#263 Punjabi Pop, Explained

We profile Karan Aujla’s rise from writer to global Punjabi pop force, unpack his five-part hit formula, and trace how grief, diaspora, and production choices shape songs that live in cars, clubs, and hearts. We also map Punjabi pop’s growth, its icons, and the urgent questions on safety, caste, and women’s visibility.

• Karan Aujla’s early life, loss, and move from Punjab to Canada
• Bartering lyrics for beats and building independence
• Five ingredients of his sound: punchlines, pocket, replay hooks, tailored production, range
• Writing from women’s perspectives and bridging generations
• Safety concerns, feuds, and moving from Canada to Dubai
• Defining Punjabi Pop Culture as a sub-genre and movement
• Diaspora engines, streaming, and cross-genre production
• Icons like Diljit and global stages elevating Punjabi pop
• Future stakes: caste, gender, and who gets heard

Thank you for listening, you can hear Ravia every Thursday on 97.9 FM or through our live-stream at www.theuniversalradio.com

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Transcript

Nicknames, Memes, And Early Life

Canada, Dubai, And A Global Sound

Defining Punjabi Pop Beyond Labels

Five Ingredients Of His Hit Formula

Punchlines, Hooks, And Production

Notes App To Notoriety

Loss, Grief, And Writing As Healing

From Longshoreman To Breakout Star

Independence And The Don’t Worry Surge

Women Who Shape His Voice

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hey y'all, welcome back to the Universal Radio Network. I am so excited. I am gonna be talking about Garnagla, doing a little artist profile, continuing those, and talking about P-pop, Punjabi Pop Culture. What is this genre? I guess I'm talking more about Punjabi Pop and what is this genre, but that is the name of Garnagula's album, Punjabi Pop Culture. So I'm so excited to keep talking to y'all about these things. But one of the things I can't believe is that it's already the end of February. How does this month like end so fast? I was just looking at the date and I was like, it's February 26th. Are you serious? I swear January lasts like six years, and then February is like, just kidding, blink your eyes, it's the last week. So I can't believe it's March next week. And I'm so looking forward to this conversation that we get to have and learning more about our Gitani machine. What? What a nickname. So I'm gonna go through a little bit about Garnodla, born just Garn Sangodla, but we'll be talking more about his life, what he's been through. And I think a lot of us have probably watched those like really heartfelt interviews you've had that he's had. If you haven't, I will be walking through those with you tonight. As we walk through his profile as an artist, what motivates him, what does he write, what makes his music so insatiably addicting? Like I am not serious when I say like I didn't even know for four years straight I had Garnodula on my top five, like Spotify wrapped top five every single year. And in my head, I genuinely was like, yeah, I don't think I listened to that much Garnodula. Girl, he's your top, he's in your top five artists, and you love listening to everything so clearly. He has a formula, he has a writing style, he is, you know, an aura, if I may say, that is uh quite like, I don't know, it's addicting. You find yourself listening to it, and it's so entertaining, and but it's also beyond entertaining. There is a level of deepness that you can get from him, and I'm that's what I'm so excited to talk to you all about. What is your family's nickname for you? My nickname, we won't get into that yet. Talk about Garnagla's nickname is Gita the Machine. What I will get into now is my nickname for my family is Moto, but that's just because fat shaming is prevalent in this e-culture. But let's talk about the Gita Machine, Garnagula, also known as Jascar Nodula. Okay, this is terrible, but this is where my brain goes because of many years of scrolling on the internet. Um, you know what I'm thinking about right now? Jascar and Deccum. I do not condone violence or watching those videos, but there is this video uh that every time we hear the name Jasgarn, it it has been scarred by that meme. So if you know it, you know it. If you don't, you know what, you're probably a lot smarter than me and have a big attention span. But let's talk about Garn Agula. And let's see how he was he came up, you know, living in Punjab, connected to Punjab, and then a big part of his life he lived in Canada. Coming up as a musician, he lived there, and then he moved to Dubai, and now he lives between Dubai and Punjab in India. And he really came out of the area, the lower mainland from Surrey from Vancouver, and that's where we see Punjabi music really making big moves. And this matters because his sound isn't just Punjabi music, it's been turning into a global movement. A few years ago, we were hearing the words a lot: the Punjabi wave, the Daisy wave, it is uh, you know, a pop culture movement, which is really interesting because it has been almost self-identified by Garnagula in this album. While there have been articles and, you know, inklings on the internet calling it the genre Punjabi pop, I think him putting a name on it is special because sometimes when you just have like a genre of music that is especially from a small, you know, linguistic community like Punjab, there is a like, you know, you just put it into Punjabi music. There's no like, okay, there's folk Punjabi music and then there's Punjabi music. There's maybe rap Punjabi music, but what he wasn't doing was he wasn't always rapping. Like, yes, he was