Balle, balle! now on streets of Birmingham

Stepping beyond the fields of Punjab, the traditional Bhangra beats have now become the most common sound booming out of the music boxes on the streets of Birmingham.

Stepping beyond the fields of Punjab, the traditional Bhangra beats have now become the most common sound booming out of the music boxes on the streets of Birmingham.

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The journey of the pulsating folk music from Punjab to the streets of United Kingdom since 1970 has been charted out in a recent book titled Bhangra: Birmingham and Beyond, written by Rajinder Dudrah, head of the Department of Drama and senior lecturer in Film and Media Studies at the University of Manchester.

"The book is an introduction to British Bhangra music, using the city of Birmingham as a starting point to map out the journey that UK Bhangra has travelled, from its folk beginnings in the Punjab, to a fusion-based music in Post-war Britain, to now in the 2000s having crossed over into the mainstream through American hip hop artistes and others using the Bhangra beat and sounds," said Dudrah.

The book draws on interviews with artistes, lyricists and promoters of the scene, including analysis of lyrics and some album covers to provide an insight into the industry.

"British Bhangra has now come full circle. Whereas it started off in the post-war period as folk dance and music from the Punjab, in the present it has forged a path for itself, making it quite fashionable," Dudrah told PTI.

"Punjabi folk music was used and transformed by the early pioneer bands and artists in Britain in the 1970s such as Anari Sangeet Party and Bhujangy Group both from Birmingham, and the female singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra," he said.