Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:09:57.520Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Black beats with a Punjabi twist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2013

Anjali Gera Roy*
Affiliation:
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721 302, India E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The bonding between black and brown immigrants in Britain has resulted in the emergence of a new musical genre called Bhangra, which hybridises Punjabi dhol rhythms with those of reggae, rap and hip hop. Bhangra's appropriation of Black sounds that are considered ‘Kool’ in the West has not only given Asian youth a new, distinctive voice in the form of ‘Asian dance music’ but has also led to the reinvention of Punjabi folk tradition in consonance with the lived realities of multicultural Britain. This essay examines various aspects of sonic hybridisation in ‘the diaspora space’ by British Asian music producers through tracing the history of Bhangra's ‘douglarisation’, beginning in the 1990s with Apache Indian's experiments with reggae. It covers all forms of mixings that came in between, including active collaborations, rappings, remixings, samplings and so on that made Punjabi and Jamaican patois dialogue in the global popular cultural space. The essay explores the possibilities of a ‘douglas poetics’ for Bhangra by juxtaposing the celebration of sonic douglarisation in postmodern narratives of migrancy and hybridity against the stigmatisation of biological douglarisation in miscegenation theories and ancient Indian pollution taboos.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Axel, B. 2001. The Nation's Tortured Body: Violence, Representation, and the Formation of the Sikh ‘Diaspora’ (Durham, NC, Duke University Press)Google Scholar
Back, L. 1993. ‘X amount of Sat Siri Akal! Apache Indian, Reggae music & and the cultural intermezzo’ in The Language, Ethnicity and Race Reader, ed. Harris, R. and Rampton, B. (London, Taylor & Francis)Google Scholar
Bhachu, P. 1985. Twice Migrants: East African Sikh Settlers in Britain (London and New York, Tavistock Publications)Google Scholar
Brah, A. 1996. Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities (London, Routledge)Google Scholar
Chhibber, K. 2005. ‘Life's a rap for Jazzy B: getting personal with the Crown Prince of Bhangra, Little India, Littleindia.com, 5 April. http://www.littleindia.com/arts-entertainment/1436-life%E2%80%99s-a-rap-for-jazzy-b.html (accessed 8 February 2012)Google Scholar
Desitunes n.d. ‘Taz's Exclusive Interview’, Desitunes4u.com. http://www.desitunes4u.com/interview_taz.php (accessed 3 October 2008)Google Scholar
Dhooleka, R.S. 2003. Where Are You From? Middle-Class Migrants in the Modern World (Berkeley, CA, University of California Press)Google Scholar
Dudrah, R. 2002. ‘Cultural production in the British Bhangra music Industry: music-making, locality, and gender’, International Journal of Punjab Studies, 9, pp. 219–51Google Scholar
Dutt, B. 2009. ‘Not just skin deep prejudice: is India a country of closet racists?’, We The People, NDTV 24 × 7, 9 August. www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/new/wethepeople.aspx?id (accessed 28 February 2012)Google Scholar
East African Sikhs n.d. Sikh Heritage in East Africa. http://www.sikh-heritage.co.uk/heritage/sikhhert%20EAfrica/sikhsEAfrica.htm (accessed 3 October 2008)Google Scholar
Gilroy, P. 2002. There ain't No Black in The Union Jack : The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation (London, Routledge)Google Scholar
Hernandez-Hernandez-Ramdwar, C. 1997. ‘Multiracial identities in Trinidad and Guyana: exaltation and ambiguity’, Latin American Issues, 13(4) [online]Google Scholar
Huq, R. 1996. ‘Asian Kool? Bhangra and beyond’, in Disorienting Rhythms: The Politics of the New South Asian Dance Music, ed. Sharma, S., Hutnyk, J. and Sharma, A. (London, Zed Books)Google Scholar
Johnson, K. 2008. ‘Unity of Dougla music: the beat of a different drum’, TriniView.com. http://www.triniview.com/douglamusic.htm (accessed 3 October 2008)Google Scholar
Katrak, K.H. 2002. ‘Changing traditions: South Asian Americans and cultural/communal politics’, Massachusetts Review, 43/1, pp. 7588Google Scholar
Kipling, R. n.d. ‘A sahib's war’, kipling.org. www.kipling.org.uk/rg_sahibswar1.htm (accessed 3 October 3 2008)Google Scholar
Manuel, P. 1995. ‘Music as symbol, music as simulacrum: postmodern, pre-Modern, and modern aesthetics in subcultural musics’, Popular Music, 14, pp. 227–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moving Here n.d. ‘East Africans and Indians in Leicester’, Moving Here Stories. http://www.movinghere.org.uk/stories/stories.asp?PageNo=2&ProjectNo=37 (accessed 3 October 2008)Google Scholar
Naipaul, V.S. 1969. A House for Mr Biswas (Harmondsworth, Penguin)Google Scholar
Naipaul, V.S. 1973. ‘One out of many’, In a Free State (Harmondsworth, Penguin)Google Scholar
Nair, M. 1991. The Mississippi Masala [film], dir. M. Nair. Black River Productions.Google Scholar
Norman, R.J. (trans.). 2004 Saadi Gulistan. Global Scholarly Publications http://www.richardjnewman.com/my-books/selections-from-saadis-gulistan/ (accessed 3 October 2008)Google Scholar
Puri, S. 2004. The Caribbean Postcolonial: Social Equality, Post/Nationalism, and Cultural Hybridity (Houndsmills, Palgrave Macmillan)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rampton, B. 1995. Crossing: Language and Ethnicity Among Adolescents (London, Longman.)Google Scholar
Rani, A. 2008. ‘Dating Black’, BBC Radio Asian Network, 17 March. http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/documentaries/datingblack.shtml (accessed 3 October 2008)Google Scholar
Roy, A.G. 2008. ‘Bhangra re-mixes’, in Hawley, J.C., India in Africa, Africa in India: Indian Ocean Cosmopolitanisms (Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press)Google Scholar
Schreffler, G. 2011. ‘Western Punjabi song forms: Māhīā and Ḍhola’, Journal of Punjab Studies, 18/1&2Google Scholar
Schreffler, G. 2010. Signs of Separation: Dhol in Punjabi Culture. Unpublished Dissertation (Santa Barbara, University of California)Google Scholar
Theroux, P. 2008. ‘Paul Theroux claims new biography reveals the true monster in V.S. Naipaul’, The Sunday Times, 5 April. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3688422.ece (accessed 3 October 2008)Google Scholar
Vassanji, M.G. 1989. The Gunny Sack and Other Stories (London, Heinemann)Google Scholar
Walcott, D. 2008. ‘Walcott VS Naipaul’, New Statesman, 29 May. http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/05/derek-walcott-jamaica-naipaul (accessed 3 October 2008)Google Scholar
Zenner, W.P. 1991. Minorities in the Middle: A Cross Cultural Analysis (Albany, NY, State University of New York Press)Google Scholar

