Brian Williams' Final Reflection

Brian Williams

Dr. Horowitz

International Studies 501

Spring 2011

Final Reflection

First off, I think all the final projects are of immense educational value. I thank everyone for bringing a wide-variety of topics, approaches, and insight to the forefront of my awareness. Rachel Paiscik’s presentation on Bhangra dance and the appropriation of Punjabi culture from immigrants to a younger generation growing up in the U.K. was fascinating. It reminded me of a concept used by absurdist philosopher Albert Camous called, “betwixt and between.” This notion symbolizes a purgatorial state of being, in this case, a generation of ethnic Punjabi youngsters brought up as participants in British culture, caught in between the world of their parents and the world they had come to know.

Only men in the Punjabi region of India and Pakistan traditionally performed the Bhangra dance. However, as waves of immigrants left their homes in hopes of a better life for their children in modern western nations, the culture they brought with them was appropriated, transformed, altered, created, and recreated. Such is the case with Bhangra dance and music. As the second generation of Punjabi immigrants were socialized in western British culture, they had a more liberal ideological approach towards issues of gender normative behavior and shattered the paradigm of their parents in regards to gender role adherence. The Bhangra dance and musical accompaniment were transformed from a traditional male-dominated dance performed in the spring or harvest season to a year-round expression of maintaining Punjabi culture in a foreign land.

British Punjabi teenagers, in accordance with their “betwixt and between” state, drew on a wide variety of cultural influences to incorporate into their own identity and cultural customs. Youngsters conflated Reggae and Hip and Hop musical form with traditional Bhangra beats and instruments to form their own version of Punjabi culture appropriated within the U.K. Bhangra dance and music has become incredibly popular amongst younger generations of immigrants in the U.K. who use the Bhangra as a connector device to their cultural heritage. This is very powerful for individuals caught in between traditional Punjabi culture and modern Western culture.

The individuals who transformed Bhangra and the audiences they have reached are far-reaching and act as a medium for cultural rationalization. That is, drawing on elements pervasive in a new, different culture and synthesizing them with their ambiguous, disconnected traditional cultural identity. Bhangra is now danced in clubs amongst men and women, boys and girls. The stringent cultural messages conveyed through the traditional presentation of Bhangra have been drastically altered to become more suitable with the socializing institutions of western popular culture. This transformation allowed individuals once trapped in the middle of two identities: 1. Not fully understanding their cultural heritage because they had grown up in Europe and 2. As ethnic outsiders in Britain considered by many to be second-class Brits to construct a dialectical identity drawing on both of their identities creating a wholesome understanding of who they are, and where they came from.

I also found Donny’s presentation regarding the evolution of Techno music to be quite enthralling. Whenever an individual is unfamiliar with a topic or genre, they must keep an open-mind regarding the historical context in which that genre formed as well as the cultural implications it produced throughout its existence. I learned that minimalistic techno music was created in Detroit, Michigan in 1975. However, as it started as an underground form of musical expression, mainstream popular culture institutions stereotyped it, limiting its targetable audiences to fit the popular sentiment. This indubitably hindered techno music’s popularity and competition amongst mainstream musical forms after its initial conception. However, it was widely embraced by audiences across the pond who took techno and ran with it as new technologies were being invented, enabling artists to create techno music from the comforts of their own home. Europeans created 50 subcategories of techno music during the 1990’s that can be categorized into four larger groups: Trance, Drum and Bass, Acid House, and Remix. Trance is by far the most created and played genre. It is identified by its rapid 125-150 beats per minute, repeating melodies and repetitious lyrics that leads to a so-called “trance-like state” for the listener.

I find it shocking how American audiences, not claiming it as their own form of musical innovation, and allowing the European Techno community to shape and mold the cultural and musical trajectory of this gripping music, rejected Techno. American identity is based on principles of ingenuity, inventiveness, and creative genius. Americans were inventing the technology (synthesizers, computer programs, etc.) which made the evolution of techno music possible, why then would mainstream audiences reject this artistic representation of American creativity? It is beyond me, although I thank Donny sincerely for opening my eyes to intriguing identity of techno music.