Artistes attribute the exponential growth of electronic music in India to globalisation and technology. The history of electronic music in India is believed to go back to the 80s. Charanjit Singh,a musician from Mumbai,released an album called Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat and,though it caught the fancy of a few people,it was never a commercial success. A few years ago,a UK-based record label discovered and re-released the album. Ever since,Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat has been a part of the discourse surrounding the first acid house record,a genre characterised by a repetitive,hypnotic style . Around the end of the decade and the beginning of the 90s,another genre of electronic music emerged in Goa and was eventually called Goa trance. A number of DJs from around the world picked up the genre but the audience for electronic music in India continued to be restricted to a few pockets. In the late 90s and the early 2000s,a handful of electronica acts began emerging in different parts of the country and the scene is becoming bigger every year. Today,some of the best-known musicians from the country belong to electronica,and some of the biggest electronica acts from around the world have played here. Gaurav Raina,one half of the band Midival Punditz,which began playing in 1997 and is one of the pioneers of electronic music in India,says,Initially,electronic music was perceived as alien because it comes out of a computer. Now,its being perceived as a genre of music. He attributes this to the acceptance of the computer as a vital part of life. Sahej Bakshi,better known as Dualist Inquiry,believes globalisation has been one of the factors for the popularity of electronica. Its the choices of this generation that is contributing to the growth of the scene, he says,Everything is more globalised today,including the music scene. On the more technical front,Udyan Sagar,better known as DJ Nucleya,says that the rise of various sub-genres has also been an important contributing factor. While,earlier,there were only a few styles of electronic music,today there are a number of sub-genres such as dubstep,variations of house music including acid and progressive,variations of techno including minimal and hardcore, he says. Thus,there is a variety of electronic music to choose from. That electronic music has found its place in India is backed by the fact that there are a number of Indian electronica acts playing at some of the most important festivals around the world DJ Nucleya has played at Glastonbury,UK,Bay Beat Collective and Reggae Rajahs at the Outlook Festival,Croatia,and Dualist Inquiry at the Great Escape Festival in Brighton,UK. And some of the biggest acts from around the world have stopped by India. In December 2011,it was Avicii,in March,David Guetta,Fatboy Slim in May and Afrojack and Steve Aoki this month. The coming months will see gigs by Above and Beyond,Swedish House Mafia and Hardwell. How much,then,have these big names contributed towards the trend in the country? They definitely contribute to the scene because having these big names perform adds to the enthusiasm of the audience and also inspires a number of young musicians in the country to become DJs, says Bakshi. Raina adds,People in India get to hear music thats being played elsewhere in the world and the international acts get to see that the scene in India is at par with that across the world. The genre is expected to keep growing. The scene is heading in a positive direction and,if it continues this way,the next couple of years will be very good for electronic music in India, says Sagar.
