Raga rock

Raga Rock was a popular movement in rock music , especially between 1965 and 1970 , which tried to adapt timbre , melodic elements based on ragas and musical instruments from Indian music such as the sitar .

In many cases, these attempts were limited to the exotic sound of the instruments and to simple, naive imitations of Indian classical music. The cultural differences between the European-Afro-American music techniques and those of Indian music were probably too serious and therefore difficult to unite. Representatives of this trend were increasingly represented in the charts in the 1960s and raga rock experienced an entertaining renaissance with the British band Kula Shaker in the mid-1990s.

It began in July 1965 with the release of the single See My Friends by the group The Kinks . A stopover in Mumbai during a trip to Australia and New Zealand in January 1965 inspired Ray Davies , the singer and composer of the Kinks, to write this piece. The Beatles ( Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) , 1965; Love You To , 1966; Within You Without You , 1967). Undertook also attempts of this kind Thrilled by Ravi Shankar's sitar music traveled George Harrison in 1966 for six weeks after India in order Shankar learn to play the sitar personally. The groups Yardbirds , Jefferson Airplane and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra as well as blues musician Paul Butterfield ( East West , 1966) also used elements of raga rock. The Byrds and the Incredible String Band are also associated with the term.

In the Concert for Bangladesh 1971 Indian and Western musicians appeared separately on the stage, a sign of how little interaction had been cultivated in previous years.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Siegfried Schmidt-Joos, Barry Graves: Raga Rock . In: Deutsche Phono-Akademie (Ed.): Lexikon Pop. Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 1977, p. 121. ISBN 3-7651-0134-6
2. ↑ Bernward Halbscheffel, Tibor Kneif: Sachlexikon Rockmusik. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, Reinbek 1992, ISBN 3-499-16334-9 , p. 306.
3. ↑ Peter Wicke, Wieland Ziegenrücker, Kai-Erik Ziegenrücker: Handbook of popular music. Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz 2007, ISBN 978-3-7957-0571-8 , p. 575.
4. ↑ Jonathan Cott: The Kinks - Ray Davies Talks. In: Rolling Stone magazine. November 10, 1969.
5. ↑ Introduction. In: indienserver.de. Retrieved January 2, 2015 . 
6. ^ Biography - Paul Butterfield ( Memento from April 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: bluesroots.de
7. ↑ Anja Schwanhäusser: style revolt Underground. LIT Verlag Münster, 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6171-6 , p. 48. Restricted preview in Google book search
8. ↑ David Courtney: Vani's Homepage - Vani The Realm of Raga Rock. In: ragarock.com. April 16, 2011, accessed January 2, 2015 .