BHANGRA

noun and adjective Also written Bhangra (Music) (Youth Culture) noun: A style of popular music mainly intended for dancing to, which fuses elements of Punjabi folk music with features of Western rock and disco music. adjective: Belonging to this style of music or the subculture surrounding it. Etymology: A direct borrowing from Punjabi bhangra, a traditional Punjabi folk dance associated with harvest. History and Usage: Bhangra music originated in the Asian community in the UK in the early eighties, when pop musicians with a Punjabi ethnic background started to experiment with Westernized versions of their parents' musical traditions. At first it was only performed for Asian audiences, but by the end of the eighties had attracted a more general following. It is sometimes called bhangra beat. This was not the middle of a feverish Saturday night, but a Wednesday mid-afternoon excursion for devotees of the Bhangra beat, the rhythm of the Punjabi pop...An up and coming group...turned in a performance which set the seemingly incompatible rhythmic stridency of funk and Bhangra dance to a compulsive harmony. Independent 30 June 1987, p. 12 This is a bhangra 'all-dayer', part of a booming sub-culture that has sprung up around an English-born hybrid of Punjabi folk and Western rock music. Sunday Telegraph Magazine 22 May 1988, p. 36