Task 5 - Essay Plan

ESSAY PLAN

Despite the global success of Jay Sean, why is there still a lack of successful British Asian artists? Is this due to post-colonial attitudes or Asian cultural traditions?

·         Struggles of equality for artists – pre 2000 now finished? (Social Historical Political)

Asian Dub Foundation reflected time of inequality and racial struggles – Jay Sean = pluralism and cultural diversity... The Asian dub foundation tried to disruption in the racial/ethnic boundaries by breaking the stereotypical 'black' ethnicity being the only minority to be bound to hip-hop.
Jay Sean who has now broke the boundaries as he has now broken into the American mainstream hip hop music industry. Perhaps Jay Sean has finally achieved something that the Asian Dub Foundation was trying to achieve in the 1990's. “Americanised” Asian.

On Wikipedia it states that :
Their music is able to signify a disruption in the racial/ethnic boundaries of hip hop.

They challenge the argument that Asians are passive onlookers in popular culture who are hardly involved in the music industry.

Postmodernism – old ideas of Asian Dub Foundation now been postmodernised ?
Never the less there are still many who still struggle to do as he Asian Dub Foundation had done
and many question whether Jay Sean success was an achievement to an extent as he had to change into a

·         Underlying racism and post colonial attitudes which deter artists? (Social , Representation)

Wiley and Jay Sean – Ethnic Banter/ Racism – jealousy from other hip hop artists Wiley began passing racial comments over the social network ‘Twitter’ over a misunderstanding between him and the huge Asian RnB phenomenon Jay Sean. Wiley passed on comments of a racial nature towards Asians.

Ali Rattansi ; RACISM,a very short introduction arguments common in the 1980’s ...that the real racists are not indigenous whites but the black and Asian immigrants who insist on keeping ..their own ways of life while still wanting to claim full rights as British citizens and turning whites into ‘second class citizens’.” P 101 (SH)
This recognises that in the 80’s many saw Asians as the real racists who insted on keeping their culture alongside being British citizens,, These views may still be in todays society where many may see that Asians immigrants should not have the right to British citizenship- one example is of a Asian immigrant singer- Garry Sandhu who recently got deported back to india due to illegal means, whether he got reported by people who envied him or whether it was the underlying racism which also supported the view that Immigrants are the real trouble .

Massey, Reginald, and Jamila Massey. The music of India. “since the colonial mentality lingers...reviews and comments send up the artist’s stock back home; and so by a circuitous and dubious route the artist ‘arrives’ not only in the West but also in India. “ p87

“Many musicians who find it difficult to make a career in India now manage by various means, to

          come abroad and make a splash” p86

       
No matter what artists will always have some link back to their culture and heritage of where there ancestors or grandparents where born due to the post colonial mentality of many. This can be why many criticise and relate Jay Sean back to his Indian Heritige as seen in the Independent article ......
The Independent / UK/ Jay Sean 'spinning' as British-Indian singer tops US chart  Jay Sean “He started rapping at the age of 12 but moved into R and B, reportedly due to the difficulties getting into the British rap scene with his Punjabi Indian heritage.”

·         Asian sterotypes/tradition/representations hider and discourage artists? (Representation Genre)

Does it affect the British Asian community by perhaps breaking their tradition/culture/values?
Stick to their own genres = Bhangra/ Bollywood
channels distinguished for different genres – e.g: Brit Asia TV  a platform for British Asian talent– however not many of them are able to break through into the mainstream

Representations/ Stereotypes given in things such as >>>>>
Citizen Khan
East Enders The Indian Doctor

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=58875400530  - keep it undercover

But the folks dont know, they want my marriage arranged,
Cos every asian kids life should be the same,
A doctor, lawyer, pharmacist or business studies,
If I did I.T then they wouldnt have to worry

 

·         Mixed identity crisis of British Asians? (Audience Genre) 
The assumption of having to be Westernised/Americanised to become successful?

Need to be westernised to appeal to a mass audience  / westernised to fit into a British society

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-36cqQQrJGo – KOOL 2 B Asian

Lyrics:

Is quite a few peeps aint proud to be brown
To be honest yeh that's quite a shame
That some people can't even pronounce there own name
Mandeep changed his name to Malcolm
See he's whiter then talcum

Need to be westernised to appeal to a mass audience  / westernised to fit into a British society

Is the British Asian Industry not as successful therefore copying the American ideologies and ideals?
Coping With Two Cultures: British Asian and Indo-Canadian Adolescents   - Americanisation of traditional asian songs

a generation suffering from ‘culture clash’ ( Thompson, 1974)
or youngsters who have the best or worse of the two worlds (Ghuman, 1991)
Citizens of This Country: The Asian-British By Mary Stopes-Roe, Raymond Cochrane  expectation that settlers in Britain will cast off their original culture and adapt to british ways. The notion ‘hyphenated British’ has as yet not caught on (Watson 1977) page:9~BBC Hinglish-  keeping their traditional vocabulary and tradition whilst mixing it with westernised words -  ( Goodness Gracious Me ) “For the young are linguistic magpies, borrowing from any language, accent or dialect that seems fashionableFrom the margins to mainstream? Representations of British Asian youth musical cultural expression from bhangra to Asian underground music R Huq - Young, 2003 Globalization is frequently feared as resulting in cultural homogenization and as being a euphemism for a levelling-down process of Americanization, yet music such as the sounds of the Asian underground has a global reach and suggests a potential de-centring of the West