Being raised Punjabi in the UK and USA, bhangra was just something I always had to put up with, Much preferring the music my white friends liked, I just generally avoided bhangra.
However, I recently heard Jogi by Panjabi MC on the radio. Let’s just say that after so many years of avoidance, I was singing along to the silly lyrics and moving to the beat. Within the week, the CD was on heavy rotation in my CD player.
Soon, I raided my parent’s and cousin’s CD collections for CDs, and I am an official bhangra fan now. I’ve been spreading it around school, and I think my town has a ludicriously high concentration of white bhangra fans.
Many of my friends at school and uni were from Punjabi families, so I heard plenty of it. I have fond memories of sitting in the students union with my friend Kuldip translating for me. The lyrics certainly made me laugh, but they don’t really matter.
That said I know bugger all about it, other than I enjoyed it a great deal, especially the Asian Society Bhangra-Discos.
More recently, I aquired an Indian PhD student who is very dismissive of British Asian culture ('cos they’re all ignorant country bumpkins, according to him) and when my boss and I mentioned Bhangra, he was keen to disassociate himself … until Panjabi MC started getting airplay. Now he’s up on the dancefloor as soon as he hears the opening beats. Shame his only dancemoves are based on Saturday Night Fever!
I’d recommend buying Panjabi’s Beware CD, and also a variety CD called The Rough Guide To Bhangra . They are both fantastic, and great intros into bhangra. If you enjoy them, then I’d recommend checking out the artists on the Rough Guide CD.