Speculations, little disguised as theories, began to spread, the way they do when something unpleasant happens, after tickets were sold out for the January 2025 Coldplay concert in India. After two of their shows were fully booked within minutes of opening, the British rock band announced a third concert, which also sold out all too soon. Diehard fans were appalled to find themselves in queue behind lakhs of others online even after waiting for hours. Posts called the frenzy nothing but a way to show off and create Instagram reels. They claimed that many who had booked tickets were not real fans. Memes mocked those who became ‘fans’ of Coldplay after hearing just a verse of ‘Yellow’ and another of ‘Paradise’.
But if you’ve been a regular at concerts of Indian bands, you’d be surprised for other reasons. Where, you’d wonder, is this crowd – or even one-tenth of the crowd – when independent musicians perform across the country? Ticketed shows rarely run to a full house and opportunities for indie bands and musicians are limited. Barring a few, they have always been a struggling lot in India.
“You would not even know about new independent bands, much less be able to watch them perform, unless you catch them at a music festival. It’s rare to watch them play live even in pubs,” says Hari, an IT professional and rock music aficionado.
Indian bands cannot be expected to have the same kind of reception as international ones, says Khalid Ahmed, vocalist and founder member of the Kashmiri / Urdu rock band Parvaaz. “Pink Floyd would not have been Pink Floyd if they had come from UP. The band culture has been there in the West for ages but it is only picking up in India,” he says.
There are exceptions, he points out, where the musician is extremely popular, like singer Diljit Dosanjh, whose shows scheduled for late October have sold out. “But independent bands mostly struggle a lot, especially in their first few years. Most indie musicians need to have something to fall back on – such as teaching music or playing for sessions (accompanying other bands as a session artist) – to sustain themselves financially,” Khalid adds.
When Bengaluru threw open floors of pubs and converted open grounds to concert venues, musicians from Kerala began moving there for opportunities. Even those settled in Kerala would travel to other states for shows and music tours. But in Kerala, we have college shows, says James, vocalist of the Malayalam indie band Thakara.
In Kerala, colleges play a big part in the growth of independent music bands, many of them formed by students in their university days. Additionally, cultural festivals have become a big part of colleges in the last two decades, with universities conducting their own shows, inviting music bands from across the country to perform. However, untoward incidents have sometimes led to bans or restrictions on these shows. In Thiruvananthapuram, the authorities brought the curtain down once when a student died in a motorbike accident inside the campus, and another time when the venue was found to be too close to the zoo. Less than a year ago, four students lost their lives in a stampede during a tech festival at Cochin University, just when a music concert was about to start.
“Right now it is going well and our biggest venues are colleges during cultural festivals. The cover culture has also changed somewhat and there’s a lot more appreciation for original music,” James says.
The cover culture he is talking about is not limited to playing covers of popular or veteran rock bands from across the world. It has more to do with the following for film music in India. When on stage, musicians, regardless of the kind of music they play, are inevitably asked by the audience to perform a film song – a popular one they can dance to or a melody they can sway to.
Even bands that play covers of renowned artists would be asked to play a ‘Punjabi song we can dance to’. Sometimes, the artists would oblige reluctantly. Last year, when singer Shakthisree Gopalan – who has rendered a number of hit film songs including for AR Rahman – performed her original compositions in Kerala, there were so many requests for her Tamil movie songs that she finally relented with a stanza from ‘Naan Nee’ (from Madras).
“Film music is ingrained in our culture,” explains Sumesh Lal, one of the main organisers of music festivals in Kerala. He should know. He has single handedly given a platform to scores of musicians from different parts of the country through multiple ventures. He is the founder of Rosebowl, a first of its kind television channel in Kerala that gave exposure to alternative music from other parts of the world as well as provided a space for independent musicians to perform. He continued the practice when he did the Music Mojo show for Kappa TV. He also put together Music Mojo festivals and later the Indiegaga festivals, featuring renowned as well as newer musicians from across the country.
Things are getting better
“A lot has changed in the last decade. Even though we do not see shows selling the way Coldplay did, we get good turnouts for independent musicians. Ten years ago, even the concept of ticketed shows was something people were still getting used to. It began to change with online ticket sales and large music festivals like the NH7 Weekender. But we have a long way to go. We still don’t have the practice of label support for independent musicians. The big labels we see are for film music, for Bollywood,” says Sumesh.
Another ‘trend’ that may have increased interest in alternative music is the practice of making reels for Instagram, where short bits of songs are used by young people to dance or act to. Nikhil, guitarist of the thrash metal band Chaos, says that the music becomes familiar to people when the same clip is played over and over again.
Nikhil also takes guitar classes and produces music. He says the difficulty is not in creating music people like, there is technology for that. “But to release it and then making sure it reaches people, that depends on how much money you have. Releasing on social media platforms will only cater to a small section of people. You need big scale marketing and PR work after that. It is not just about the music,” he says.
Chaos, which has been around for nearly 20 years, has brought out two acclaimed albums and is about to go on its first international tour in Europe in November. Musicians of their experience and expertise would have received a lot more appreciation and recognition in a country where independent music has more acceptance. Nikhil, however, notes that is only true for the really popular bands. “Even in countries where rock and roll is popular, there are a number of bands in the middle level – musicians like us who have other sources of income to support their music careers,” he says.
Musicians or connoisseurs of alternative music also try in their own way to create space for these artists. In Thiruvananthapuram, Jobin Joseph, a musician who had a band, converted the top floor of his dad’s guitar store into a performance venue. Joy’s Music Room has regular shows by local bands as well as musicians coming from far off places. “Bands need platform-based support to survive. Underground musicians have it hard. We have had fraternity groups like Trivandrum Rockers, to put together shows for them. At Joy’s too, we give space to underground artists and take only a small cut for the night,” says Jobin.
He also finds that a certain genre of music – like hip hop or DJ – has a bigger following among the youth today than classic rock or metal. Social media and the easier availability has also helped alternative music find more reach than before.
Slowly, more opportunities are cropping up for independent musicians. For two years now, the International Independent Music Festival (IIMF) has been held at the Arts and Crafts Village in Kovalam, featuring musicians from the country as well as abroad. The show, coordinated by music connoisseurs Jay and Manoj, is funded by the state government as part of tourism. The third edition of IIMF will be held in November, between 22nd and 24th. In Kochi, there is another festival called CULTR, organised by Kappa TV, at the Bolgatty Palace in March.