BTF mentioned in the Daily Beast in a Sarina Jain article

[Ashveer]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/05/06/sarina-jain-brings-on-the-bhangra.html


Sarina Jain Brings on the Bhangra
May 7, 2012 1:00 AM EDT
Indian dance isn’t just for weddings anymore.
This global success has been met with backlash from Bhangra purists, who are turned off by her glitzy style. Protesters bashed her workout on bhangrateams forum.com. “They would write things like, ‘We should slit her throat so she can’t say Balle Balle anymore,’” she explains. Her detractors were mainly young college kids from all-male Bhangra competition teams in New York’s Desi community, who blamed her for threatening their efforts to keep Punjabi culture alive in the U.S.—though Jain was motivated by the same goal. “I would never want to defame my culture. I’m too proud,” she says.

 

[sangeensingh]

dammmn

 

[faysal]

well there's some shit press for btf :/ disappointing that she doesn't seem to mention her recent collaboration with a team consisting of young men from an all male team in ny.

 

[yraparla]

The quote was moderated I'm pretty sure cause I can't find it. It's also a quote of Sarina quoting the site. Kind of a weak journalistic approach (should have reached out for a soundbite from a critic) but w/e it's a small article and life goes on.


Do have to commend her for teaming up with AEG though. I feel like it was just to capitalize on their own success but w/e

 

[Saleem]

Hm, it would have been nice if they came here and talked to members instead of taking a quote of a paraphrased quote. I'm glad Sarina is collaborating with teams like AEG though, that's an advancement for our dance form and will be interesting.

 

[voxanimus]

honestly, this journalist couldn't even grasp the proper capitalization of "bhangra." it's not a proper noun; it's a regular noun just like ballet and flamenco and hip-hop. doesn't need to be capitalized at every mention.

 

[hardeep_singh]

sensationalism at its finest, pretty stupid for her to claim to have faced some sort of adversity. if you're working with people who are active members of this forum why would u throw a quote out like that? i don't know about everyone else but my opinion is that the whole masala bhangra thing is just a commercialized version of the "bhangra" you see in bollywood movies, feel no need to give it any sort of validation or attention.

 

[sartajjudge]

I'm on BTF a lot, and I don't remember anyone on BTF saying that.

 

[Basim]

honestly, this journalist couldn't even grasp the proper capitalization of "bhangra." it's not a proper noun; it's a regular noun just like ballet and flamenco and hip-hop. doesn't need to be capitalized at every mention.

Not to steer too off topic, but...

I always thought it should be capitalized, since "music" or "dance" would be associated common noun. Bhangra is a specific type of music or dance, hence according to my logic, it's a proper noun.

The same can said of about Jazz music: http://www.englishforeveryone.org/PDFs/Nouns%20-%20common%20and%20proper.pdf

You mentioned Hip Hop as well and this blog post explains it as being a proper noun as well: http://www.myspace.com/sfninerfan/blog/57332709


Anyway, nice comment below the article's main page Swi. I agree with a lot of what was already started in this thread by others.

~ Basim


P.S. - Thanks for sharing Ashveer.

 

[asingh720]

I would think it appropriate for some of the admins to send the journalist a small note, to note that there is no record of anyone saying that (although the post could have been deleted, it's always possible), and that it is unfortunate that she had such a negative encounter with the BTF forum, in addition to highlighting the recent collaborations mentioned above, etc.
Short note, nothing formal. Hopefully it'll help mend some broken bonds, or at least prevent additional negative remarks toward BTF

 

[Ashveer]

I'm on BTF a lot, and I don't remember anyone on BTF saying that.

Agreed. I pay particular attention when Masala Bhangra pops up on BTF and do not remember anyone recommending slitting Sarina Jain's throat. There is a lot more to BTF and its analysis of Masala Bhangra than n0toriousjatt1998-types who spew random crap here and there. Rather than discussing how this community and its trenchant critique is changing Masala Bhangra, Jain chose to reduce us to being violent immigrant men.

 

[voxanimus]

honestly, this journalist couldn't even grasp the proper capitalization of "bhangra." it's not a proper noun; it's a regular noun just like ballet and flamenco and hip-hop. doesn't need to be capitalized at every mention.

Not to steer too off topic, but...

I always thought it should be capitalized, since "music" or "dance" would be associated common noun. Bhangra is a specific type of music or dance, hence according to my logic, it's a proper noun.

