Sanjay Divecha: ‘Indian Musicians Don’t Know Anything About Western Music’

Guitar virtuoso Sanjay Divecha released his album Full Circle last month on Blue Frog records. The album features Divecha and several accompanists including Ranjit Barot and Vivek Rajagopalan (also signed to Blue Frog).

In an interview with PlanetRadioCity Divecha was asked about the ‘Westernizing’ of Bollywood music. The first half of his response was great

People keep saying Bollywood has gone global. Thatâ??s not true at all. Indian music has gone global only because of the popularity of the films. And itâ??s listened to only by groups of the Indian diaspora; no one else is listening to it.

But then he goes on to make a gaffe of Javed Akhtar proportions

Also, Indian musicians donâ??t know anything about Western music. They donâ??t know anything because they havenâ??t studied it. Unless you spend time learning and literally immersing yourself in it, you canâ??t Westernise music.

What’s a true sign of ‘Westernising’ Indian music? Is it Snoop Dogg performing with Akshay Kumar? Is it Motherjane? Or is it Bappi Lahiri and MIA?