Indian rock is a music genre in India that may incorporate elements of Indian music with rock music, and is often topically India-centric. While India is more often known for its classical music, filmi, Bollywood music, Indi-pop, and Bhangra, the Indian rock scene has also produced numerous bands and artists.
Mayonnaise are a five-piece Filipino alternative rock band, fronted by Monty Macalino and famous for winning the "Red Horse Muziklaban" contest in 2004.
Bangalore Choir is an American hard rock band formed in 1991. It was formed by former Accept frontman David Reece and guitarists Curt Mitchell and John Kirk. Joining them from Hericane Alice, was bassist Ian Mayo and former Bad Boy drummer Jackie Ramos future members of the band Bad Moon Rising with Whitesnake/Dio guitarist Doug Aldrich and Lion/Tytan vocalist Kal Swann. Their debut album, On Target, was produced by Max Norman, and featured songs co written by Jon Bon Jovi and Aldo Nova. Despite having big names involved, the album was not a success and the band split up.
Pentagram is a four-piece Indian rock/electronica band started in 1994 in Mumbai.
Sturm und Drang was a Finnish heavy metal/hard rock band from Vaasa formed in 2004. The band's original members were lead singer/guitarist André Linman, guitarist/backing vocals Alexander Ivars, keyboardist Jesper Welroos, bassist/backing vocalist Henrik Kurkiala and drummer/backing vocalist Calle Fahllund. Other members were bassist Joel Wendlin and guitarist Jani Kuoppamaa. The band started off as schoolmates covering bands such as Judas Priest and gradually started writing their own material. They were discovered in 2005 by record label HMC. Their debut album Learning to Rock was released in 2007 and eventually went platinum in Finland. Their second album Rock 'n Roll Children was released in 2008 and went gold within less than a week. The band is known for songs "Rising Son", "Indian" and "A Million Nights". As of 2010, the band has sold over 100,000 records. In 2014 the band broke up when members left to start their own separated projects.
Dream Out Loud (DOL) is an Indian indie rock band, formed by Suraj Jagan and Chandresh Kudwa. They had a three-minute cameo appearance in the Bollywood movie Rock On.
Avial are an Indian alternative rock band formed in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India in 2003, and known for their Malayalam lyrics. The band initially included lead vocalist Anandraj Benjamin Paul, guitarist Rex Vijayan, turntablist and backing vocalist Tony John, bassist Naresh Kamath and drummer Mithun Puthanveetil. Avial had their first breakthrough with the 2003 single "Nada Nada". They are known for pioneering what they call "Alternative Malayali rock", which is the style of combining Malayalam lyrics and rock music. Their eponymous album got them six out of seven Jack Daniels Rock Awards and Footprints Young Achiever's Award in 2008. The band was praised for achieving mainstream success despite singing in their native language.
Baiju Dharmajan is an Indian guitarist, music composer, producer and guitar tutor based out of Kochi, Kerala. A celebrated musician in his own country, Baiju had an extended stint during the 2000s as the lead guitarist of the Indian rock band Motherjane. He has been nicknamed the "God of Small Strings" by his fans. Baiju is particularly noted for his winding, Carnatic-inspired progressive rock and enduring guitar solos.
Inner Sanctum is an Indian death/thrash metal band from Bangalore, formed in 2006.
SpringSpree, sometimes written as Spring Spree and popularly known as Spree, is the annual cultural festival of the National Institute of Technology, Warangal. Soon to be in its 29th edition this cultural fest has the distinction of being one among the largest cultural fests of South India. With a footfall of around 10,000 and participation of around 600 colleges and increasing this fest has come a long way from its humble inception in 1978. Spring Spree today has an impressive array of events to cater to every possible personality. It covers every possible genre in music, dance, literature, art and gaming. Also an important part of this fest today are the workshops on subjects ranging from ethical hacking to the basics of a guitar. Also this fest has stepped up with time to include the celebs of the day. Some of the prominent personalities who have visited the campus during this very fest are Suraj Jagan, Suchitra, Sobhita Dhulipala, KK, Shobha Naidu, Baiju Dharmajan, Naresh Iyer and Stephen Devassy. The themes of Spring Spree have ranged from Renaissance, Rubaroo India, Carnival, Fantasia and World Fest for the year 2015.
