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Do we need comps like WBBC and Elite 8 Invitational?

sukhrana

Current Team: GCC
Messages
35
I would completely disagree with this statement. Honestly, if the US scene was just one comp a year mentality, it would probably be a much different story. I can see teams like JJ, BK, AEG, FCB, NSG, etc being completely and utter dominant in a one comp format...similar to UK/Canada teams in the past/present.

In terms of actually competing, iIdeally, I think an alternating year-to-year comp makes sense, where you can build a narrative around the winning and successful teams and actually sell and monetize tickets. I think some cooperation between UK, Australian, and US comps to build this formula out will be beneficial long term.

Also, if you want your tea hot, lets just put all the UK mixes into a microwave and put some hot water and tea bags in there. I think with all the pitch radiation we could keep the tea hot for decades.
Let's not hurt ourselves lad, get a hobbs.

20181011_231015.jpg
 

Howie Magz

Well-Known Member
Messages
454
Lol Y'all got beat by JVD and they're non-existent in the UK. We'd rather save our money and win trophies that matter. Y'all can come do an exhibition performance some time though. Along the tea and biscuits, we'll provide the musically sound, in key Mix and just for you, we'll pitch it down a few keys.



P.S Microwaves are harmful to the environment. Get a Kettle like the rest of the world.
That was 3 years ago at WBBC or 2 years ago at Boston. Also why you so angry. Its a discussion and you’re getting mad upset for no reason. We here in NA enjoy bhangra the way we perform it and if you don’t like it too bad. If you want to go “save money and win trophies that matter” stay in your own country and continue doing that. Also what team do you even represent taking all this smack? I think we as a community are very interested.
 

hardeep_singh

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,464
That was 3 years ago at WBBC or 2 years ago at Boston. Also why you so angry. Its a discussion and you’re getting mad upset for no reason. We here in NA enjoy bhangra the way we perform it and if you don’t like it too bad. If you want to go “save money and win trophies that matter” stay in your own country and continue doing that. Also what team do you even represent taking all this smack? I think we as a community are very interested.
I think they're angry because i inadvertently attacked(completely justified since it was crap) their work, Hardeep = Dholi Hardo, harind_singh = prince. Everyone getting confrontational on here seems to be directly affiliated with GCC.
Howie, i'll attempt to explain why the response has been so aggressive.
After the partition there was a period of time where if you were able to reach the UK you would receive permanent residency. During this time indian citizens were limited from boarding international flights from india to the UK. People got around this by first traveling to other nearby countries such as nepal and flying to the UK from there. The people who were able to immediately take advantage of this permanent residency were those already connected to UK government due to military service or other administrative positions. Due to the fact that it was financially prohibitive for a person to travel to the UK at this time, mostly those from wealthy upper class families managed to make the journey. My uncle managed to make it to the UK due to my grandfather taking loans and my grandmother selling her gehnay(gold jewelry) to pay for the travel. So this first generation managed to make it to the UK and faced challenges with respect to societal acceptance, they managed to get around these by assimilating as best as possible. Cutting their hair, adapting to local norms, learning the language, adapting to local cuisine, and making sure their kids learned to assimilate as well so they could get better jobs and make more money. There was a lot of pressure on these first two generations to assimilate due to the ever present racism and discrimination. Members of these generations made the conscious decision to let go of their culture because of societal pressure and also because holding onto the culture was deemed backwards. Another factor is the competitiveness within immigrant groups due to the desire to rise in socio-economic standings, which is also amplified by the class stratification present in all indian groups. Due to the lack of cultural knowledge being passed down there is an innate insecurity common in the current third generation. Society has changed during the lifetime of the third generation such that cultural awareness is now valued in punjabi communities. The first and second generations gained awareness as to what was being lost and tried to reclaim it by going back to their roots. I believe the persecution of sikhs and chaos in punjab during the 70's - 90's was catalytic in reigniting interest in punjabi culture and sikh religion. The third generation was allowed to grow without having to deal with the same pressure to assimilate as the previous two generations. But they lacked the resources required to truly understand all aspects of punjabi culture and punjabi language. So it's been a constant struggle to fit in and find a place of belonging. For some of them, they've found that within the bhangra community. An activity and group that they naturally fit into by virtue of being punjabi, a safe space where they no longer have to feel insecure about looking or speaking differently and a method for them to show to the world that they are special in some way. A social crutch that provides them with social connections and attention from the opposite sex. As with any other bhangra circuit social standings are determined by accomplishments and attitude, they cannot allow for the belittlement of their accomplishments due to fear of losing their social standing. Especially since they've selected this 1 aspect of punjabi cultural to be a defining characteristic of who they are.
 

