Raga Rock
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Rock built on Indian classical materials rather than blues ones: a sustained drone from tambura, harmonium or an open-tuned guitar replaces functional chord movement, melodies follow modal scales with characteristic flattened seconds and microtonal slides, and sitar, tabla and swarmandal sit alongside or in place of the standard rock kit. Where a blues-based song moves through changes to a resolution, raga rock hovers on a single tonal centre, building through rhythmic intensification and ornamented melodic variation; guitarists imitate the sitar's bent, cascading phrasing with heavy string-bending and fuzz, and vocals often adopt a nasal, sustained delivery over the drone.
History
Western pop first absorbed Indian sound through The Beatles' contact with the instrument on the set of Help! in 1965, which led to George Harrison's sitar on "Norwegian Wood" and, through his study with Ravi Shankar, to genuinely raga-structured writing on "Love You To" and "Within You Without You". The Byrds and The Yardbirds arrived in parallel via modal jazz and guitar experiment rather than direct study — David Crosby brought Coltrane's modal drone to "Eight Miles High" — and the term "raga rock" was coined by the Byrds' publicist in 1966 to promote "Why". The style's peak was brief and coincided with the counterculture's interest in Indian spirituality, and its more literal exoticism dated quickly; but its structural legacy proved durable, feeding drone and modal writing in psychedelia, the Krautrock of Popol Vuh, and the 1990s revivalism of Kula Shaker, while the deeper cross-cultural exchange it opened produced lasting work from Shankar, Ananda Shankar and later Asian Underground artists.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Love You To(1966) — The BeatlesSpotifyYouTube
- Eight Miles High(1966) — The ByrdsSpotifyYouTube
- Shapes of Things(1966) — The YardbirdsSpotifyYouTube
- The Fool(1968) — Quicksilver Messenger ServiceSpotifyYouTube
- A Very Cellular Song(1968) — The Incredible String BandSpotifyYouTube
- Jumpin' Jack Flash(1970) — Ananda ShankarSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- David Reck, "Beatles Orientalis: Influences from Asia in a Popular Song Form", Asian Music vol. 16 no. 1, University of Texas Press, 1985
- Jonathan Bellman (ed.), "The Exotic in Western Music", Northeastern University Press, 1998
- Peter Lavezzoli, "The Dawn of Indian Music in the West", Continuum, 2006