The impact of western music is apparent in India, and there’s no denying that it’s widely appreciated too.
But the fact that Indian culture, music and musicians have also collectively gained their share of recognition and admiration in the west has not been echoed that loud so far.
The Beatles And The Indian Influence
The Beatles were a revolutionary rock band founded in 1960 in Liverpool, England.
During the late ’60s, The Beatles released three songs- Within You Without You, Love You To, The Inner Light, and the significant attribute of all these melodies, from an Indian’s perspective, is the unique blend of Indian classical music with western lyrics.
The dulcet tunes of sitar coupled with the English lyrics land you somewhere between two different musical worlds and give the listener a unique experience.
According to The Beatles Bible,“The music and philosophy of India had a key effect on The Beatles’ music, particularly between 1965 and 1968. They tentatively began using traditional Indian instruments in 1965.”
Also Read: Bollywood Can Never Have True Jazz Music: The Difficult Relationship Between Jazz And Bollywood
The Black Eyed Peas And The Reflection Of Indian Cinema
The soul-stirring Indian songs and extravagant, gravity-defying action sequences of Indian movies not only lead us to theatres but also astonished the Black Eyed Peas, who are an American musical group.
Recently, the group released a music video that covered action sequences of two famous Bollywood action films- ‘Robot’ and ‘Singham’, and a Telugu action film, ‘Maryada Ramanna’, hilariously superimposing the group members’ faces on the Indian actors.
The Black Eyed Peas were seen expressing their love and appreciation for Bollywood and the way it brings out its impressive imagination on the screen.
“The Black Eyed Peas have been inspired by Indian culture from the beginning of our career… From Asha Bhosle to AR Rahman, Indian music has influenced our songs on more than one occasion,” the group said while describing their music video.
Kula Shaker And The Soothing Spiritual Melodies
“Govinda Jaya Jaya, Gopala Jaya Jaya…Radha-Ramanahari, Govinda Jaya Jaya,” these words that seem to be part of an Indian spiritual chant comprise the lyrics of the 1996 song ‘Govinda’ by the English rock band, Kula Shaker.
The Kula Shaker are known for their profound fascination with traditional Indian music, culture, and spirituality. Besides ‘Govinda’, the band also composed ‘Tattva’, the lyrics of which consisted of Sanskrit phrases.
Traditional Indian instruments like the sitar, tabla and tanpura were also used for many of the songs of Kula Shaker.
These are just a handful of examples which took us to an untraversed lane in the world of cross-cultural music. Trace the older English music albums of the ’60s,’70s, ’80s and ’90s or the new-age western music, you will surprisingly find heaps of songs that reflect a familiar Indianness in them.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Beatles Bible, Economic Times, Wikipedia
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This post is tagged under: Action movies, Black Eyed Peas, bollywood, cross-cultural music, Indian Cinema, indian music, Indian songs, Influence of Indian music on western music, Kula Shaker, musical instruments, sitar, tabla, The Beatles, traditional Indian musical instruments, western music, Facts about Indian music
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