sukhrana

Current Team: GCC
Messages
35
I think they're angry because i inadvertently attacked(completely justified since it was crap) their work, Hardeep = Dholi Hardo, harind_singh = prince. Everyone getting confrontational on here seems to be directly affiliated with GCC.
Howie, i'll attempt to explain why the response has been so aggressive.
After the partition there was a period of time where if you were able to reach the UK you would receive permanent residency. During this time indian citizens were limited from boarding international flights from india to the UK. People got around this by first traveling to other nearby countries such as nepal and flying to the UK from there. The people who were able to immediately take advantage of this permanent residency were those already connected to UK government due to military service or other administrative positions. Due to the fact that it was financially prohibitive for a person to travel to the UK at this time, mostly those from wealthy upper class families managed to make the journey. My uncle managed to make it to the UK due to my grandfather taking loans and my grandmother selling her gehnay(gold jewelry) to pay for the travel. So this first generation managed to make it to the UK and faced challenges with respect to societal acceptance, they managed to get around these by assimilating as best as possible. Cutting their hair, adapting to local norms, learning the language, adapting to local cuisine, and making sure their kids learned to assimilate as well so they could get better jobs and make more money. There was a lot of pressure on these first two generations to assimilate due to the ever present racism and discrimination. Members of these generations made the conscious decision to let go of their culture because of societal pressure and also because holding onto the culture was deemed backwards. Another factor is the competitiveness within immigrant groups due to the desire to rise in socio-economic standings, which is also amplified by the class stratification present in all indian groups. Due to the lack of cultural knowledge being passed down there is an innate insecurity common in the current third generation. Society has changed during the lifetime of the third generation such that cultural awareness is now valued in punjabi communities. The first and second generations gained awareness as to what was being lost and tried to reclaim it by going back to their roots. I believe the persecution of sikhs and chaos in punjab during the 70's - 90's was catalytic in reigniting interest in punjabi culture and sikh religion. The third generation was allowed to grow without having to deal with the same pressure to assimilate as the previous two generations. But they lacked the resources required to truly understand all aspects of punjabi culture and punjabi language. So it's been a constant struggle to fit in and find a place of belonging. For some of them, they've found that within the bhangra community. An activity and group that they naturally fit into by virtue of being punjabi, a safe space where they no longer have to feel insecure about looking or speaking differently and a method for them to show to the world that they are special in some way. A social crutch that provides them with social connections and attention from the opposite sex. As with any other bhangra circuit social standings are determined by accomplishments and attitude, they cannot allow for the belittlement of their accomplishments due to fear of losing their social standing. Especially since they've selected this 1 aspect of punjabi cultural to be a defining characteristic of who they are.
Criticising a generation because you didnt get more than a few likes on your essay?

Lovely.
 

Hardeep

UoB Bhangra & Gabru Chel Chabileh [GCC]
Messages
53
@hardeep_singh You really think the opinion of a deluded individual who has not achieved anything within the scene will affect us? Your opinions/comments mean absolutely nothing, come back when you've won 5 comps in a thriving scene. Who do you even dance for? Trolling seems to be the only thing you can offer to the scene. Brb, I'm a lil busy winning sets with winning mixes.
 

harind_singh

Member
Messages
27
That was 3 years ago at WBBC or 2 years ago at Boston. Also why you so angry. Its a discussion and you’re getting mad upset for no reason. We here in NA enjoy bhangra the way we perform it and if you don’t like it too bad. If you want to go “save money and win trophies that matter” stay in your own country and continue doing that. Also what team do you even represent taking all this smack? I think we as a community are very interested.
Out of the two posts, mine is not the one that comes across angry and/or aggressive just F.Y.I.

Also, the whole point of my initial point WAS that "we want to stay in our own country and compete" so I don't disagree with you at all. I was saying how pointless it would be for a UK team to fly to US to compete as there is no attraction to compete there anymore vs the days of 2013 and comps like WBBC where there was excitement for going to the NA to compete. We were the first team from UK to be invited to the first WBBC and accepted it with open arms to bridge the gap between the two scenes (followed by AJ,JVD,APPD who came to also compete). However, now we can't say the same and that is why I said that it's time the RoW came to the UK to compete because that is where there is a thriving competition scene bringing out intense and hard to win against sets. Now whether or not you agree with that or not is fair and your own opinion, but my point was based from a UK perspective.

And the whole point of DSs91's post that Canadians were winning comps hosted by the US so you saying NA enjoy bhangra and not do bhangra to win comps is also sort of backing his point.

There was no disrespect intended as it was only a statement based of knowing the UK scene really well but as it's been a while since anyone has called out the US scene (if ever), I can see why people may take offence and/or get defensive. I'm going to follow up another post in siddyp's thread with some more detail so if you're after a thorough discussion, maybe we move to there.

