The definition of Rock has changed over a period of time. No matter how you think the true ROCK was played in the 70's and 80's..Let's face it, it doesn't sale anymore now. Rock music had to evolve to compete with the ever increasing popularity of the R n B and Hip Hop artist. This is no longer a generation of the tough and the wasted. The new generation in the west wants to be cool and not rough. R n B and Hip Hop offers the same to them. It never made sense to me to listen to a Black Eyed Peas and spit out lyrics that don't have a head or tail but let's face it - They are cool. What did rock do to save it's fate in the hands of these elements - It evolved to something called - Alternative Rock. A genre which i have hurdled to define forever. The best way to describe is probably to think it of as something that you cannot classify into one specific genre of Rock music. No matter how much you debate over it but this is the only surviving form - which of course draws heavy influences from Pop music. Standard Chord sequences that have been played a million times in zillions of songs are arranged and treated to give you that sound that appeals to the radio.
Despite this try, i have struggled for one Rock station in Canada. Be it Montreal or be Ottawa - even if you get through one, none of them play classic rock any more. Gone are the days when a BJ or a G n R would rule the Billboard Hot 100 singles. When was the last time, a out n out rock number was on the number 1 spot? - Hard to remember. But still we have the Modern Rock Charts and we have our own favorites there holding onto a league of their own - but mind it, again, no classic Rock here.
Now let us shift the paradigm to India, as this post mostly deals with the scene in India, well ideally it should. I have been to uncountable Rock shows in India. We are at the mercy of Hip Hop still, that it hasn't caught up like a fire unlike in the west. A guy picks up the guitar mostly in the first or second year of college, gets his buddies, some of them he thinks has a sense for music and some of them are these cool dudes, who are his close friends - forms a band and the next thing you learn about them is that they probably hardly know how to ROCK but they do know all the gimmicks from the old School Rock musicians, they have seen the video of. A innocent crowd stares on and some out of them snap in alcohol abuse and starts spitting words of worship to the guys on stage. The third guy, who has no clue about what's going on the stage, gets influenced by this guy and follows him in raising his different finger patterns as that makes him look hardcore too. I hate to say this, but Rock has not been the thing about being COOL - which we take it as in India. No matter how much we deny it, but Rock has been dominated by the skin color and the accent - though we can correct the accent but the color? So the brown guy lands up in total confusion - because he neither can follow Hip hop because that's Just about too Cool for him to handle and finds doping an easier solution to his desire of being the Rough n Tough guy - on broader picture - he gets a solution to be different amongst the mass which listens to Bollywood songs.
With that being said - i am sure most of you have been to the Rock shows in India and you already know that you have nothing more to expect than probably 10 songs that get repeat played in every single show you go to. We are still living 15 years back - when the world has actually leaped forward to a new genre. The fact remains, like you can probably think that there can be no one playing the Indian music better than someone like A R Rahman in the west, similarly, it's hard to imagine someone from India to play something which is their music. The inception is not from us - but who said we have to incept to be successful. Hell India did not invent the computers - but leveraged the most out of it. So time now to think a little serious about what we lack primarily.
The first thing that definitely lacks in our bands is Originality - I know most of you know about it already as it might have been spoken out by so many Indian Rock Music Freelancers (well they hardly make money out of a permanent job doing this) - which actually leads us to the next point - lack of support. You know why we lack support - because it doesn't draw any money for any one. That leads to the third point - Bollywood. No matter how much you think yourself as Cool when you say that Bollywood music sucks - don't deny the fact that it identifies the Indian Culture - what we do wrong by being a Rock musician is - we try to steal the market from Bollywood rather than creating one from ourselves. Which brings us to the fourth point - lack of money. Let's face the facts - India is a developing country - we have still 70% of the population struggling for food - all of you reading this post belong to that 30% and for whom life is a smooth sail from the basic amenities perspective. Rock has been predominantly a DEVELOPED nation thing. Again deny it or face the truth. What we do know is that - we don't have a K'naan singing a song called Waving Flag from India about the poor people dying here rather than in Somalia - I am sure we would out number them any day. Of course the reason is - that 30% actually wanted to be Cool and i don't want to repeat myself about why they thought that Rock Music was the coolest thing to do.
Probably this post will go down the garbage and would be lost in the ever passing time but i would quest for a solution and i would do that right now. It's to the rock musicians of our country - It ain't gonna work if you copy the lifestyles of Rock musicians from the west. You would always end up seeing those 10 faces in the crowd that follows your band for all of your shows, who would cheer for you. India's definition of a Rockstar is entirely different - It will not work or fetch the things that Nickelback would sing in their modern day sale out song either. You cannot imagine yourself as a God once you land up on a stage and play the fastest riff in the world that annoys more people than what they would want to hear. The advice is, be a common man - don't compete to be the celebrities. Go back to your Jam room and bring out that creative talent in you rather than following someone else's foot steps to make something original. Err...hold on...that is not it, if you want to really see an Indian song do good - make it a little more of this age rather than staying up in the late 80's and smoking weed. Make even the one off show that you get - a grand event to watch. Show the media that you can make the money meter roll. Recognize your market, do not try to think that you can work in the WEST and the WEST is always the coolest place to boast about if you've got a show to play in the UK - no one remembers what happens after that one off show - so don't fly rather leverage it.
It's strange that i look down upon me and i find that i too struggle to accept the reality at times. Remember, Jai ho, was playing on all radio stations in Canada - even though it was an Indian Composition - maybe nice time to have a Rock song do like that - out of all the discouragement in the post so far - Take my words for it - people would be stunned here. Bottom line is - you have to make people believe that you can really make a business out of your music - else get ready to hold on to your passion and let it die a slow death - even before you have a clue about it. Until the next time. Adios!
2 comments:
Totally agree. Another point to add, "Indian rock stars" hardly play Indian instruments, because of the associated feel that Indian instruments are "soft" and cannot "rock".
On another note, our generation is probably among the very first generation of Indians who have a higher proportion of disposable income at hand; and with significantly more peer pressure to show that they are independent, tough and smart enough to sustain by themselves. So turning to "rock" definitely helps to be tagged as "cool", and provides a channel to "go against the system" without really doing much about it.
But in the end, all is good and we have a lot of talent. I sincerely hope that "Indian Rock stars" develop more self respect and confidence and bring more originality to the table.
Jai ho! :)
Right said Fredie...You got my point on the first sentence that you wrote...Who would you listen if you are an Indian - An Amzad Ali Khan or Zakhir Hussain or Mr. John Howard playing the same instruments? You would only see it in amusement that they know how to play it too - And that's probably the business angle catch there. Your second Statement just adds more value to the post - Agreed totally!
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