The full import of the present moment is realised only when it is past. Viewed through the lens of retrospective wisdom, a series of weekly concerts in the early-to-mid 2000s now take on a new and larger meaning for me.
Every Friday, a basement space on Nelson Manickam Road, a busy commercial stretch in Chennai, would pulsate with music, often original and sometimes boldly experimental. The audience would almost entirely consist of college students. There would be a palpable air of familiarity between the performers on the stage and the small crowd gathered around it. In all likelihood, earlier in the day, they were listening to a college lecture together. In their embryonic stages, most bands were testing the waters of music, something they felt encouraged to do as their young audience seemed open to any kind of sound.
This is Unwind Center for you from those days when an evening of music came at ₹50. It was at this basement space that I first got to meet members of rock band Little Babooshka’s Grind, which would later be known as just LBG. They were determined to never veer away from a path they had taken — playing their compositions and only theirs. That was a rather brave route to take for a local western music band of those times when the “sensible” thing to do was bung in an original score here and another there, into a bouquet of covers of chart-busting songs by international bands.
LBG developed a following among young listeners of live rock music, using platforms such as the one provided by Unwind Center, before going on to find recognition on the country’s wider Western Music stage — recognition on their terms, for they kept the promise they had made themselves.
Around 2005, ‘Junkyard Groove’ would find great traction on the college Western Music circuit. It was also a band that had adopted a unique approach and had the conviction to stick to it. It was an alternative rock band with distinctive Indian elements that made rock very relatable. Its style is best showcased in the song “Folk You.” Today, ‘Junkyard Groove’ is counted among the finest alternative rock/Indie bands in the country.
For Daily:LBG Band Performing at Unwind Centre.Photo:K_Pichumani.10-07-04.(Negative Colour)
Looking back, paying ₹ 50 every Friday, those college students were playing a major role in promoting music that did not fit into easy categories.
For me, these two Indian examples as well as the birth of Billboard’s Top Alternative Songs Chart thirty years ago prove one thing — if you are bucking a local music trend or seeking to hew out a new path, you should probably go to a young audience first.
In the U.S. of the 1980s, campuses were promoting music beyond the regular categories like nobody’s business. Songs that did not fit into mainstream categories and therefore ignored by commercial radio stations, were picked up and played by college radio stations. Before it achieved success in the mainstream music scene, the band Red Hot Chilli Peppers with its alternative rock characterised by funk elements, got exposure largely on college radio stations and alternative radio stations.
And, in September 1988, Billboard started an additional weekly chart, called ‘Top Modern Rock Chart,’ which was later changed to ‘Top Alternative Songs Chart.’
Creation of this chart provided visibility for many groups whose music came under the broad ‘alternative’ category. For some of these songs that are widely celebrated now, initial recognition came largely on account of this chart. ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries is one of them.
