THE INDIAN INDEPENDENT MUSIC SCENE

From pubs to music festivals now the Indian Independent artists are ruling the all over India and one have made to Obama's playlist. If you search for the seed of the Independent scene in India many artists had contributed to the musical atmosphere that we're experiencing today. From the different rock genre, fusion and Indie pop to hip-hop, Edm, Indie folk and Fingerstyle guitar. Artists have given it all to us and for me, the Independent scene is much more relatable and appealing than the Bollywood music Industry.

Photo Credit & Source: Prateek Kuhad (Instagram)
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 Artists like Nucleya, Motherjane, Ritviz, Prateek Kuhad, Parikrama, Agnee, Indian Ocean, Divine, Naezy, Emiway, The Local Train, Girish & the Chronicles and Kabir's Cafe are some of the familiar names. Every artist/band had worked hard with their genre to bring the stakes at this level. If you don't know former American President Barack Obama posted his best song of 2019 list and Indians on the internet went crazy as the song Cold/mess by Prateek Kuhad made it to Obama's list. Kuhad with his songwriting and bilingual songs has attracted audiences all over the world. He also had provided music to Bollywood with songs like Kho Gaye Hum Kaha and Saansein. The other side have Edm, Hip-Hop and Rock artist like Nucleya, Ritviz, Divine, Naezy, Emiway, The Local Train, Parikrama and Indian ocean. Although the base of the Independent music industry was formed over 3 decades ago and was crawling until the Jio data revolution became the major catalyst and boosted the internet activities of Indian consumers. 

Photo Credit & Source: Ritviz (Instagram)
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The fastest and biggest audience for Youtube is now India and have over 265 million monthly active users. Youtube releases gave Independent artists a platform to promote their music and there was a huge audience to receive it on the other end. 
    On the other hand, the Zoya Akhtar directed movie Gully Boy acted as a fuel for the hip-hop, rap genre. The musical drama inspired by the lives of aspiring rappers Divine and Naezy gave audiences a taste of Indian underground hip-hop culture on the biggest platform. With the ongoing pace and video streaming platform youtube with lots of active users The local train, Prateek Kuhad, Nucleya, Divine, Naezy, Emiway, and Ritviz have gained a lot of popularity. Unlike Bollywood remixes of old songs popping up in almost every major movie. Independent artists have given original and quality music to the audience to enjoy.

As of now the Independent Music Industry is seeing good growth and is at a peak, it would be a bit more helpful for upcoming artists to showcase their talent to the world now. Talking about the new artists, the fingerstyle guitar artist Taba Chake hailing from

Photo Credit & Source: Taba Chake (Instagram)
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Arunachal Pradesh with his tranquilizing voice and freestyle guitar pieces is an artist to look for. With songs like Meri dastaan, Shaayad and Walk with me from his trilingual album Bombay Dreams consisting of simple lyrics, fingerstyle guitar and ukulele are some of his known songs.

       Unlike the pop, hip-hop and other genres, the metal and it's subgenres regardless of constant evolution is still crawling. Maybe the quick guitar-shreddings, distorted riffs, metal growl, and screams aren't soothing for a large number of Indian audiences but definitely is an area to explore. With recent performances of International artists like Chris Adler (ex-drummer of Lamb of God & Megadeath), performing with Indian artists Girish & the chronicles, Sunneith Revankar & Tony Das at Bangalore followed by Mumbai & Hyderabad and Nepal's metal Band Underside at Bacardi Nh7 Weekender Pune making the audiences headbang may attract more Indian audiences to the headbanger genre and can be beneficial for Indian bands too. Also, in 2019 Indian Metal Bands made most International tours and had a bigger bite of the International Scene. With more international artists making it to India in the coming days and Indian artists raising the bars would help the genre to grow more and increase the fanbase.

So, who's your favorite Indian Independent artist? and which artist are you gonna check out this year? Also, if there's any artist that you wanna suggest, please tell us on the comment. 
NOTE: Respective artist's social media links have been given do check it out.