Michael goes to Bed, declares Alec Smart in a tabloid headline about the Danish rock band visiting a Mumbai lounge bar. India is finally rocking, is the general feeling, with everybody from Eric Clapton to Megadeath rumoured to be India-bound soon. Please give me a break. Somebody. I have nothing against the mush factory's, or greats', discovery of India, but it makes my blood boil to see the marketing and media juggernaut put its weight behind anything that comes from the West, no matter how dated or clichéd it might be. And that when we have killed some great rock music from India by our ignorance. Like Lou Majaw, the grand old man from Shillong whose life reads better than any bestseller. He fronted a band, Great Society, that was as good as any the West has ever produced. When he sang his Sea of sorrow, you could feel the pain of a man who had even worked as a labourer in Calcutta to survive. https://in.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/30sumit.htm
Great coloumn. He's successful at putting forth the problems on the Indian Rock scene... We need more bands to come up on stage, and do more originals! Yeah, covers are ohk, once in a while, but play more of your originals! Bands like Skinny Alley and Cassini's Division are good, no doubt about that. In the new age, bands like Motherjane, Thermal, Zero, HFC, DR, Vayu and the likes have got tremendous potential to get good originals done... Setup your own sound, and then tour extensively... as Pentagram & Orange Street have done. But to this idealistic view point, add Indian-ness. The feeling that the West are always the best, the chalta-hai attitude, the sick need to copy. What happened to the original Indian values of creation, imagination? That needs to be put forth in the music... F'kin I dunno what I'm saying... To many feeelings, too many ideas, too little time...
the crowd is to be blamed....majority of them req for more covers and dont accept originals...this simply kills the creativity within the artists
Lots of bands not just Great Society ...... (I didn't like their style much ...) 13 AD another great band .. which could easily give a run for money for the western rockers .. Who cares .. Ppl are more comfortable with Indians playing TABLA and blacks doing R&B Hip Hop .. and Brits doing Heavy Metal and Americans with Thrash ... Thts how the world goes ... Can't help it .. Why did Junoon make it big they put in abit of Indian stuffs and they were hit ...... Can't help it .. and no point ... I BET WE jokers .. wudn't bother bout our very own Hindustani or Carnatic ... And wht makes u think they wud give a damn bout brown rockers !!!!!! U can hear ppl in west say .. I am gonna catch a football game today... A Hockey game .. Or a GIG ... But thts NOT in INDIA .. Ppl r happy working their ass off .... So no way can music become a profession here ....
Covers is all that people expect. Especially since most of the ppl that throng these shows are kinda rock-illiterate they expect numbers like Enter Sandman, Sweet Chld o Mine, Smells like Teen spirit n Fear of the dark thats it The rest is "booooo" stuff for them
Well let me put it this way, if the orignals were any good they would accept them fact is majority of them are below average so nobody cares and request thus covers instead.
Hmm.. yeah.. most of the originals by the mediocre bands are quite rubbish... Umm, well, 'cuz they aren't produced well is one take, while the lack of talent is another... I don't think the class I bands of India have ever done bad originals as such... Names which come to mind are Zero, Motherjane, Pentagram, Indus Creed, Rock Machine, Alms For SHanti, DR, BM, Kryptos and Myndsnare.. Metakix and Brahma too, but like, who cares?
Too much funda Nanda. Quit office and reach jam room by 7:00pm today. Everybody is meeting up :beer: . Let's see if you are slogging you a.ss or will you care for India to rock. :annoyed:
Well, but what I have seen is that people usually like to listen to stuff they have listenend to, the oines they can sing along. That is the reason y they request for Covers. Not because the originals are bad or worse.
well, i suppose its mainly da crowd u know keep bugging da band to play covers....and there are gr8 bncha bands who play only covers....that too boring ones!
Apart from disagreeing politely but vehemently with neo's opinion, I would like to add: I can speak from personal experience to say that this is scarily true. Their live performances are more powerful than anyone else's I've seen. This man, my guitar teacher Amyt Dutta, is an inspiration to most of us beyond anyone we've seen or heard. I've always heard about guru worship but have never actually experienced it and my respect for him comes close to this. Now for my opinion on neo's post: Like the writer says, it is a known fact that record companies will not touch you with a 10-foot pole if you're a band singing originals in English no matter how good you are. If you switch to bangla rock, the same recording companies will come grovelling to you so you sign their contracts. It sickens me to the core and I think the writer shares my disgust of the rock scene in Calcutta. Since it is virtually impossible to bring out an album of your own in English and the crowd is not willing to give you a chance then and there, the quality of your material does not matter. I have myself performed in places where people have started requesting for covers even before we start playing.
Totally agree with u dude ... U play great numbers of GNR like patince or nighttrain or .... Metallica creeping death or God that failed ... Or sabbath under the sun .... No one wants them ... they want stuffs they can sing along .. and prove to ppl around them they know a gr8 deal of rock !!!!!
^^^ @$$-KISSIN... Sorry dude... I guess the whole poseur attitude lives on forever, rite??? I like it when bands play what they want to play... Be it covers, they have to be good, and if it's an original, then it better be good enough to catch your ear...
There are probably 100s of rock bands from 100s of countries who go unnoticed. If they arenot form england or us they have very little chance.
Unnoticed isn't only international fame... If you are well noticed in your own country, actually, even your own city, I doubt whether you'll go unnoticed... Take PDV's case, for instance... from Andrews, Mumbai to whole of India recognition.. same for Pentagram... Guess we need more distributors, record labels and more importantly, AIRPLAY on TV & RADIO!
