ROCK STREET JOURNAL (RSJ): A look at India’s first and biggest Independent Music Magazine
First issued in 1993, the magazine was edited by Amit Saigal. Printed in Allahabad, it covered homegrown talent just as extensively as it did the global scene.
RSJ, with fan mail, giveaways and gig reviews, soon turned into a platform for music enthusiasts to interact with each other, and in some cases, their idols too.tIn 1995, RSJ published the Great Indian Rock (G.I.R) Volume 1 cassette. The tape featured 12 shortlisted artists including Parikrama, Indian Ocean, and Lou Majaw.
Great Indian Rock eventually grew into an annual music festival. Later editions also brought in foreign talent (like John Myung, Shawn Lane and Tesseract).
The G.I.R editions were accompanied by many smaller festivals, such as the Rocktoberfest and Pubrockfest, which encouraged bands to compose and perform original music.
In 2002, the RSJ went online. The website had an mp3 page, band profiles, and a forum with over 40,000 registered members.
In 2012, Amit Saigal, the founder of Rock Street Journal, passed away. The magazine went out of print in 2014, but the website is regularly updated with reviews of new indie music and interviews.
January 2023 will mark 30 years of RSJ’s existence.
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