Like maybe you already know it, Bhangra is a type of music created by members of the punjabi diaspora especially since the late 80's. Punjabis are coming from the province of Punjab, in the north-east of India, between Delhi and Pakistan. The main centers of Bhangra production are London (uk) and Toronto (can) which are also the cities with some of the biggest Punjabi communities outside India. In the late 80's, Bhangra started to get more attention by mixing more and more Punjabi percussions and lyrics with the music of people living in the same neighborhood: Caribbean people mainly. Therefore, Bhangra music developed in many ways with the reggae movement and western music tendencies, which can explain that you'll find all kind of beats, structure and music under the name Bhangra and that's that variety that I'll expose in this post.
A band like Asian Dub Foundation, even it would be difficult to put it under the label Bhangra (first because they're coming from the Bengal, south of India), is probably one of the most well known example of that mix of influences that happened in music created by Indian immigrants in the London of the 90's. The other obvious, more recent example would be Panjabi MC with his hit that was even re-recorded with Jay-Z, showing how the American Record Industry acknowledge potential of non strictly African-American hip-hop production in the USA (See Bollyhood Records manifesto as an example of how Bhangra producers are responding to that). Oh and should I even mention that Bhangra is mainly the music of the youth, the weddings and parties?Asian Dub Fondation - Rebel Warrior
Panjabi Mc - Mundian To Bach Ke
After that very short introduction, let's get into the real objective of that post: sharing and making discover the variety of what's called "Bhangra".
By listening to quite a few cds, reading here and there, watching videos, I came accross diverse music, tempo and rythm that were all presented as Bhangra. What I feel as less Western marked could be for example this tracks that are representing the usual classic material you'll find in any Bhangra cds:
Darshan Khella & Miss Pooja - Munda Dangia Gia
Sukhraj Nijjar - Veer Viah Ke Aaya
Here's even a acoustic one that I love from The Rough Guide To Bhangra Dance:
Madan Bata Sindhu - Mehndi/Madhorama Pencha
From there, you'll find a large variety of tracks that are using kind of the same song structure and of course this recognizable samples of percussions. What I wanted to show you is all the different connections that has been made:
Hip-Hop with Bhangra (classic and crunk):
Deep and Kamla Panjabi - Man On Fire
Kali Denali - Bohemia
Pop with Bhangra
Jassi Sidhu - Puth Jatt Thaa
Jungle/2-step with Bhangra
RDB - DilKarda
Midievil Punditz - Bhangra Fever
Dance with Bhangra
Juggy D - Billo
Reggae/Dancehall with Bhangra
Rishi Rich - Roll It Gal ft Alison Hinds
You can also the Bhangra post #3 for many other mash-ups. I would suggest you get some sounds by reading posts 1 & 2
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