5 Categories of Indian Fusion Music to get you Inspired

January 13, 2021

One of the best spaces where you can find examples of third culture flourishing is in the field of music! There are so many fantastic examples of musicians who have demonstrated this from the times of George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to Zakir Hussain and the latest Aditya Rao of ‘Shape of you’ fame, that it proves time and again that a grafting of cultures can only enrich and strengthen our world for the better.

Getting a taste of both cultures with constant exposure and experimentation in the music of the land is one of the easiest, unintentional ways to let both worlds blend within you.

Finding fusion music that strikes a chord (Sorry! Couldn’t help it) with all generations of the family is one of our favorite pastimes and here are some of our recent picks in five categories.

Classical Indian and Jazz Fusion

Jazz and Indian music have a long history of influence over one another and these two pieces bring out the fusion part just as well as they are true to their own individual styles.

Guitarist John McLaughlin (Of the MahaVishnu Orchestra fame), singer Shankar Mahadevan and percussionist Zakir Hussain collaborate in the incantation “Sakhi” to heal the world from the burden of COVID 19.

A mesmerizing piece of jazz music with Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain and Chris Potter.

Indian Instrumentation to Popular Non-Indian Songs

The Nashik Dhol and Tasha are instruments that are almost synonymous with most festivities and any public gatherings in India. Check out these popular western tunes set to the rhythm of these Indian instruments:

Game of Thrones from the famous HBO series:

Bella Ciao from famous Netflix series Money Heist

Despacito

Music Platforms Dedicated to Fusion Music

The Indian Jam Project promotes classical Indian instruments like the Sitar, the Tabla, the Sarangi, the Harmonium to recreate iconic film scores and music tracks.

Here is a recreation of Imagine Dragon’s Believer

IndianRaga is another that collaborates with the best musicians and dancers across 60 international cities to make ‘classical cool’ again. I’m sure you must have heard of Shape of you by Aditya Rao and anything said on fusion music has to include this number!

The Shruti Box

The Shruti Box is the brain child of Shankar Tucker, American clarinetist and musician who seamlessly blends classical Indian music, jazz and popular music to create unique fusion music.

This piece mixes Indian and Western instruments old and new:

Popular Western and Bollywood Fusion

This, of course is the category that we all need for all the dance parties from Diwali to New Year’s and we are spoilt for choice here as well! But two of our absolute favorites are:

Jeffrey Iqbal – Born and raised in the US, he is one of the best fusion artists who leaves you wondering how someone with one foot in both worlds can sound so authentic in both styles!

Channa Mereya | DJ Snake – “Let Me Love You” Justin Bieber (Jeffrey Iqbal mashup cover):

Girls Like You | Tere Bina | Cover By Jeffrey Iqbal & Purnash:

Rohan Kymal – Another American -born Indian whose authenticity on both sides is almost unreal! He has worked extensively with Shankar Tucker of The Shruti box and has performed at Obama’s inaugural Indiaspora Ball.

O Re Piya Rolling in the Deep – Shankar Tucker ft, Rohan Kymal, Brendan Susens-Jackson:

There are many many more artists in this category that are popular on the internet like Vidya Vox, Rajakumari and so on that you can explore.

Rap and R&B Fusion on Indian Regional Music:

In 2019, The Bollywood movie Gully Boy, (inspired by the lives of Mumbai Rappers Divine (aka Vivian Fernandes) and Naezy (aka Naved Shaikh) made a major splash in the Indian music and movie scene thrusting Rap and R&B to the mainstream. Here is a track from the movie Ranam.