Even though the regional film music is still the favorite of the masses in India, the Indie bands are slowly and steadily finding themselves a place in the Indian and International music scene. Mother Jane, Avial, Swarathma etc are a few popular names among them. Numerous other bands and musicians are making people take a ride in the fresh musical waves. Websites like Uhooroo and Tempostand features a lot of such original artistes and their music. Many of these artistes are yet to cut their first debut album but release singles through their own websites and other music community websites including MySpace Music. You can also find amateurs or semi-professionals creating and distributing music for free through platforms like Blogswara.
The change is visible even in regional languages like Malayalam. The times when you heard only the filmy tunes have now given way to fresh sounds and I’m not referring to those crappy songs which people churn out in the name of “musical albums”, but works like Thaalam for example.
Times of India has a good article on this current music scene in India. Worth a good read.
Sam Lall, editor of Blender magazine, says one of the most encouraging signs over the past few years has been the shift away from covers. “Earlier, the measure of how good a band you were was how well you nailed Metallica. But now, it is all about original material.”
But is an Indian sound the way to go? “That has almost become a cliche. Just putting in an alaap or tabla can sound deliberate and forced. People want to listen to good rock and roll, not necessarily ethnic stuff,” says Lall. But he admits that it does help with a Western audience. “For them, there is the novelty factor.” [Are we ready to ROCK? – Times of India]