Punjabi music's tight grip on Indian pop culture remains unchallenged. Look around you – it is nearly impossible to escape its infectious joy generously supplied via newage dhols, evolving bhangra beats, and predictable lyrical bravado. You only have to listen to any current Bollywood mixtape (formerly known as OST) or visit a local club to witness our national obsession with music that makes us get up and dance.
The Punjabification of Bollywood, and by association the mainstream Indian music economy as a whole, started way back in the Nineties thanks to the regional culture's universally appealing ethos: its larger-than-life-ness in words and beats, invariably spearheaded by big voices. And the mind-boggling diversity of it: there isn't a contemporary genre that hasn't gained from the Punjabi Midas touch – we've got everything from bhangra-rap, Punjabi soul, and timeless acoustic ballads. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag even offered Punjabi bluegrass in Slow Motion Angreza. The consumers of both live and recorded Punjabi music run far and wide around the globe, with both domestic and diasporic populations offering a ready and captive audience.
If Bollywood cult classic Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995) got us romancing Punjabi everything, YouTube got us properly addicted in the past decade, with Yo Yo Honey Singh, Diljit Dosanjh, Badshah, and Sidhu Moose Wala becoming irreplaceable icons.
This story is from the May 2022 edition of RollingStone India.
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This story is from the May 2022 edition of RollingStone India.
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