COPYRIGHT AND USE OF THIS THESIS This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author’s moral rights if you: - fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work - attribute this thesis to another author - subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author’s reputation For further information contact the University’s Director of Copyright Services sydney.edu.au/copyright Headbanging in Dhaka: An exploration of the Bangladeshi Alternative Music Scene Shams Bin Quader A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences December, 2013 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 3 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction: Musical Youth Cultures and the Alternative Music scene of Bangladesh ........................ 6 A metal gig in Dhaka: A first-hand experience .................................................................................... 6 Alternative Rock: Notion and Ethos .................................................................................................... 8 Research Aims ................................................................................................................................... 11 Theoretical Frameworks: Subcultures, Scenes and Neo-Tribes........................................................ 15 Significance of this Research ............................................................................................................. 25 Research Approach ........................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 1: The Ethos of the Alternative Music Scene of Bangladesh .................................................. 33 Socio-political history of Bangladesh ................................................................................................ 34 The Origins of the Alternative Music Scene of Bangladesh .............................................................. 38 Genres and music styles in the Bangladeshi Alternative Music Scene ............................................. 43 The Ethos of the Alternative music scene of Bangladesh ................................................................. 45 Symbolic expressions of distinction and rebellion ............................................................................ 48 Chapter 2: Affording the Bangladeshi Alternative Music Scene ........................................................... 72 Brief description of the local Alternative Music Scene ..................................................................... 72 Key differences with the local Mainstream music scene .................................................................. 78 Affording the Alternative: Necessary Forms of Capital .................................................................... 79 Chapter 3: Crossing over – connecting in and beyond the local scene ................................................ 99 Selling out: Not an issue .................................................................................................................... 99 From Local to Translocal ................................................................................................................. 108 A question of Hybridization ............................................................................................................ 120 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 129 Appendix 1: Transcribed Interviews of the Participants ..................................................................... 150 Appendix 2: Lyrics of Mechanix’s album Aporajewo .......................................................................... 205 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Guy Redden for his relentless support, guidance and understanding throughout my candidature at the University of Sydney. He was one of the main reasons behind choosing to do my Masters of Philosophy degree at the Gender and Cultural Studies Department of this university. I would also like to thank Dr. Catherine Driscoll, Dr. Jane Park, Dr. Lee Wallace and Dr. Ruth Barcan for their enthusiastic support and guidance whenever I needed it. Finally, I would also like to thank my colleagues and friends at this department, especially Scott Webster, Karen-Anne Wong, Paul Priday, Nancy Lee, Liam Grealy, Tim Laurie, Remy Low, Maria Elena Indelicato, Jessica Kean, Tom Hayes and Alifa Bandali. All of them played a role in helping me survive this MPhil adventure. 3 Abstract This thesis is about understanding the birth, development and maintenance of a subcultural alternative music scene located in the unique urban socio-historic milieu of the postcolonial developing country of Bangladesh. Locally dubbed the underground, this cultural phenomenon is a youth based male dominated, non-commercial and non- professional music scene, based on international genres of metal as well as other foreign alternative music genres. This alternative music scene revolves around the activities of largely middle-class, part-time, male musicians who share particular economic, cultural and social resources that afford their participation in it. The main focus of this research is to understand these social, cultural and economic conditions of possibility of the scene that explain why it exists in its current form. Questions about the usefulness and limitations of theoretical frameworks based on alternative rock related youth cultures will be assessed by the empirical study of this local alternative music scene. These theoretical models, largely developed in Western Anglophone countries, explain distinctive configurations of symbolic, social and economic elements through which a particular scene is mobilized. Are these Western theoretical models enough to explain this local alternative music scene, or are local contextual factors of paramount importance? This is one of the notions that are explored in detail in this thesis. In the locale of post-colonial Bangladesh, the actors involved express their sentiments towards local situations with the resources available to them through the motivations of ‘local factors’ which accentuate a rather unique discourse of an alternative music scene. Studies of appropriation, impact and function of metal genres in other Asian countries like China, Japan, Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have been done 4 before, but never in Bangladesh, where there is an overall lacking of music related scholarly work in English. Based upon interviews with key figures of the scene, ethnographic observation and textual analysis, this research suggests that the urban youth’s frustration towards the poor situation of the country is channeled into desires to develop an alternative liberal space of artistic autonomy through the exploration of foreign music styles and the fantasy worlds of metal. While participants assert aesthetic distinction of their music from mainstream rock, one of the main findings shows that they are not concerned about ideas of selling out to the corporate music industry if they become popular without sacrificing aesthetic integrity. Emphasis is placed on translocal connections with other alternative music scenes elsewhere. The empirical findings from this thesis raises questions about the extent to which this local scene represents Western discourses of alternative rock and whether its transnationalism is properly explained through hybridization of international cultural forms. 5 Introduction: Musical Youth Cultures and the Alternative Music scene of Bangladesh A metal gig in Dhaka: A first-hand experience The year was 2012. It was a hot Friday afternoon in January, around 3PM in the Agargaon area of Dhaka City. I was on my way to the National Library Auditorium, to experience and observe an underground metal concert. I got to know about this show because I got invited on Facebook from a contact who is involved with this metal scene. The venue was hard to find because it looked very drab and uninteresting, squeezed between two bureaucratic looking buildings. The car park was quite empty, with small numbers of teenagers and twenty something guys hanging out, having a smoke, scattered all around. The majority of them were dressed in black, sporting T-shirts