[Reader-list] is bhangra taking over?

[Menso Heus]

On Fri, Jan 17, 2003 at 01:27:03PM +0100, staun wrote:

Hi Staun,

> Dear list,
> it's hard to tell if it's the breakthrough of a genre or just another
> one-hit-wonder: Panjabi MC's bhangra-pop song "Mundian to bach ke" that
> stormed the german charts end of last year and will now be re-released
> in Britain. Anyway, the attempt to cross the border between two musical
> parallel universes within the U.K., between the world of High Street
> megastores and Indipop cornershops is remarkable.

I've listened to the track and I personally quite liked it. The song is a
bit of a sure shot, since it uses the rocksolid bassline from the knight-
rider theme as it's main groove. I think you can basically mix anything 
over that and it'll still sound good :) Also, the newness quite quickly 
fades off, when you've heard it a couple of times, you've heard it.
Whether it's a one-hit-wonder or not depends on whether his original stuff
is any good or on how succesfully he can repeat this 'trick'. People like
Puff Daddy do nothing else than rip the groove from old songs, rap over it
and present it as something new.

I ran into this Dutch forum where people were giving comments on this song
and, next to the fact that there were a couple of idiots that responded 
with "I don't need to listen to this Islamic crap" most people actually 
quite seemed to like it. 
The quick toggling on the snare instrument is generally received as 
'uplifting' and the funniest comment I read was that the 'sing-a-long'
factor was rather low (I must admit, to me it also sounds lalalala 
lalalalolololalala and I have no idea what he's talking about, but with
modern rap music that's generally a good thing ;)

> I cannot deny that, as a cultural critic without any greater insight nor
> preference for that kind of music, I am as much interested in the
> question where that sound comes from as in the question when it will go
> away again. Any hints to interesting material about the U.K. bhangra
> scene, its perception in India, its significance as culture or economy
> would be very welcome.

I'm not at all familiar with any bhangra scene, so if you can provide me
with some more names I'd greatly appreciate it. As to 'where that sound 
comes from' I think it's just a rather logical follow-up of other 'cross-
cultural' mixtures, perhaps stimulated extra by the fact that the 
'Well Of New Musical Things To Do' has run rather dry in Europe, so we're 
quite welcoming any new sound, where ever it comes from.


Menso
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