Raga rock is a Psychedelic Rock subgenre which incorporates prominent elements of South Asian music. The genre is most readily identifiable by its droning quality that draws on a titular raga, a melodic mode within Hindustani Classical Music, which is provided by a tambura or harmonium to undergird the sitar's distinctive lead work (or an electric guitar imitation like the electric sitar). Other common instruments include the dreamy acoustic guitars of Psychedelic Folk and Indian percussion like tablas.
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Raga rock is a Psychedelic Rock subgenre which incorporates prominent elements of South Asian music. The genre is most readily identifiable by its droning quality that draws on a titular raga, a melodic mode within Hindustani Classical Music, which is provided by a tambura or harmonium to undergird the sitar's distinctive lead work (or an electric guitar imitation like the electric sitar). Other common instruments include the dreamy acoustic guitars of Psychedelic Folk and Indian percussion like tablas. Compositionally, raga rock is usually based around only one or a few chords atop additive rhythms with lead instrument interplay and sometimes the melismatic intonation found in vocal Indian music. Due to its emergence within the Anglo-American Psychedelia movement, the genre often features an exoticised Orientalist image of South Asia combined with mystical, existential, or religious lyrical themes, but a raga rock sound was also embraced by some musicians from the Indian subcontinent. Bengali sitarist Ravi Shankar was a major influence on the genre's development, and found recognition in the West as a result of its rise to popularity.
The raga rock sound originates in 1965 at the intersection of 1960s Folk Rock and Psychedelic Pop, with prototypical examples including the Yardbirds' "Heart Full of Soul", The Kinks' "See My Friends", and The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood". Its peak popularity came at the height of the "Indomania" craze in 1966, with the term being coined by The Byrds' publicist in promotion of "Eight Miles High". This was followed by notable releases like The Rolling Stones' "Paint It, Black" and The Beatles' Revolver album, which featured the most overt Indian influence in Rock to date with "Love You To" and "Tomorrow Never Knows", primarily due to the interest of George Harrison. The trend influenced much of the psychedelic scene through 1967, with many bands dipping into the style for a few songs along with the short-lived phenomenon of "sitarploitation" cover LPs, but declined around 1968 as it grew formulaic.
The influence of raga rock lingered in the 1970s in some strains of Progressive Rock and Progressive Folk known as “Indo-prog", and Indian musician Ananda Shankar (nephew of Ravi) pioneered a form of the genre more closely tied to traditional music of the region. Despite remaining a niche subgenre, raga rock has continued to influence Neo-Psychedelia through the decades as well as contemporary Indian groups like Agam, whose progressive style draws on Carnatic Classical Music.
