The Grammys are always a major celebration for musicians and fans all over the world, but the 2024 Awards was especially exciting for India. At the world’s biggest and most prestigious music awards ceremony, five Indians—Zakir Hussain, Rakesh Chaurasia, Shankar Mahadevan, Selvaganesh Vinayakram and Ganesh Rajagopalan—collectively won a staggering eight Grammys. Zakir Hussain alone won three.
Given this very recent and momentous event, I was a bit taken aback to come across an opinion piece in ThePrint by Palash Mehrotra titled, “Indians are musically poor. We aren’t a good market for cutting-edge international bands.” The main line of argument is big names in the Western music industry such as Madonna, Billy Joel, Nirvana, etc. have not toured India because Indians are musically impoverished. In a particularly biting segment, the author writes Indians have “never had the nous. They still don’t.” At best the analysis is confused—claiming as it does at some point that the plentitude of India’s musical output is responsible for the poor appreciation of music. More importantly, the conclusions paint a highly inaccurate picture for a reader new to the Indian music scene.
Let us begin with the data the author relies on. Many of the “cutting-edge” bands he cites, fall under the Rock/Alternative Rock genre. So, it is by no means a complete representation. Even if we were to assume the author is correct that these bands didn’t tour India because Indians don’t listen to that genre, then at best one can say Indians don’t have an appreciation for the Rock/Alternative Rock genre. This can neither be extended to the larger “international music map” nor India’s musical wealth. Moreover, the success of bands like Parikrama, Pentagram, Indian Ocean, and events like the NH7 weekender, which provides a platform for many rock bands, shows us the assumption is incorrect.
An ocean of musical wealth
The author states that Indians are mainly consumed by their own music due to the country’s size and diversity. Therein, lies the crux of our matter. It goes without saying that we are musically a very rich country with two distinct classical music styles (Hindustani and Carnatic), folk music from different regions and languages and music from all the different film industries. The diversity of Indian music is perhaps unmatched globally. On a practical level, this also means that there are a vast number of listeners and a tremendous degree of market segmentation.
This musical wealth and diversity are in fact growing. That’s where world music and international collaborations come into the picture. I take us back to the Grammys. At the 2024 Grammys, Indians won the Best Global Music Album, Best Global Music Performance, and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. These awards were won in collaboration with international musicians, John McLaughlin, Bela Fleck, and Edgar Meyer. These types of collaborations have existed since the 1960s. Pandit Ravi Shankar famously collaborated with George Harrison of The Beatles. And in 1973, three Indians, Zakir Hussain, Vikku Vinayakram, and L Shankar, along with John Mclaughlin formed the band Shakti. It pushed the boundaries of music.
World music as a genre didn’t exist back then. Hussain fondly recollects that when Shakti took their record to Clive Davis at Columbia Records, they were asked which bin to put the music in as it didn’t fit any of the genre names on the shelf. A new bin, “World Music” was created for the band. And it wasn’t until 1992 that the Grammys introduced world music as a category for their awards.
Shakti was 19 years ahead of the curve. Such collaborations and pushing of world music boundaries by Indians is not one-off. They’re happening at a rapid pace. A recent example is the wonderfully gifted flautist, singer Varijashree Venugopal. She collaborated with the French Jazz band, EYM trio, to record an album and go on a world tour. Five-time Grammy winner, Michael League of Snarky Puppy fame also sought to collaborate with Venugopal and produced the album, Vari, which released in May 2024. This led to another world tour.
Even artists like Seedhe Maut, Diljit Dosanjh and more are creating our own version of Hip-Hop music. It’s only adding to the ever-growing musical wealth and diversity of India. These artists also point out another crucial point—the wealth of the music listener in India. Appreciating the fusion of different styles and genres requires audiences with a keen ear. This is something that we take for granted in Indian audiences, who very often listen to music in at least three or more languages across a number of eras. For example, people born in the 1990s, listen with enthusiasm to Kishore Kumar from the 1970s, hum along to the infectious Nepalese chorus of Musu Musu Hasi from the 1990s before shaking it off with Taylor Swift.
In short, as audiences or performers we, Indians, are interested in the music from across the globe but engage with it on our terms through collaborations and incorporations.
Also read: Indian music isn’t a one-trick pony. Shankar Mahadevan, Zakir Hussain Grammy proves it
Music market in India
Let’s now take a look at the music market. India has a fast-growing music industry, but we’re nowhere in comparison to the US or the UK. To give you a sense of numbers, in 2023, the Indian music industry was valued at $0.285billion, while the US music industry generated a revenue of $17.1 billion and the UK music industry generated a revenue of $1.876 billion during the same year. Even though we’re a fast-growing economy and a fast-growing industry and our artists are sought after the world over, such numbers obviously have an impact on the artists we are able to attract to India. That does not mean we have not attracted any big names. Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Opeth, and even Bob Dylan have had shows in India.
With the range of artists that have come to perform in India, and the breadth and depth of music created here, the Indian music market is thriving. There is no desperation to attract even more “cutting-edge” international bands. For instance, we needn’t give Eras Tour a $ 3 million subsidy like Singapore did, just to gain exclusive performance rights in Southeast Asia.
That said, the article highlighted a crucial point that hasn’t received enough attention. The global music industry is highly inequitable—millions of dollars are funneled into a select few artists, while the majority struggle to make a living. This inequality inevitably shapes global, regional, and personal relationships with music. The unfortunate reality is that most Indians cannot afford a Rs 20,000 concert ticket, and many musicians rarely earn that much in a month.
Ultimately, the market, the musicians or the musical audience shouldn’t be judged on who tours India. Rather, we should focus on the upliftment of our own artists. This is an area that leaves much room for improvement. There is a lot of untapped potential that goes missing because of the inability to lead a stable lifestyle as a full-time musician. We should be focusing our energies there. That will lead us to create many more Zakir Hussains and Shankar Mahadevans and foster a much richer listening culture.
Dr. Shashank Aswathanarayana is a music technologist and researcher in the Department of Performing Arts at American University, Washington DC. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)