Sunday, 13 May 2018

SB1 - 'Bhangra' Book Research





> To get a better understanding for Bhangra and the culture of it's origins in Birmingham I decided to buy the Book 'Bhangra - Birmingham and Beyond' to help furhyther add detail to my research and possibly increase design ideas with stronger reasoning. Below are key notes that I have taken down from the book.




- DJ's and sounds systems networks operated amongst a community thrown up in a whirlwind during Thatcher's reign in the 1980's

- Bhangra, in it's traditional sense, created a soundscape of celebration of the harvest but in post-war Britain it had metamorphosized.

- 'Birmingham was instrumental in this shift and is the starting point of this book. 

- 'Chak De Phattey!' - Lift the floorboards/Mash-up the Dancefloor)

- Bhangra dates from the late 1960's and follows the post-war arrival of migrant workers from the Indian subcontinent and East Africa.

- Many settles in the West Midlands, importing records alongside early indian music.

- Bhangra music consists of mostly males

- The lyrics are heroic in tone, often in praise of the motherland. 

- A distinctively british Bhangra took shape in the mid-1980's as an emerging second generation of South Asians musicians began to experiment and imporvies with technology, marking a direct engagement with notions of British and Asian experience. 

- 'Soho Road Uteh' (On Soho Road) is a song by band Apna Sangeet, describes a story of love to which two lovers meet in India, become separated and then attempt to find each other through a love quest-cum song journey.

- Soho Road in Handsworth has global resonance for young Asians well beyond Birmingham tracks, and is often deployed in British Bhangra tracks. 

- since the emergence in the 1960's Bhangra music in Britain has consisted of and brought together hundreds of people.  

- 1991 track 'Rule Britannia' 

> The book offers a timely and accessible overview of some of the artsits, events, songs, audeinces, and imaged of British Bhangra music. 

No comments:

Post a Comment