Raga Rock

Raga rock originates from the mid-1960s fusion of Western rock music with the structural and melodic principles of Indian classical music. Its sonic texture is defined by a foundational drone, typically produced by a tambura or sustained guitar notes, over which melodic improvisation occurs. Instrumentation characteristically merges electric guitars with traditional South Asian instruments like the sitar and percussion such as tablas. The genre's ethos moved beyond mere exoticism, attempting to integrate the meditative and spiritual aspects of Indian raga performance into the framework of psychedelic rock, influencing the counterculture's eastward-looking philosophical explorations and expanding rock's harmonic and structural vocabulary.