Where Rock 'n Roll Comes From

Many years ago, I heard from a drummer that much of what we now know as popular music had its origins on the Silk Road, the camel caravan trail from China, through India, Persia, and Arabia, to Europe. As the caravans travelled though all the various regions, they traded rhythms and chords.

Listen to this YouTube clip of Mustt Mustt by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.



Nusrat was a foremost singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis. "Often listeners, and even artists themselves, are transported to a state of wajad, a trance-like state where they feel at one with God, generally considered to be the height of spiritual ecstasy in Sufism."


The Silk Road