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Pump Up the Bhangra: The Sound of Asian Britain

Asian Network DJ Bobby Friction presents a celebration of the way young British Asians have found their voice and their identity through bhangra music over the past thirty years.

Pump Up the Bhangra is a celebration of the way young British Asians have found their voice and their identity through bhangra music over the past thirty years. Fronted by 主播大秀 Asian Network DJ Bobby Friction, the film tells the story of how a simple folk tradition from the wheat fields of north India was transformed in the 1980s to become a unique British club music - outselling many mainstream UK acts.

It's a story of cassette tapes, corner shops and glitter-clad musical heroes, of teenagers bunking off school to attend secret daytime gigs and of generational culture clashes - as this underground scene became as popular among Asians as Wham and Culture Club were to the mainstream.

Bobby grew up listening to bhangra - dancing in his living room to his parents' records and then himself attending daytime gigs as a teenager. His story mirrors that of thousands of other second-generation British Asians who through bhangra became comfortable with their heritage and their place in Britain.

The film traces the birth of bhangra amid the early Punjabi immigrants in the steel foundries of the West Midlands. It explores its glitzy heyday when, despite selling hundreds of thousands of records, artists remained unknown by the mainstream and failed to make it into the charts.

Tracing the growing self-confidence of second-generation Asians that came with bhangra, the film tells the story of the emergence of the so-called Asian underground scene - when Asian 'Kool' finally came of age. And it reveals how bhangra finally came to triumph and crossover to the mainstream when one Punjabi folk song was remixed with hip-hop beats by Jay-Z to become a global anthem.

Today, bhangra remains at the heart of the British Punjabi community. And even though today's young bhangra fans live in a very different world to that of the first generation of immigrants to Britain, they remain passionately committed to the music and the connection it gives them to their roots.

Part of the Big British Asian Summer Season.

1 hour

Last on

Thu 29 Jul 2021 23:00
主播大秀 Scotland

Clips

See all clips from Pump Up the Bhangra: The Sound of Asian Britain (6)

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:04

    Amrik Babbi

    Maan Doabe Da

  • 00:05

    Cornershop

    Jullandar Shere (All Fetters Loose Mix)

  • 00:13

    Kuljit Bhamra and Shan Chana

    Desert Journeys

  • 00:15

    Channi Singh

    Kade Na Billo Boli Hus Ke

  • 00:17

    Channi

    Bhabiye Ni Bhabiye

  • 00:25

    The Dhol Foundation

    Big Drum Small World

  • 00:25

    Apna Sangeet

    Soho Road Utey

  • 00:30

    Kuljit Bhamra

    Kabhi The More Yaara (Bhangra Latina)

  • 00:32

    Apna Sangeet

    Apna Sangeet Sings Apna Sangeet

  • 00:34

    Dhami

    Maar Chharhappa

  • 00:40

    Achanak

    Aj Bhangra Punjabia Na Pauna (Let's Dance With A Dhol)

  • 00:43

    Rama-Cheshire Cat, Bally Sagoo

    Mera Laung Gavacha (Raggamuffin Mix '91)

  • 00:44

    Gregory Isaacs

    Rumours

  • 00:46

    Apache Indian

    Arranged Marriage

  • 00:46

    Fun-Da-Mental

    Ja Sha Taan (Joo Ley Lal Mustt Qalander)

  • 00:47

    Talvin Singh, Amar

    Jaan

  • 00:48

    State of Bengal

    Flight Ic408

  • 00:49

    Sonorous Star

    Indian Motorcycles

  • 00:51

    Panjabi MC

    Beware Of The Boys (feat. JAY-Z)

  • 00:49

    Talvin Singh

    Traveller

  • 00:56

    Badmarsh & Shri

    Signs

Credits

Interviewed Guest Bobby Friction
Producer Ashok Prasad
Executive Producer Richard Bright

Broadcasts

Featured in...

The Big British Asian Summer

The Big British Asian Summer

A season of programmes across the 主播大秀 exploring what it means to be British and Asian.