The history of rock music in India starts in the mid 60s. Those days, in India, was a firm called Gramophone Company of India, which made the access to modern music, like pop and rock, much easier. The founder of the company later became president of a big promoting company in the United States. His name is Bhaskar Menon. After him many promoting companies were founded in India. Some of them international. Today India is one of the largest and fastest developing markets in the world.
Chronology of Indian rock music:
60s-70s – In those times the music industry in India wasn't much developed. Most of the bands mixed the traditional sound of Indian music with the modern rock and pop. Popular bands from this period are Mystiks from Bombai, the Beat – X from Madras and etc. These bands were influenced by post-hard rock songs and the new British Invasion songs.
Later, with the arrival of the MTV era, the tastes were changed. Most of the bands were influenced by the heavy metal sound of the American bands so they harden their styles too. They started to sound more like death metal or progressive rock. A typical band is “Rock Machine”. They, like others, harden their style in the late 80s and began to use new techniques influenced by the west.
In the 90s, the sound became even harder. New styles like Trash, Punk and Brit pop had a huge impact on the tastes of the audience. In consequence new bands became popular. One of them started to play in a style which was mix of ancient Indian music and modern sound. It was called raga rock.
Today the rock scene in India is bigger than ever. It includes bands which perform in all styles of modern rock. These bands are playing music of a very high quality and soon can become recognisable in other countries except India.
