ART and MEDIA by the YOUTH - PART 1

The youth of our nation is currently busy ushering in a new age of fresh art and media forms in the nation. The rise of the metropolitan culture has given birth to a numerous fused forms of art and media which can be viewed as splendid examples of amalgamation of Indian cultural heritage and new age urban-indo-western lifestyles. Every form of media be it print, audio or audio visuals, has witnessed a sudden but significant rise in the number of entrepreneurs, artists, performers and developmental agencies. This revolution has also surfaced in the cyber world.

MUSIC: The Indian subcontinent has experienced growth in the number of musical bands and solo acts. Although these bands were initially set up and performed extensively in the metropolitan cities, a small no of bands are also cropping up in places like Lucknow, Jaipur, Indore, Pune etc.

The rock music scene has also surprising gained pace with more than 10 thousand bands, both small and big, performing at various places in the nation.
Even cities like Jaipur have bands coming to perform there. Barely two weeks ago a concert by Indian Ocean, a popular band from Delhi took place in Jaipur.
Bands like Joker Aims for Rabbit, Glitch, Scaremonger, dominate the rock scene in the pink city.
Mumbai, a city that has seen bands like Bhayanak Mauth and Workshop grow is witnessing young bands and projects like Coshish ,Scribe and Black.

In Chennai the rock beats were played by bands like Junkyard groove and numerous other musical projects by various local artists. Bands like Emergence and E-flat have also contributed to the scene.
Bangalore is often regarded as the rock capital of India. This is mainly because of the pace at which the rock scene developed here. A revolution that started with bands like the Raghu Dixit project is today spreading like wild fire to the rest of the country. Foreign bands like Metallica and Guns n Roses are expected to perform at the garden city this year in the months of October and November respectively (or so I have heard).
The rock scene in the capital is the most vibrant of all. Bands like Faridkoth with genres like confused pop have not only shown us the diverse influences in the cities musical scene but also the immense amount of quality talent present in today’s head banging Dilliwalaas. Parikrama, the mother of all Indian bands was formed here and so was Indian Ocean. In Calcutta also bands like Cassini's Division have sent waves among the young rock loving Bengalis and alike the other metro cities even the land of sondesh and dahi wada has been a part of something I would like to call as the “great Indian rock revolution". Cochin has also seen many bands rock the local Malayali residents. These acts include bands like Evergreen, Avial and Motherjane. Motherjane also received the AVIMA award for the year 2010.

Rock is not the only musical genre witnessing sudden growth of interest amongst the Indian youth.
New jazz and techno projects like Sulkstation are also gaining popularity at a fast rate. The Naina Kundu Trio in Bangalore has also been successful in pleasing the jazz lovers of the garden city. The act consists of a lead vocalist, Naina, a bassist/guitarist/ vocalist, John Fernandes and Karan Joseph on keys.


Various fusion projects like the Raghu Dixit Project, Advaita and Swarathma have also managed to quench the average Indian music lovers thirst for creative music.

Even genres like funk and techno have been largely popularized by bands like Shair n func consisting of Monica Dogra (lead vocalist) and Randolph Coreira (guitarist).
A band named Underground authority from Calcutta is busy defining another genre which they like to describe as alternative rap rock. This particular genre is pretty catchy and is being popularized thanks to great tracks from the band such as “Realise” and “Where the Streets Have a Name”.

The music scene in India today is very vibrant with numerous solo acts and bands representing various genres, working hard to prove their mettle. I guess it truly is an underground musical revolution.