Rock music of West Bengal

Music of India
A Lady Playing the Tanpura, ca. 1735 (Rajasthan)
Genres
Traditional Classical Carnatic Hindustani Folk Baul Bhajan Odissi Rabindra Sangeet Thumri Dadra Ghazal Qawwali Chaiti Kajari Sufi Modern Bhangra Filmi Pop Rock Bengali Raga Blues Jazz Trance
Media and performance
Music awards	Filmfare Awards Punjabi Music Awards Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Music festivals	Saptak Festival of Music Chennai Music Season Dover Lane music festival Tyagaraja Aradhana
Music media	Sruti The Record Music Magazine
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	Jana Gana Mana
Regional music
Andaman and Nicobar Islands Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhattisgarh Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Odisha Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Ancient Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal

Rock music of West Bengal was originated in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The first known Bengali rock band was Moheener Ghoraguli and also India's first rock band.^[1][2][3] In modern times, in this type of music distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, and drums are used, and sometimes accompanied with pianos and keyboards and in early times the instruments used in the modern times were also accompanied by saxophone, flute, violin and bass violin.

History

Origin (1960s-1970s)

Bengali rock in Kolkata originated when the first band Moheener Ghoraguli was formed and played out in many concerts. The band was inspired by Bob Dylan and many other western artists. Their music was a mixture of a wide variety of influences, including the Baul and folk traditions of Bengali and rock.

Emergence (1990s)

Most of the Bengali rock bands in Kolkata were formed after the 1990s. The bands in this era started using many types of effects like distortion, wah wah, flanger, phaser, and delay in their music. Krosswindz, a Bengali rock band based in Kolkata, India was formed in 1990, and have played all over India and abroad, helping to urbanize and popularize the rock music of Bengal.Till now, Krosswindz have recorded ten albums, the highest number of ever recorded by a Kolkatan rock band. The legendary Bengali rock band Abhilasha was formed during this period. Their first album, a mixture of delightful rock and melody was released by the original band members in 1997. Many bands like Bhoomi, Cactus, Parash Pathar, Chandrabindoo, Hip Pocket, Fossils, and Lakkhichhara were formed later in this era. Fossils and Cactus have also brought Bengali metal into this era. Both Fossils and Cactus are regarded as the best Bengali hard rock bands, they have toured all over India and abroad. All their albums and singles have been successful. In 1994, the opening up of Someplace Else (a pub which also hosts live music) changed the rock scene in Kolkata. Now it hosts live music every single night for approximately nine hours.

New Millennium (2000s)

Many bands formed in the 2000s were influenced by guitar-heavy music. As metal became popular in the 2000s, many bands like Insomnia, Alienz, Crossroads, Underground Authority started playing heavy metal and Alternative music. Chronic Xorn was the first band from Kolkata to record a heavy metal album. Death Destruction Sermon is their latest album which was released in 2010, it consists of six tracks and the full-length version of the album is 25 minutes 45 seconds.^[4] As computer technology became more accessible and music software advanced in the 2000s, it became possible to create high quality music using little more than a single laptop computer. This resulted in a massive increase in the amount of home-produced electronic music available to the general public via the expanding internet. Many underground metal bands like Nitric Dreams and Crystal and the Witches from Kolkata also started recording and releasing singles on their blogs.To encourage the Bengali rock scene a magazine named Bangla Rock Magazine was started on July 3, 2013, covering exclusively Bengali rock. 2014 marked the emergence of new bands like Road Roller,Alo,Mysterious M,biborton etc

Popular bands

Popular bands from Kolkata:

See also

• Bangladeshi rock
• Indian rock

References

Further reading