Raga rock is rock or pop music with a pronounced Indian influence, either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of Indian musical instruments, such as the sitar, tambura, and tabla. The term "raga" refers to the specific melodic modes used in Indian classical music.

The style emerged as part of the psychedelic rock aesthetic in the 1960s. Most raga rock recordings originate from that decade, although there are subsequent examples of Indian-derived sounds in rock and pop music, particularly during the 1990s.

Ragas are specific melodic modes used in the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. The term "raga rock" originated in March 1966 as a description of rock music that featured Indian sitar styling. According to musicologist Jonathan Bellman, citing Lillian Roxon's 1969 book Rock Encyclopedia: "This catchphrase eventually came to describe any Rock song that evoked an Indian or general Oriental mood, whether by use of sitar or another instrument imitating it." Music journalist Rob Chapman says the phrase was a "catch-all term" and "something of a misnomer", since it was often applied to any piece of rock music that "used non-European instrumentation or music styles to denote its exotic qualities".

A major influence on raga rock was the music of Bengali sitarist Ravi Shankar. He himself became a pop music icon in 1966, following the rise of the raga rock trend. Rock's use of elements from the Indian classical tradition included:

Don Snowden of The Los Angeles Times acknowledges the 1960s raga rock movement, as well as Santana's mix of blues rock and Afro-Cuban percussion later in the decade, as parts of a broader phenomenon that would come to be known as worldbeat in the 1980s.

Writing for Crawdaddy! in December 1966, Sandy Pearlman traced the origins of raga rock to folk music, specifically the drone-producing guitar tunings which American folk musician Sandy Bull had been incorporating into his music since 1963. More recently, Chapman and author John Schaefer have both noted that English folk guitarist Davey Graham's raga-tinged arrangement of the Irish ballad "She Moved Through the Fair", from 1963's From a London Hootenanny EP, predated the raga rock experimentation of 1960s rock groups by two years.

Music researcher William Echard states that "Heart Full of Soul" by the Yardbirds, which was released in June 1965, "is frequently cited as a key text in starting the trend" towards incorporating Indian-inspired elements in rock music. An Indian sitarist and a tabla player accompanied the Yardbirds on a demo recording of the song, but only the tabla part was deemed usable. Instead, Jeff Beck emulated the sitar figure, tone and accompanying drone on the electric guitar for the master recording. The song reached number 2 on the UK chart and number 9 in the US.

According to Rob Chapman, the other record "chiefly credited with introducing raga motifs into Western pop" is the Kinks' July 1965 single "See My Friends", which was another top-ten hit in the UK. Written by Ray Davies and inspired by a visit to India, the song used open-tuned guitars to imitate the drone produced by an Indian tambura. Davies' vocal affectations added to the track's Indian quality; in author Peter Lavezzoli's description, "See My Friends" was "the first pop song to evoke an Indian feel". Before either of these examples, the Beatles' April 1965 single "Ticket to Ride", which was number 1 in many countries around the world, featured a melody that author Ian MacDonald terms "raga-like" over a subtle Indian drone produced by electric guitars.