Discography

Apache Indian (feat. Maxie Priest), ‘Fe Real’. Universal Length. 1993Google Scholar
Apache Indian (feat. Malkit Singh), ‘Independent Girl Sohniaye’. Wild East. 2007Google Scholar
Apache Indian, ‘Arranged Marriage’. No Reservations. Island.1993Google Scholar
Apache Indian (feat. Jazzy B), ‘Jine Mera Dil Luteya’. Romeo. 2005Google Scholar
Killer (Cephas Alexander), Indian Wedding AKA Grinding Marsala. 1947.Google Scholar
Mann, Gurdas, Sukhvinder, ‘Yaariyan’. Yaariyan. 2008Google Scholar
Ramta, Hazra Singh, ‘Ramta Africa Vich’. Charkha Chanan Da. SAREGAMA. 2004Google Scholar
Stereo Nation, ‘Laila’. Slave II Fusion (aka Oh Laila). 2000Google Scholar
Stereo Nation, ‘I have been Waiting’. I Have been Waiting. 1996Google Scholar
Stereo Nation, ‘Gallan Gorian’. Very Best of Stereo Nation. 2005Google Scholar
Dogg, Snoop, RDB, Akshay, ‘Singh is Kinng’. Singh is Kinng. 2008Google Scholar
Zee, Johnny & Kendell, DJ, ‘Come Be My Lover’. Reggae. Network Records. 1991.Google Scholar