sceptre, Moksha, Parikrama, Agni, etc; guitarists like Mr. Chandresh Kudwa, should avail of these opportunities and make a successful foray not only on the Indian Scene but internationally !!!!

Rock On!!...and on…and on….and on…