The same can said of about Jazz music: http://www.englishforeveryone.org/PDFs/Nouns%20-%20common%20and%20proper.pdf

You mentioned Hip Hop as well and this blog post explains it as being a proper noun as well: http://www.myspace.com/sfninerfan/blog/57332709


Anyway, nice comment below the article's main page Swi. I agree with a lot of what was already started in this thread by others.

~ Basim


P.S. - Thanks for sharing Ashveer.

bhangra doesn't need to be capitalized because it still refers to a general class of music or dance moves. other specific dance forms like ballet or flamenco are not capitalized when used in sentences, and therefore bhangra should follow similar rules.


from a more rigorous grammatical standpoint, proper nouns are those nouns whose mention in the dictionary is capitalized. neither ballet nor hip-hop, nor even bhangra (which is actually in the dictionary!) is capitalized. in contrast, classic proper nouns like Africa, etc. are capitalized to indicate they refer to a singular entity.


therefore, i don't see why it should be capitalized in daily use. the post you linked to about the capitalization of hip-hop was essentially an opinion by KRS-One about how the capitalization of the term would promote respect and solidarity both for and between practitioners of the art form. other art forms that are not even dance-based aren't capitalized. for example, encaustic, filigree, macrame, etc.

 

[Basim]

bhangra doesn't need to be capitalized because it still refers to a general class of music or dance moves. other specific dance forms like ballet or flamenco are not capitalized when used in sentences, and therefore bhangra should follow similar rules.


from a more rigorous grammatical standpoint, proper nouns are those nouns whose mention in the dictionary is capitalized. neither ballet nor hip-hop, nor even bhangra (which is actually in the dictionary!) is capitalized. in contrast, classic proper nouns like Africa, etc. are capitalized to indicate they refer to a singular entity.


therefore, i don't see why it should be capitalized in daily use. the post you linked to about the capitalization of hip-hop was essentially an opinion by KRS-One about how the capitalization of the term would promote respect and solidarity both for and between practitioners of the art form. other art forms that are not even dance-based aren't capitalized. for example, encaustic, filigree, macrame, etc.

Thanks for the follow-up and clarification vox!

~ Basim

 

[Billy Bob]

No publicity is bad publicity!

 

[VirD]

this is funny. showing what bhangra has come to, threats.

 

[Shawn13]

The more publicity the better am I right?

 

[COMTONDAJATT]

I'm on BTF a lot, and I don't remember anyone on BTF saying that.

I might have said something similar back in my semi-trolling days in the beginning. Sorry Sarina Jain maaf karo.

 

[Mantej Singh Rajpal]

I'm on BTF a lot, and I don't remember anyone on BTF saying that.

Agreed. I pay particular attention when Masala Bhangra pops up on BTF and do not remember anyone recommending slitting Sarina Jain's throat. There is a lot more to BTF and its analysis of Masala Bhangra than n0toriousjatt1998-types who spew random crap here and there. Rather than discussing how this community and its trenchant critique is changing Masala Bhangra, Jain chose to reduce us to being violent immigrant men.

Yeah, and sadly, there are a few individuals (on this forum, from time to time) who do act like 'violent immigrant men'. It only takes a handful of them to ruin it for everyone else. That's just the way the game works.

As someone who has both attended Sarina Jain's master class, and spent time on BTF, I would assume her quote is fairly accurate. It's pure speculation, but I've seen members throw out similar such phrases, & based on the little we talked, I don't think she'd say anything to degrade a whole community without reasonable cause.

 

[Gabbah Shareef Bhalwan]

Her detractors were mainly young college kids from all-male Bhangra competition teams in New York’s Desi community,

uh, no, they were mainly anyone Punjabi, anyone who had familiarity with any form of bhangra, and many others with an aversion to commoditization of culture -- A pretty large group of detractors, I'd say. At least this was my impression during ca2000-01 when I first saw the Masala Bhangra. Since then, there has been some reconciliation, some interactions with Jain's enterprise in a broad spirit of "Something is better than nothing", but its still clear that this is a "Panda Express" product geared mainly for "outsiders" to bhangra culture and really has nothing to do with improving the quality of bhangra or an accurate awareness of what it is. I do, however, accept that Jain might believe she is "promoting her culture" or whatever.