Originality and The Indian Rock Fan
Submitted by IRMP3 on December 29, 2009 – 6:36 PM8 Comments
By Jitesh Rajan.
Independence Rock, popularly known as I- Rock will be celebrating it’s 25 years of existence in a few months from now. This annual Indian rock pilgrimage has been a part of concert going experience since 1994, making it my 15th trip this coming year. Besides the music, what has always caught my attention is the Indian rock addict who braves the rain and the bomb blasts to make sure he’s there to catch his favourite bands perform. In the 90’s we had the classic metal fans who wore leather, the punk & grunge fans who wore their unkempt jeans and shirts & the autonomous fan that I am and was, I wore whatever I could lay my hands on (who cares about clothing at gigs?) The scene outside Rang Bhavan, in the lane adjoining St. Xavier’s college was that of a dope party of rockheads just about to explode.
Original music was hard to come by and whenever it raised it’s ugly head, it was greeted with bottles and abuses. Metallica and Megadeth were the order of the day with a few OCs thrown in for fun. Thankfully, it ain’t fun anymore. Nowadays, covers are fillers for bands. Sets are dominated with original compositions which are carefully handpicked from the arsenal to deliver the maximum carnage. Bands usually had to work hard to nail covers to win over audiences in the past. Not any more.
Today, original music is the order of the day. This brings up two questions.
a) Has the Indian rock fan matured with time?
b) If yes, who has helped him mature and why has this change come now ?
Let’s start from the begining. There wasn’t enough original music to listen to in the beginning. I can name just a couple of albums in my collection in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Even if original music was being composed, it never saw the light of the day. When there wasn’t any original music to choose from, we can’t blame the fan for not supporting it.I do remember going to a Millennium concert in Bangalore in the late 90’s & that was the first time I came back from an all original set pleased. The band was 2 albums old and played a 1.30 hr set of some some skull crushing originals. Covers would have been a total waste.That was what I felt and so did the 1000 strong crowd who attended that gig. It all started then when bands mustered up enough courage to go up on stage and play original music.
As a fan before checking out a new band and their music, I would want to make sure that I do visit their website or myspace to check out their oc’s before I am shocked or awed by their tracks when played live. With the advent of the internet this is possible for fans like me to know the band more even before I see them live. This was unheard of 10 years ago, bands have been hitting studios regularly to record their music and come out with EPs, albums and selling them at venues.A few bands have also gone ahead and distributed their music for free in the last few years. All this has helped to make originality & creativity in music come out of the box. In the last couple of years in my personal experience I have seen bands work hard on their music both in the studio and when dishing out the same music at live concerts. This has made a world of difference and has raised bar for the bands to follow.
The Indian rock fan has evolved and matured with the music. With the scene growing rapidly with time and getting more professional, bands are going all out to woo the average Indian rock fan.
So I guess its high time for an Indian rock addict like me to enjoy his new found fame under the sun.
* Jitesh Rajan is a Ad professional by day and a die hard ’Metal head’ by night. He is one of the handful of guys who work selflessly to promote the Indian underground Scene.
Killer article, Jitesh \m/ .
As you mentioned bands that played originals were greeted with empty bottles, stones , and the staple BC-MC expletives. The music has matured so has the audience. The fact that people are buying Indian bands CD’s, t-shirts and other merchandise is a very encouraging sign
Yes its a beginning of a very beautiful start \m/
Great article man and a very interesting read.
Amazing article.. Clearly describes the eveolution of Indian metal from its early age till today..
Keep up the good work..
love the flow. talking about the indian rock scene to now, the indian rock fan. neat.
cheers. \m/
Well written! More power to Indian bands and Jitesh’s pen … or should I say keyboard
bravo…
really the internet is the reason the indian rock music is going places..
Nice work Jits ! but I guess you have written much more about how the scene evolved too
good read though keep up the good work
Haha that picture was taken by me at Deccan Rock good to see it up here.