rapping, like, man, that guy can speak a mile a minute, that's for sure. But it wasn't always that. It was sometimes just a feel-good song about wanting to dye your gymney the color of your man's car. You know, like sometimes it's just it's just that. So early on, he got, you know, notice for his writing. And I think what really sets him apart is getting notice for your lyrics is like is important because he has words, his ideas, his personality was speaking through those, even though we didn't quite know him yet. And the world fully gets to know him as like a front and center artist, not for a few years after he's been writing. And I think because he has a songwriter brain, that's why his songs hit different. Like he speaks from the heart. And when you have that writing foundation, you can switch those lanes. Like he can make a harp track, he can write a dance floor track, he can write a I'm flexing on you track, I'm a gabaro track. Because he knows how all of those parts, you know, being on the dance floor or flexing or having heartbreak or experiencing love are all emotions one person can feel. And as an artist, Garnagla cannot be put into a box. And I think that's what makes him so fascinating. How many of you have tried a recipe and failed, but then tried again and figured it out? But or tried again and messed it up and then finally figured it out. And Garnagla is an example of that trial and error in his own methodological research and his own rigorous study of the Punjabi music market, his own honing in of his craft of writing and working with different producers to see what works and what vibes well. And and what I think I have captured and what I've kind of written down and thought of while listening to all this music and seeing like what makes Garnula songs sound so good is I came up with five things that I believe bring out his songs and like bring up his songs. So I'll I'll go through them for like all of them first and then I'll dive in. So the first one I think is he has punchline writing. The second one, he has a clean pocket, and third, he has hooks with replay value. Fourth, he has production that's built for cars, clubs, reception halls. And number five, he has range. He has an attitude switch that is really fun to listen to. So let's go into the first one: punchline writing. Punchline writing is not about bars. It's about, I mean, he is dropping bars, I'm not gonna be wrong. He's so he is dropping bars, but he's dropping quotable things. Like there are lines that become captions. You hear it once, and then you write it out as your Instagram caption, you drop it in your friend's group chat, and you're like, you know what, this is sick. And these these punchline writings are not just quotable punchline writings, they are referencing historical or like cultural objects. I mentioned this a couple uh couple ago. The song he's talking uh, he's referring to a love story of Punjab, uh, Akissa called Sony Mahiwal. And he asks the woman in this in this uh song, tuajing, like, would you risk your life the way Sony did across the river and you know swim with a pot that's ununbaked, knowing that it would slip out just to see me. Like, what is what is your extent of love? And and in that simple line, that punchy, quotable line, he conveys so much. So, number one, his punchline writing is the first ingredient to his great success. The second line, the second ingredient that he adds into his, you know, his his little pockets that he has is that he has clean writing. He has a clean pocket. And by that I mean he sits on the beat like he owns it. He speaks a lot, and I know sometimes it sounds like he's speaking 500 million words in the songs line. So I'm like, huh? What? But you hear every word and you know what he say, and you can you don't even have to listen that closely because you can just vibe with it and you're like it his words just take you away. And I think that's what makes him special. So that was number two, a clean pocket. And number three, he has hooks with a replay value. So, you know, those hooks, like he has that punchline writing for sure, but he has these like hooks that have replay value. But within that, caveat to that is that those hooks sometimes have patterns that I think is what makes him special. So, you know, like I know people make fun of him for singing too much about rims, Janjina, Akiya, like those are things that all he ever talks about. Like uh he also uh because I've been knitting a lot, I realize that he also talks about uh like uh knitting, like to uh bone and bon kotia, aderia, like he sings from the woman's perspective that I knit these cardigans and then I ripped them apart because I was waiting for you, man. Like, and then it comes up over and over again. But what I think that repres repetition he does brings up for me is it draws me to him as an artist because it's familiar. It's like when you get to know a friend and they have a certain catchphrase or hobby, when they sing about it or they say it, you feel like you have a connection to them because you're like, oh yeah, that's so you. Like, that's just so you. So I think that's something that I appreciate about him. So that was number three, he has hooks with a replay value. He has a familiarity to him that I appreciate. Um number four, he has a production that is built for cars, clubs, reception halls, you name it. And I also have to say, like, probably they work really well in something like a machine shop. Like when when the boys are working in the garage, I bet it is playing. When the boys and gals and them are working in the garage, I bet it is playing. So there's like, you know, the