From Travis Scott to Different Colourwave: Our Obsession With Foreign Validation
Travis Scott announces a concert in India, and within hours, two shows get sold out. History repeats itself—the same rush seen with Coldplay has returned with even greater intensity. Young professionals frantically refresh booking pages, ready to spend half their monthly salary on tickets. Meanwhile, WhatsApp groups buzz with uncomfortable truths: “Bro, I’d rather pay double for a foreign artist than an Indian one.” “Let’s be honest, Indian artists don’t deserve this price tag.”
It’s not just about artists anymore. This west-is-best fever has seeped into everything— brands, buildings and even chicken tikka masala. (No Aryan from South Mumbai, England doesn’t make “better chicken tikka masala” than us, please fear god.)
Indians have unlocked a new level of self-loathing wrapped in Western obsession. When local designers launch clothing lines, comment sections flood with: “COPYCATS! Can’t you do anything original?” Yet when a foreign brand drops the same aesthetic with hardly any changes, suddenly everyone’s “manifesting paychecks” to buy the “minimalist, innovative, bold and unique colourwave.”
Let’s talk about architecture. Even if you show them some amazing architecture from Hampi or the magical mughal work from Agra, they’d still say, “Looks like a poor man’s Vatican, bro.” Meanwhile, these same critics post seven Instagram stories about their 15-minute visit to the Eiffel Tower—a giant metal triangle that somehow justifies the “wanderlust” in their bio.
We’ve become a generation that binge-watches K-dramas until 4 AM but won’t give an indie Indian web series a click unless OTTs shoves it down their throats with shiny thumbnails and foreign-sounding titles. It’s like Indians are always holding a mirror up to the west and asking, “Do we look cool now?”
To be clear—loving the West is fine. Travis is A GOAT. Paris is pretty. But when did appreciation turn into blind idolization? People who can’t name three Indian classical musicians spend hours defending why Western music theory is “just superior.”
Here’s the plot twist: Indians can cheer for Travis Scott and a Divine concert. Buy a Yeezy and support a homegrown designer.
Maybe the coolest flex is knowing where you come from. Because what’s more original than being confident in yourself—without a filter from the West?
