Critical Review #6: Dudrah (British Bhangra Music)

Dundrah discusses the British Bhangra throughout her article.  In the article Dundrah states that the term 'British Bhangra' "captures the music's fusion of traditional folk bhangra lyrics and beats with urban black British and pop sounds into a new distance genre of British bhangra dance and music." Bhangra was labeled as the start of the second generation of artists and musicians to experiment and create their own sound. In order to achieve this status they took sounds from traditionally Punjabi music, reggae, and other previous post-war British sound s (urban black sounds and other technology as well). Dundrah also points out the similarities between political issues at the time and the lyrics of the bhangra music and black music that was being played. Along with this is the idea that all of this is part of a diaspora. 

Discussion Question: In the article Dundrah brings up Firth and the argument about how "music has a social value being a way of affirming personal identity, a form of communication and an expression and means of understanding lived experience." Do you believe that this is true for the British bhangra artists? Artists in general? Or do you think that artists make up a lot of what they are writing?