''Rock On!!'' is the soundtrack to the 2008

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serv ...

of the same name directed by

Abhishek Kapoor Abhishek Kapoor (born 6 August 1971) is an Indian film director, former actor, writer and producer who works in Hindi cinema. He is known for his work in the musical drama ''Rock On!!'' (2008), the buddy sports drama '' Kai Po Che!'' (2013), the ...

, starring

Arjun Rampal Arjun Rampal (born 26 November 1972) is an Indian actor and model who mainly works in Hindi films. He made his acting debut in Rajiv Rai's romance film ''Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat'' (2001) and has since gone on to Arjun Rampal filmography, act in ...

Farhan Akhtar Farhan Akhtar (born 9 January 1974) is an Indian actor, filmmaker and singer who works in Hindi films. Born to screenwriters Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani, he established the production company Excel Entertainment, along with Ritesh Sidhwa ...

Purab Kohli Purab Kohli is an Indian actor, model and former video jockey. Career Television Kohli started his career as an actor with the 1998 television show '' Hip Hip Hurray'' on Zee TV and earned recognition through video jockeying on Channel V. H ...

and

Luke Kenny Luke Kenny is an Indian actor, film director, producer, music director, composer, and former VJ. He began his career as a DJ, followed by a successful stint as the first male VJ on Channel V. He gained widespread recognition for his role in t ...

. The original score and songs were composed by

Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy () is an Indian musical trio consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa. They have composed music for over 50 soundtracks across five languages: Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi and English. Amongst ...

. The songs' lyrics were written by

Javed Akhtar Javed Akhtar (born 1945) is an Indian screenwriter, lyricist and poet. Known for his work in Hindi cinema, he has won five National Film Awards, and received the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007, two of India's highest civili ...

. The album was released on 7 July 2008. by

Big Music Big Music (also known as Reliance Big Music) is an Indian record label owned by Anil Ambani. It is a part of Reliance Entertainment, a subsidiary of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The label was started in 2005, along with several othe ...

Despite a cold reception from the critics, the album became a cult favourite selling over 120,000 copies in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Overview

The movie's songs were composed in five days. Since the movie is about a

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy composed the music in a similar fashion, with the drums and bass set-up and played live to the recorder without any programming. All songs were mixed by Vijay Benegal. "Pichle Saat Dinon Mein", a song about how one loses everything but cannot afford to lose love, was the first song composed, jammed on the guitar riff that Ehsaan Noorani came up with completed in about 20 minutes. This was followed by "Socha Hai" and the title track "Rock On!!". These were sung by

in his first singing role. "Yeh Tumhari Meri Baatein" is sung by Dominique Cerejo in an Ambient Music, ambient genre. "Zehreelay", performed by Suraj Jagan, is hardcore heavy metal music, metal, which is often a rarity in mainstream Bollywood music, Bollywood soundtracks. The rock ballad "Tum Ho Toh" was sung by

. "Sinbad The Sailor" is the song that appears in the climax of the movie, which is along the lines of "Achilles Last Stand" and "Tales of Brave Ulysses". The song is performed by Farhan Akhtar and Raman Mahadevan. The serene "Phir Dekhiye" is performed by a long-time favorite of Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Caralisa Monteiro. The album also has a live version of "Pichle Saat Dinon Mein". Darshan Doshi, the drummer who also tours with the trio, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy's band, played the drums in the soundtrack. Bass guitar was played by Ardeshir Mistry (Adi Mistry), (who plays with Blackstratblues, Amit Trivedi etc..) The lyrics of "Rock On!!" were written by

like a modern rock band's output — and yet acceptable to the film audience — and have some depth without sounding like spoofs, parodies or comedy numbers.

Release history

The music was released worldwide by

on July 7, 2008, at Infinity Mall in Andheri, Mumbai. Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy and Farhan Akhtar performed live at the launch with rest of the cast.

Track listing

Reception

Initial reception

The music was not well received by the mainstream critics. Raja sen of Rediff was critical of the album calling it "a nothing album with pedestrian lyrics". Joginder Tuteja of ''Bollywood Hungama'' echoed these sentiments saying, "The soundtrack just doesn't work and is quite a shocker from SEL - Javed Akhtar team." Though a few reviewers were impressed by the album. ''Planetbollywoods Atta Khan described the album as "bold and daring" and concluded, "The only thing that remains is for listeners to open their ears to a unique genre especially if they have been drummed with too much regular stuff from Pritam / Anu Malik and dare I say it Vishal and Shekhar…."

Sales and cult status

Despite the poor reviews, the album became a chart-topper selling over 120,000 copies in India. The sales of the soundtrack surged further once the film began to receive positive reviews from the film critics. The album became popular amongst the urban masses and slowly started building a cult following. Shankar Mahadevan commented on the initial negative reviews saying, "Even in the past, we have faced such situations when some people have rejected our music in the first couple of hearing," including ''Dil Chahta Hai'' and ''Kal Ho Naa Ho'' which earned several awards and accolades, and are considered among the best Bollywood soundtracks of all time. The ''Rock on!'' team appeared on the cover of the popular music magazine ''Rolling Stone's'' 2008 September issue. Farhan described it as a "dream come true" since, as a teenager, he had always dreamt of being in ''Rolling Stone''.{{cite web, url=http://www.masala.com/5940-farhans-kicked-about-being-on-rolling-stone-cover , title=Farhan's kicked about being on Rolling Stone cover , publisher=Masala.com , date= , accessdate=26 June 2011

Notes

Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy soundtracks Musical film soundtracks 2008 soundtrack albums