Bangalore’s Rock Resonance

Focusing on the period between the 1960s and the 1990s, the research explores how global musical influences found a distinct local expression in Bengaluru. Rather than simply adopting Western rock, the city cultivated a unique musical culture shaped by its educational institutions, military history, cosmopolitan population, recording technologies, performance venues and youth movements. These influences helped establish Bengaluru as the recognised rock capital of India.

The project investigates the geography of the city’s music culture by documenting the places that nurtured it—from schools and colleges to clubs, auditoriums, cafés, pubs, recording studios and public venues. These spaces are understood not merely as locations for performance, but as cultural infrastructure that enabled communities, creativity and new forms of urban identity. By mapping how these places emerged, transformed and, in some cases, disappeared, the research reveals the intimate relationship between music and the making of the city.

The study also examines how Bengaluru became a site where global and local cultures intersected. It considers the circulation of music through radio, records, television and live performances, and explores how the city’s rock scene was represented in popular media. Through these narratives, the project highlights how music became a lens through which changing aspirations, identities and urban lifestyles can be understood.

Presented as a public lecture and ongoing research initiative, the project reflects MOD Foundation’s broader commitment to making cities observable through interdisciplinary research. By treating music as a form of urban history, the project demonstrates that the cultural life of a city is as important to its identity as its physical fabric, offering a richer understanding of Bengaluru’s past and its evolving cultural landscape.