Raga rock

In the west, certain groups, such as The Beatles traveled to India and incorporated some aspects of Indian music, especially classical instruments such as the sitar, into their music, often as a way of conjuring psychedelic 'eastern' feelings.

The term for this was raga rock, and examples of it are The Beatles "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Strawberry Fields" and "Within You Without You" - The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" - The Kinks' "Fancy" - and The Byrds' "Eight Miles High".

A number of prolific Indian classical musicians such as Ravi Shankar aligned themselves with this trend, making collaboration albums with western artists. Indian bands themselves mainly covered early rock songs by pioneers of rock and roll in Britain and America, and only achieved recognition in popular culture by supporting film scores and Indian pop.