music he's producing has a big low end, a bright top. There's always space for his voice. His voice is clear, it cuts through his music without, you know, dragging it down. It sounds very melodic and upbeat uh when it's an upbeat song, but when it's a sad song, you feel like you're being carried on his voice gently and taken through his story and the and the ways he's gonna take you. Just takes you on this path, you know. And I think that's what makes him special is that production value of it and his voice working together is is definitely that's number four in my ingredients of Garnodula's success. And number five, I think his ability to have this attitude switch from going from flexing to being vulnerable without sounding like two people, two different people is a key, key ingredient to Garnagula being successful. So he first, you know, it talks about uh and I think again, I think it's because he speaks from experience. Like he's talking from his first axe firsthand experience of fame and what his first hand experience of what it means to flex. He knows how it can impact someone. I mean, there's stories of him, and we'll talk about this later, but he was attacked in his own home uh multiple times in Canada. So he has the splip from like, you know, being flexing to being extremely vulnerable in his own home. And for Garnodula, I think it's just him telling the story of his life or thinking about a story of his life because I think he writes from the heart. And that writing journey and emotion is what why his art is so special. How much do you think people would pay to see your notes app? You're like, what do you think? But I know my notes app has some crazy, you know, internal processing happening in it. Some of my probably deepest, darkest secrets, maybe. But what is also in there is literally like my grocery lists, names for babies for my friends and my cousins to name their kids. I have songs I want to listen to, random show ideas, uh, etc. etc. You know, random things like oh, here are my dad's shoe size in case I want to buy him shoes. Like, that's what I find in my shoe, in my in my notes app. But you know whose notes app would sell for a lot of money? Garnotlas, because he writes all of his music in his notes app. Isn't that insane? So he is a renowned writer. His music is, you know, known. People love his writing, it's it's noticeable, we know when it's him. But he writes all of his music on his notes app. I'm gonna talk a little bit more of his journey as a writer, and it is connected to his personal story, but I'm just gonna talk about his writing journey first because his personal story influences his writing and it is a part of who he is. But when he was very young, Garnajla lost both his parents, and in losing both of his parents, he was essentially orphaned. He has two siblings, two sisters, but when he lost his parents, his he was living in India, and his sisters were in Canada. So there was a separation between him and his family. In India, he was raised by his uncles and other family members. He said he was very well taken care of, but there definitely was a part of him that he missed having that, like, you know, that sibling hood. And of course, losing your parents that young is deeply traumatic. And he was very much, you know, going through it. And to this day, I think he's still processing that. Uh, as a young man, as you move through life, I think grief is one of those things that keeps showing up. And especially as someone who's achieving so many things at every turn, you want to look around and you want to make someone proud, you don't see your parents there. And I can imagine that hurt being very deep and very profound. As well, when you move through life, you go through milestones, like you get married or you have kids, and you are wanting maybe your children to have grandparents, and that, and and from your side, you feel sad because you think about how, wow, my mom would have loved this kid. And I I think about that and it makes me makes me quite sad because that that's the reality for so many people. And that connection that Garnajla has, that that tragedy that he is living through, it continues to be a and his writing and the and the way he's able to communicate emotion is a deep part of that, which is really appreciated for his journey as a writer. Starting off with who he is as a writer, he highlights that when he was a child, his father used to write him and his siblings as family letters. Even when they had phones, even when they had other ways to communicate, he would write letters. Maybe they weren't rhymed, but Garnagla thinks about his father writing these letters and sees it as an inspiration for him writing poetry. When he was around 14, 15, he started, you know, processing, and maybe even before that, he started processing those emotions that he had from losing both of his parents, rightfully so, through writing, which is really healthy. Like that's that's really good to hear. Like, amazing, good on you. That's tough to do. And he liked it so much that when he was 14 or 15, he ended up giving one of his, you know, written songs to a famous Punjabi singer, Jessegil. And he ended up um putting his name at the end. So a lot of Punjabi songs we probably hear, you hear like a guy's name at the end, and you're like, who is that? It's usually the writer. And in this case, he he had this like tagline at the end in which his name was Gain Karaleala, and his name it's because he's from the Bind Kirali. Kralali, oh my gosh. I I practiced saying this, but my daddy aren't always on point. So, but that's where he was from. And that was the first