Sitarsploitation

Sitarsploitation was the wave of Western records that followed the sitar's arrival in pop in 1965 and 1966, when the instrument became a marketable sign of Eastern mystique. Session players and studio orchestras, few with any training in Indian music, applied the sitar's buzzing twang to pop covers, easy listening and psychedelic rock, while a smaller number of musicians engaged more seriously with raga. London session guitarist *Big Jim Sullivan*, recording as himself and as *Lord Sitar*, and *Ananda Shankar*, who fused his uncle *Ravi Shankar*'s instrument with the Moog, mark the wave's commercial and creative poles.