I assume this thread is now to discuss Sikh history. Well done @hardeep_singh, you once again proved that you know nothing....Jon Snow.
 

UmerQureshi96

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Messages
94
Can you imagine the hype and rivalries for a lineup with teams such as,

-NJ
-SPD
-GCC
-AJ
-AEG
-FCB
-BASS
-Furteley Shokeen etc

Discuss
In reference to this question. Yeah this would be dope, hopefully whatever The Championship of Bhangra turns into this. Other than Bruin, there really hasn't been a consistent comp that allows higher caliber teams to duke it out, Big10 was dope but it was a one-time thing. Usually whenever some of the bigger teams do compete, its cuz we planned to meet up, like Burgh last year.
 

Prabhzy

Active Member
Messages
206
In reference to this question. Yeah this would be dope, hopefully whatever The Championship of Bhangra turns into this. Other than Bruin, there really hasn't been a consistent comp that allows higher caliber teams to duke it out, Big10 was dope but it was a one-time thing. Usually whenever some of the bigger teams do compete, its cuz we planned to meet up, like Burgh last year.
I think its about the logistics that would be the bigger challenge. Ultimately it would be one country either US/UK/Canada which would need to have an open mind to organise one and the willingness of the above mentioned teams to actually apply to this and travel. But keeping the UK in mind, organising more than one comp in a year is hard as it is, and with no other organisers here in the pipeline I cant see any other way this could happen here unless international teams actually apply to Bhangra Fest.

But to end this discussion on a brighter note, lets hope this concept actually works out in the future one way or the other.
 

BhangraSUCKS

Active Member
Messages
131
To be honest, UK mixes are just one long annoying tune of Kuldeep Manik remixes. And they aren't even eqed right, so you barely here vocals.
 

JimmyJatt463

Member
Messages
74
All this talk about travelling and competing?? Have any NA teams competed in any comps outside of Kaneda or Amrika?

UK teams have travelled to the US and competed. Some of them did quite well.
There have been some Australian teams who competed and also did quite well.
Recently saw SWAT from Singapore compete in the US too.

Seems like US is the hub simply because of the number of comps and that's completely understandable but it would be nice to see some US teams commit and travel. I am 110% sure that if any NA team applied to a comp in UK or AUS that you wouldn't be turned down. Surely an international team would only bring more hype to a lineup.

At the end of the day, it's very resource heavy to get a team overseas. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to make it happen.

I love watching bhangra from all the circuits because they're all different. No point in arguing which is better because y'all never gonna compete against each other anyways. Bhangra has evolved differently in every region and that's cool. Everyone just needs to take a chill pill.
 

faizan

Just shut up and dance
Messages
1,736
The entire point of WBBC was to foster the growth of the UK, AUS and international Bhangra scene in general. This thread is proof that it worked.

giving international teams a platform in the USA, which used to be the center of competitive Bhangra for a decade or more, was critical for the culture.

Canada taught us how to be folk, with an edge, and we taught the world how to link it all together.

There needs to be another international competition, it should be held in England. I would be happy to help, it's really easy to put together when every team wants to come.

the only true hub now is Punjab, the way it was meant to be.
 

Howie Magz

Well-Known Member
Messages
454
UK seems very strong now, back then I remember teams used to make fun of em and now they're kicking everyone's asses :D, funny how it works but honestly good for them. The scene there is big and fun and its all good.

As far as Bhangra goes, from the little knowledge of todays scene that I have, I noticed it doesn't seem to be kicking it like it used to pre 2014.. there's still a lot going on now but it was different before. Back then you knew and followed dancers/mixers/teams like they were micro celebrities and when you heard about them signing up for competitions, you had a shit ton of excitement, predictions, shit talking and hype following it. A thread stretching 10-30 pages was a normal thing back then, you'd be lucky to get past page 1 for a line up announcement today. I don't care how good some of the newer teams are nowadays, they have little to no idea how hilarious BTF was to be on back then. Anyways, getting back to my point, that time period is when elite 8 came in, and that chaotic and rivalry filled environment was the perfect breeding ground for that kind of competition. If you do something like that today, it might do well again, but in my opinion todays bhangra scene is not meant for that kind of gimmicky comp. The comps that exist currently are sufficient enough. The fans have changed too, back in the elite8 times, all the top NA teams had their own fans that would stick by them through thick and thin, talk shit for them, attend to cheer and everything. Teams that draw in crowds that want to pay solely to watch them compete against other teams are getting rarer and rarer, and as they die out its only natural for these pricier competitions to die out too. Maybe its still like that in the UK, I don't know, but it doesn't seem to be as apparent in NA.

It's done man, accept it and move on.
+1

This was the realest BTF post about the current NA circuit that I have read in a while. Wish we can still give karma points like back in the day.
 
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