Indian Lounge Music

I'm still unsure of the name for this genre of music. I've heard people referring it to as "Indian Lounge" or "Indian Classical Lounge"or "South Asian Lounge", "Indian Fusion" and a few other names. Blending Indian classical music with western sounds or new age music gives birth to this kind of genre which is still relatively new. I think this music became really popular with the Buddha Bar collection. Although my exposure to Coke Studio has been limited to the videos people have been sharing on the social networking mediums but the genre being featured there doesn't look very different either, although sufi music continues to be the predominant factor there.

My discovery to the "acoustic lounge" music is not very old, and in a subtle way it has carved a niche in my playlist which mostly features old rock numbers along with some alternative rock. I will let the music do all the talking in this post and will share some of the artists and songs that I have enjoyed listening to of late.

 Take Me Away (Original) by Amal Lad 

 RADHA (Original) by Amal Lad 

 LAYA PROJECT by Karsh Kale Official 

 Joy by Karsh Kale Official 

Pulkit, my cousin who stays in Pune, just informed me about Metallica's India tour. Their first gig is going to be in Delhi on October 28. I'm expected to be in Delhi during that time and this is something I don't want to miss. So I'll end this post with one of Metallica's acoustic versions of  "Nothing Else Matters".

The Moonwalker

"If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.”
~ Michael Jackson

I grew up listening to Michael Jackson. Especially during the early school days.
I think I was in my 5th grade when I bought my first Michael Jackson album. Dangerous.
Before Dangerous, I had already heard his ever popular songs: Beat It, Billy Jean, Bad, Thriller and many more. A few of my friends in my neighborhood were big fans of him, and I guess, those guys introduced me to his music. And at that early age, MJ's music cassettes were occupying a large amount of space in my study table.

For so many years now, I have hardly been listening to any Michael Jackson songs.
During my last few years of school, and all through out college, just like any teenager, I was listening to lot of Rock. Along with rock music, I was still listening to pop and hip-hop, but somehow the moonwalker succinctly eluded away from my playlist.
May be for the last 2-3 years when I started listening to a lot of retro, I found myself again listening to the 'King of Pop'.

Sometimes I think without Michael's contribution to music, we would not have pop music with as much variety as we have today, and may be even no hip-hop.
Listen to any of his songs, 'Give It To Me', 'Beat It', 'Billy Jean', 'Bad', 'Dangerous', 'Blood on the Dance Floor' or any other. I would say it was Michael who gave the beats to today's hip-hop.

Michael was a rock-star. A great singer and an equally good performer.
His trademark red bandleader jacket with epaulette, gold rope loops at the shoulder, black trousers, black shoes, white socks, and a white glove.
Who was dressing up in such a style, giving such a statement and performing like that on the stage ? That charisma came to Michael in such an impromptu way, may be like to one else.

The internet is full of articles describing his great work, and even more so with all the bull-shit that he had to face.
I still don't know how much of all that crap is true, but I am not going to write any of those things in this post.

Michael had already announced a series of concerts at London's O2 Arena.
The guy, I feel, deserved a comeback. May be just for one final time. It would have been great... But then I don't know...

I came across this website http://www.eternalmoonwalk.com/
So many of his fans around the world have contributed their own 10-second interpretations of his famous dance move - the moonwalk. The videos are very nice and they brought a big smile on my face. There are kids, teens, adults, even toddlers, dogs, cats and toys, performing the moonwalk. I really love this website.

Even though I have not been listening a lot to his music of late, but my iPod always has a few of my favorite Michael Jackson songs- 'Thriller', 'Beat It', 'Billy Jean', 'Heal the World', 'Bad' and a few more. And every now and then I like to beat it on 'Beat It'.

And I do not know if it was a mere coincidence that his song: 'The Girl Is Mine' was doing rounds at work, just a few days before he died.

To the moonwalker...!!