More and more Americans are beginning to apreciate the popular culture of India. According to an article on DNAindia, dance clubs in New York City are cramming in crowds with Indian beats and Indian stars are making their fortune in American streets:

America isn’t the only country that knows how to spin and export fantasies. Indian pop culture is thriving in the United States. Nightclubs have picked up tabla rhythms, basement bhangra parties are packing crowds, Bollywood disco classes have boomed and Indian artists like Tina Sugandh are making a musical living in the Big Apple.

Rappers have started tapping into Indian music and the summer hit song Rock the Party by the Bombay Rockers has a pulsating bhangra beat and has given Indian music broad American appeal. The Bombay Rockers consisting of Danish duo Navtej Singh and Thomas Sardof just finished touring the US and performed their signature brand of hip-hop and Bhangra in sold-out concerts in New York.

Every kind of Indian music from rock to rap to traditional are catching on slowly but surely. Bollywood has been making a splash for years as well, and the desi population of America continues to grow, creating new markets for Indian music and movies. Traditional and modern Indian dance classes are also a growing phenominon:

Outside the nightclubs, gyms across the US, including the hugely popular Bollywood Axion and chain of New York Sports Clubs, are offering “bhangra masala” aerobic and dance classes. There is a serpentine queue to get into Indian dance instructor Pooja Narang’s Bollywood Axion in Manhattan’s bustling Times Square. “I probably get 60 to 70 emails and 20 phone calls every day from people wanting to sign up,” admits Narang, who moved from Toronto to New York four years ago to teach Bollywood-style dance.

“I have got doctors, teachers, financial analysts and professionals from different backgrounds in my class. Half my students are desi and the others are Americans — a mix of whites, Orientals, Hispanics and African Americans. A lot of my students tell me that they find Indian music and Bollywood dance routines colourful, energetic and joyous. The rhythm gets people going,” she added.

Click here to read the whole article.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 17th, 2005 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.