Raga Rock Music of India

The raga rock is rock or pop music with a heavy Indian influence, either in its production, its timbre, or its use of instrumentation such as the sitar and table. Raga and other forms of the classical Indian music started to influence several rock orchestras during the 1960s; most popularly the Beatles. The first traces of the raga rock can be heard on songs like See my friends by the Kinks and the Yadbirds Heart full of soul produced the previous month featured a sitar like riff by guitarist, Jeff Beck. The Beatles song Norwegian wood, which first emerged on the band’s 1965 album Rubber Soul, was the first western pop song to actually incorporate the sitar (played by lead guitarist George Harrison). The Byrd’s March 1966 single Eight Miles High and its B-side Why were also powerful in creating the musical subgenre. Indeed, the term raga rock was initiated by the Byrds’ publicist in the press releases for the single and was first used in the print by some journalist like Sally Kempton in her review of Eight Miles High for the village voice.

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George Harrison’s interest in Indian music, popularized the genre in the mid-1960s with a songs, Love You To, Tomorrow Never Knows (credited to Lennon McCartney), within You without You and the Inner Light. The rock acts of the 60s both in turn influenced British and American orchestras and Indian acts to establish a later form of Indian rock.