Rex Vijayan is an Indian composer, guitarist, singer, record producer and multi-instrumentalist from Kerala. He is best known for being co-founder and guitarist for the alternative Malayali rock band Avial. He started out his career as a composer in the Malayalam film industry through Kerala Cafe by giving the score to Anwar Rasheed's segment 'Bridge'.
Agam is a Bangalore-based contemporary Carnatic progressive rock band. The band was formed in the year 2003. The current lineup consists of Harish Sivaramakrishnan (vocals) Swamy Seetharaman, T Praveen Kumar, Aditya Kasyap, Sivakumar Nagarajan, Jagadish Natarajan and Yadhunandan (Drummer). Jagadish Natarajan replaced Suraj Satheesh as the rhythm guitarist in 2012 but the lineup of the band has otherwise remained same. Vignesh Lakshminarayanan was replaced by Aditya Kasyap on bass and backing vocals. Agam is often featured on the Malayalam music channel Kappa TV.
Thaikkudam Bridge is a multi-genre Indian music band, originated from Kerala in 2013. The band achieved its first commercial success through the musical show Music Mojo, which used to telecast on Kappa TV where they released their debut original composition, "Fish Rock," during the Kappa TV's "Music Mojo" session. The song is also popularly known by the lyrics "Ayela, mathi, choora, kaari...". The track went viral on social media, getting them extensive fame. The band has won numerous awards, and has performed at over more than 600 shows and 25 countries as of 2024.
Beat the System is a Malaysian/American pop band from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Formed in Malaysia by lead guitarist Stewart Sellan, the band is currently based in New York City. The band consists of lead vocalist Shannon Gibbons, lead guitarist Stewart Sellan, drummer/composer Gerald Sellan and composer Adrian Puan. Since the band's formation, there has been several line-up changes.
Thermal and a Quarter are a rock band from Bangalore, India. Formed in 1996, they describe their music as "Bangalore rock" - rooted in a classic rock idiom while Indian in "subtle, inescapable ways". TAAQ had released seven studio albums by their 20th anniversary in 2016 with an eighth released in 2020.
Sanjeev T is an Indian music producer, composer, singer, guitarist, and performer. Sanjeev’s music is an amalgamation of indie, rock, reggae, fusion, and jazz sounds. Currently, he is an independent music producer and also the founder and chief mentor at Rainbow Bridge, a music school and production studio in Bangalore. He is most known for his work as a lead guitarist with A.R. Rahman and played for movies like Rockstar, Delhi-6, Vinnaithandi Varuvaya, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Blue, Endhiran and more. He also worked with Bollywood music directors Pritam and Anu Malik and other Indian music directors like Shaan Rahman, Ghibran and Leon James. He has also composed music for two Malayalam movies, Vilakkumaram (2017) and Manoharam (2019). Apart from his work in the movie industry, he has officially released three albums, Freewill (2012), Epic Shit (2013) and St. (2018) with the fourth album, Future, scheduled for release by 2021. Four singles from his next album, Future, have already been released.
Parvaaz is an Indian rock band formed in 2010 in Bangalore by Kashif Iqbal and Khalid Ahamed. The present line up features Khalid Ahamed (vocals), Fidel Dsouza (bass), Bharath Kashyap and Sachin Banandur.
Suraj Mani is an Indian rock musician, poet-philosopher, songwriter and former lead vocalist and member of the band Motherjane, and one of the prominent personalities in the field of independent music in India. He is popularly known as the 'singing sensei' and hails from Kerala, a southern state of India. He has performed with Thaikkudam Bridge, Indian Ocean, Shubha Mudgal, Indus Creed, Megadeth, Opeth, Third Eye Blind, Mr. Big etc.
Namah (transl. Salutations) is a 2019 studio album produced by the band Thaikkudam Bridge. Following the success of their studio album Navarasam, the band started working on the album during March 2017, and was officially revealed to the public and the media in August 2017. The album is considered as a "tribute to various renowned artists that influenced and inspired their music and made them who they are today". It was considered as the band's "most ambitious project" and had planned to rope international and national musical artists who were renowned for their works in the Indian and world music. The process made the team to delay the prospects of the album until they completed recording and compiling the entire album within September 2019.
