Any significant South Asian composers of beautiful, happy or catchy songs on the radio, movies, or video games?
Haven’t really found any yet. Except maybe Cornershop’s “Brimful of Asha”. Tjinder Singh’s the guy.
Moved to Cafe Society.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Granted I can’t understand the lyrics, but I’d think a lot of bhangra would meet your criteria. The soundtrack of Rang De Basanti isn’t lyrically happy, but it’s certainly catchy.
I watch a lot of Coke Studio Pakistan on YouTube and I can’t think of any examples off hand but it airs plenty of songs that fit your criteria.
Do you mean Indian songs with a Western pop sensibility, or do you mean songs by Indians or those of Indian backgrounds that have gotten pop/Top 40-type radio play in the West? If the latter, I do recall the remix of Mundian Te Bach Ke by Panjabi MC being popular a good number of years back, hitting #5 on the UK charts, and the Jay Z collaboration made the US top 40 (looks like peaking at #33). Not sure if that’s what you’re looking for, though.
Or do you mean stuff like this (“Deewangi Deewangi” from Om Shanti Om), which is Indian Bollywood music with a Western pop sensibility? If that, there’s a ton.
2 English songs by ethnic Indians come to mind
Angel eyes - Raghav
Dance with you , Tere naal nachna - Jay Sean, Juggy D
Sorry, I meant songs “that Westerners like/have liked” that were composed by South Asian composers (composers/songwriters either from South Asia or England/USA/western country).
Yes, songs with a Western pop sensibility. But they can be from anything (movies, video games, radio, etc.)
Just go to www.tune.pk
A. R. Rahman - Jai Ho. Due to Slumdog Millionaire-related Oscar wins and such.
Indian-American etc. musicians but not from India
Norah Jones (Ravi Shankar’s daughter)
The guy from No Doubt
2/3 of Das Racist
Kim Thayil (Soundgarden)
Nicki Minaj? No? Probably not?
M.I.A. Tamil-British
Bhangra Knights and Husan hit #7 on the UK charts in 2003 with “Husan”.
Panjabi MC had a minor hit with “Jogi”.
When will we be relevanttt
British singer-songwriter/rapper Jay Sean, ne Kamaljit Singh Jhooti, has already been mentioned, but it sounds like Rishi Rich Productions is what you might want to keep an eye on.
Agree with Jai Ho.
Jay Sean is official, but I wish I liked his music
Nicki Minaj purports to be ‘mixed race’, which in the Trinidad contect probably means half African descent, half Indian.
The electronica group Krewella, which seems to be all the rage right now, is made up of two half-Pakistani sisters.
bump