The Heritage of British Bhangra: Popular Music Heritage, Cultural Memory, and Cultural Identity
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The Heritage of British Bhangra: Popular music heritage, cultural memory, and cultural identity. Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy by Gurdeep John Singh Khabra. September 2014. In memory of Charan Singh & Nasib Kaur. Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 3 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 9 Ethnography ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Music Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 13 Reflexivity and Ethics ....................................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 1: Contextualising British Bhangra music heritage ................................................................. 20 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Defining BrAsian .............................................................................................................................. 20 Defining British Bhangra .................................................................................................................. 26 Heritage Debates ............................................................................................................................... 30 Popular Music and Heritage .............................................................................................................. 38 Chapter 2: The Heritage of Popular Music ........................................................................................... 48 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 48 Music at the London 2012 Olympic Games ..................................................................................... 54 Music Heritage, Nationalism and Militarisation ............................................................................... 57 Popular Music Heritage and Music Tourism .................................................................................... 66 Heritage, Diaspora and Diversity ...................................................................................................... 72 Chapter 3: Locating Bhangra in the UK ............................................................................................... 81 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 81 Bhangra in the North East of England .............................................................................................. 84 Exploring tensions between British Bhangra and the music of London’s Bangladeshi community 90 Birmingham: The home of British Bhangra? .................................................................................... 93 Chapter 4: Online Bhangra Communities ............................................................................................. 99 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 99 Digi-bhang – The digitization of British Bhangra .......................................................................... 100 Online Discourse on British Bhangra Music .................................................................................. 109 Learning British Bhangra Online .................................................................................................... 116 Authenticity and the UK Bhangra Dance Phenomenon .................................................................. 123 Chapter 5: Analysing British Bhangra ................................................................................................ 132 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 132 Bhangra and BrAsian Identity ......................................................................................................... 136 Case Studies .................................................................................................................................... 145 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 171 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................................... 176 Discography & Filmography .............................................................................................................. 185 Appendix A: POPID Email Questionairre: ......................................................................................... 186 Table of Figures Figure 1 – Radiohead’s Oxford map from the Green Plastic website. .................................................. 40 Figure 2 - A collection of music scores entitled ‘A Celebration of British Music’ .............................. 52 Figure 3 - ‘Best of British’ compilation album, released in April 2011. .............................................. 53 Figure 4 - A still from the music video for ‘Sher Soorma’. .................................................................. 63 Figure 5 - Birmingham Mail – November 6, 2007 ............................................................................... 75 Figure 6 - A poster advertising the very first Bradford Mela as part of the Bradford Festival ............. 85 Figure 7 - Poster advertising an Alaap concert at St George’s Hall, Bradford ..................................... 87 Figure 8 - A flyer advertising a Valentine’s Day concert by D.C.S. in Leeds. ..................................... 88 Figure 9 - A poster advertising a 2005 Gurdas Mann concert, held in Bradford .................................. 89 Figure 10 - The ‘Soho Road Naan Kebab’ takeaway food van in Vancouver, Canada ........................ 97 Figure 11 - Dipps Bhamrah’s Bhangra Top 5 on SimplyBhangra.com .............................................. 102 Figure 12 - An early cassette tape sleeve from ‘Premi Group’ from Southall. ................................... 119 Figure 13 - The harmonium being played by Bhangra singer Malkit Singh. ...................................... 121 Figure 14 - University of Birmingham Bhangra dance team – at the 2014 Bhangra Showdown. ...... 126 Figure 15 - Album cover art from Diamonds From Heera, Heera’s second album (1986). ............... 137 Figure 16 - Poster for the Bhangra Legends Concert 2012 in Birmingham. ...................................... 142 Figure 17 - Champak Limbachia (Right) performing with a Bollywood music group ....................... 149 Figure 18 - Poster advertising the ‘Desi Mania Meets Brit Asia Uni Tour’ in 2012. ......................... 157 Figure 19 - A still from the accompanying music video for ‘Tharti Hilde’ ........................................ 160 Figure 20 - The producers and singers of ‘Tharti Hilde’ in the music video ...................................... 161 Tables Table 1: Comparison of Case Studies ................................................................................................. 169 The Heritage of British Bhangra: Popular music heritage, cultural memory, and cultural identity. Gurdeep Khabra. Abstract Authorised narratives of British popular music history have been deployed as representations of national identity by a range of institutions and individuals. The London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony, for example, presented a range of musical artists and songs that had been selected to represent aspects of British cultural identity to an international audience. The following year, a speech delivered by British Prime Minister David Cameron cited examples of British popular music in order to demonstrate British cultural successes in an international field. This thesis argues that authorised narratives such as these have failed to reflect the diversity of music cultures in the UK, drawing upon literature that highlights the concerns of ethnic minority groups who are frequently faced with exclusion from mainstream heritage narratives, and on a case study on British Bhangra music. British Bhangra is a musical genre closely associated with the BrAsian community, and in this thesis it is used to explore the relationship between popular music heritage and multiculturalism and address the following research questions: How have individuals involved with the British Bhangra music industry and audience groups responded to authorised narratives (Smith, 2006) of British popular music? How has British Bhangra been constructed as heritage – whether authorised, un-authorised or self-authorised – and where is this taking place and by whom? In order to address these questions, the thesis adopts