{"id":3185,"date":"2016-05-03T19:53:06","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T14:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3185"},"modified":"2016-05-03T19:53:06","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T14:23:06","slug":"punjabi-music-badshah-diljit-dosanjh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3185","title":{"rendered":"From Pind to Pan-India: The Undying Global Appeal of Punjabi Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span>spent the better part of the month of May this year in <\/p>Delhi.<\/span> Apart from the scorching summer sun, I also experienced the makings of a Big Fat North Indian <\/span>Wedding<\/span> first hand. (Spoiler alert: It\u2019s mostly opulent decor, indulgent food, and enough alcohol abuse to justify bringing back Prohibition.) I came back convinced that Mumbaikars will never quite be able to party as hard as North Indians. Zest for alcohol aside, the biggest advantage our friends up North have going for them is that their party-hard ways are usually chronicled by their homegrown brand of foot-stomping <\/span>Punjabi<\/span> music. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nSome of my most cherished Delhi memories had Punjabi songs playing in the background. Like my first gol gappa at the seedier end of Vasant Kunj\u2019s Mahipalpur. The fiery tinge I felt in the back of my throat went hand in hand with Mankirt Aulakh\u2019s peppy \u201cMunda Badnam Ho Gaya\u201d playing at a nearby Agarwal Sweets. Or how at 4am in Connaught Place\u2019s Kitty Su, Parmish Varma\u2019s \u201cGaal Ni Kadni\u201d coupled with four LIITs made me gyrate maniacally on the <\/span>dance floor<\/span>. In fact, even the wedding ceremonies were rife with choreographed performances by the bride and groom\u2019s aunts and uncles who seemed totally at ease shaking a leg on Badshah\u2019s \u201cWakhra Swag\u201d and Jassi Gill\u2019s \u201cNakhre\u201d among others. <\/span>\n\nBut the cherry on the cake was the sangeet, which was capped off by a special one-hour performance by international Punjabi music superstar, RDB. The guy even asked me to do a <\/span>little bhangra routine<\/span> for him on stage. It\u2019s the closest I\u2019ve ever felt to being on <\/span>Boogie Woogie<\/span><\/i>. Say what you will about Delhi folk, but they sure do know how to throw a party.<\/span>\n\nBy the end of my two-week stint in the Capital, my phone\u2019s storage was blessed with about 500mb of Punjabi music and I was mouthing Diljit Dosanjh\u2019s \u201cRaat Di Gedhi\u201d in my sleep. My Saavn playlist <\/a>felt more like a high-roller auto-enthusiast\u2019s garage graced with tunes like \u201cLaembadgini\u201d and \u201cJaguar\u201d. I found myself convinced that Punjabi music is transcendental. I even told my lonely male friends in Mumbai that the trick to snagging chicks is blasting Punjabi songs while speeding through Western Express Highway, #GedhiGetsYouLadiesYo.\n\nIn my euphoria, I also went ahead and did some research on the history of this fantastic genre. A few google searches later, I was left spelbound at just how vast the cultural impact of Punjabi music spreads. For decades, Punjabi artistes in other countries have been successfully merging the folk sounds of tumbi and dhol with genres like hip hop\/<\/span>gangsta rap<\/span> and disco. For artists in the UK and the US, their access to great production studios resulted transformational sounds that gave us time-tested acts like Sukhshinder Shinda, Panjabi MC (Remember <\/span>Boom<\/span><\/i>\u2019s \u201cMundeya Toh Bach Ke\u201d?), Juggy D and Gippy Grewal.<\/span>\n

Another integral point is that just like Bollywood, the bygone-era stalwarts of the Punjabi music industry understood full well that they needed to evolve with the times.<\/blockquote>\nAs my drive-to-work playlist saw Motley Cr\u00fce\u2019s Greatest Hits lose their spots to tear-jerkers such as Neha Bhasin\u2019s rendition of \u201cMadhaniya\u201d, I suddenly understood the secret behind Punjabi music\u2019s popularity: As a people, <\/span>Punjabis<\/span> truly understand what works globally. In the UK in the 70s, Punjabi music became intertwined with British Pop. By the 1980s, Punjabi music, many types of which were now being referred to as \u201cbhangra,\u201d started to be played in discos in the UK and US. \u00a0During my time there, I can attest to having heard Punjabi MC in many an LA club. A lot of times, even my white friends were singing along!<\/span>\n\nAnother integral point is that just like <\/span>Bollywood,<\/span> the bygone-era stalwarts of the Punjabi music industry understood full well that they needed to evolve with the times. Which is why Jay Sean\u2019s \u201cDance With You\u201d from 2004, Gippy Grewal\u2019s \u201cAngrezi Weed\u201d from 2011, and <\/span>Guru Randhawa\u2019s<\/span> \u201cSuit Suit Karda\u201d aren\u2019t just timeless hits, they each represent the unique industry culture of that era. One look at Jay Sean\u2019s boy-band mannerisms from 2004 or Randhawa\u2019s hair do in 2018 and you understand just how well Punjabi artists have done when it comes to having their finger on <\/span>global fashion<\/span> and music trends of the time. Not to mention, it doesn\u2019t take a cinematographer to gauge that Diljit Dosanjh and Badshah\u2019s music videos are more tastefully shot than most Bollywood blockbusters. <\/span>\n