Bhangra in Newcastle: Music, ethnic identity and the role of local knowledge

Abstract

Originally a traditional form of Punjabi folk musk, bhangra has been radically transformed by British‐Asian musicians into a fusion style, which, in addition to retaining characteristic aspects of its folk heritage also incorporates elements of western popular music. There is currently very little research which deals with this adaptation of the bhangra style and which attempts to ascertain its cultural significance for Asians living in Britain. Moreover, in those studies which have examined these issues there has been a tendency to theorize unproblematically the role of bhangra in acting as vehicle for a common form of cultural expression amongst Asian communities in Britain whilst leaving aside any consideration of the influence of locality and local knowledges upon such musicalized forms of cultural expression. In this article I will argue that such essentialist explanations are insufficient to explain the nature of the cultural work performed by bhangra in this country. Drawing upon the results of empirical research which I have carried out in Newcastle upon Tyne, I will attempt to illustrate how the collective uses of bhangra music by different groups of Asians living in the city and the various statements and expressions of ethnic identity which such uses are intended to articulate are in each instance underscored by issues of locality, that is to say, by forms of knowledge and types of sensibility which are particular to Newcastle and the wider North East region.