This thesis is an enquiry into the 21st-century journeys of British Asian music and musicians along with the networks of transnational Punjabi music production. Following the bloom and decline of the British Asian bhangra and Asian Underground scene, at the turn of the 21st century, we can witness a stream of return migration of musical artists from the United Kingdom to India. Now, there are a number of British Asian diaspora artists who work in the Bollywood and the Punjabi music industry and this raises interesting questions regarding the dynamics of cultural production between the homeland and the diaspora.
The thesis has two main aims: firstly, it seeks to re-evaluate the position of British Asian music in the 21st century in relation to the global South Asian cultural production, and secondly, it seeks to understand how the cultural industry of Bollywood engages with South Asian diasporas from the point of view of music.
I use mixed research methods, such as participant observation, interviews, and textual analysis of media reportage and social media presence to conduct a qualitative cultural studies analysis. In order to provide a more nuanced understanding of the systemic processes, I focus on three case studies in my thesis (Rishi Rich, music producer; DJ Frenzy, DJ; Hard Kaur, rapper) to highlight different key push and pull factors for the return migration process, such as nostalgia, gender, cultural remittances and the importance of Punjabiness.
By tracing the lives and careers of selected British Asian artists and their journeys to Bollywood and the Punjabi music industry, I suggest that we are witnessing a major transformation in the global South Asian cultural economy as Bollywood is gaining more visibility and it is becoming an increasingly attractive and lucrative industry globally and in relation to its diasporas