time that he had a song kind of come out with his name on it. And looking back at that time, he was thinking, you know, I don't even want to get big, I just wanted to get recognized in my bend. And the cool thing about this song is he sold it, uh, or I guess gave it to Jesse Gill when he was 14 or 15 in India, and it took a few years to come out. So when it came out, he was living in Canada with his sisters. So he migrated at the age of around 16 and lived with his sisters, went to high school in BC in British Columbia and Canada. And at that time, he had one of his songs out, and his name was at the end, which is pretty cool. That would definitely give me a confidence boost. And in Canada, he worked some, you know, some cool jobs, and I'll I'm gonna tell you more about that and how he balanced being a songwriter and singer and his time as a student and longshoreman in BC. He was working at the docks of Vancouver, and a longshoreman is someone who specialized in like loading, unloading cargo ships, managing vessel inventory, operating heavy machinery. And the lucky thing that Garnajla loved about this job was he could kind of pick his own hours for it. So he could, you know, spend time writing songs for other singers to sing. And at 20, he landed this job and he was he was really excited about it because he could still spend a lot of time writing. So that's that's one of the things I always think about is as being a starting out artist, how important it is to have that income that can support your writing and support your art, and how doing both the both of those at the same time can be so rewarding. So he was able to find some sort of a sweet spot at a very young age, at 20, and then obviously, as we know, quickly rose to this success. So we have that. And in an interview with uh Power, Adela says when he was starting out, he wanted someone to give attention to him as a singer and not as a writer, because he'd been getting that recognition for a little while now, and he recorded some of his songs, and people around him started saying, Hey, you actually might sound better than the people you're giving your songs to. And the way you sing these songs is really important because the other people weren't delivering the songs the same way Arla could, because he was the one that was writing them. He could sing them from the heart, the perspective he was giving him, the little, you know, little little spice he could add was just different. So at the start, he put out two tracks on his own, they didn't quite work out, but rather than giving up, he shifted his focus to build relationships with producers in Canada by trading his lyrics for their music. And he said there was no money involved, and it was just about creating a masterpiece. So think about that. I think that's such a cool way to start out where you're like, you're almost bartering, you're like, you know what, you have something great going on, I have something great going on. We're probably gonna vote, you're gonna send your beat to a singer-songwriter, and then they're gonna send it to a singer, or or you know, there's gonna be multiple involved. But how about just do a little one-on-one collab and see where this goes? So that really makes it more about creating the art rather than profiting from the art. So that shift is really important, and and alongside this, he's still working his longshoreman job until, of course, he starts making more money off of it. But in 2018, uh, right before then, he created his own YouTube channel where he started sharing his music and he started packing up millions of views. And in October 2018, he released the track called Don't Worry, which changed everything for him. And he was saying at the time it was doing 5 million views a day, and he says now he's seeing over 50 million, 60 million, and it was going up and up and up, and that's when he made the decision to stay independent most of the time and just put out his own music and write for himself. And then, you know, we see like that's where it all started in 2018, but he's gone big, but he continues to look back on his life throughout his singing, throughout his conversations with interviewees, uh our interviewers, and other people, he really shows that he takes time to pay an homage to where he's come from and the relationships that he has in his life and the relationships he has lost. How many women have impacted your life? I always wonder that uh for my life, and I always think about like my mom, my grandma, my cousins, you know, my friends. Those are some of the most important people in my life. And what we're gonna talk about today is the most important women in Garnagula's life, and because we're talking about Mr. Garnagla and his whole life story and his artist profile. So, talking about the impact of women on his life, the women that come up the most for him are his mother, of course, his his mother who passed away, that he has a revere, like a reverence for, of course, and his sisters, who he is super grateful for and is very connected to through, you know, all the interviews, he always brings them up, and of course, his wife. So those kind of four women seem to be pillars in his life that help guide him and also kind of help shape his writing. So, when in an interview with Raj Shimani, he explains that he's written from the heart and he always is like writing from the heart, but in that he writes from a woman's perspective, and how does he do that? And what Garnagula says to this is that he tries to analyze and figure out how to connect generations. So even when he is thinking about Junny Mirianga de Lalaria, um, he said he was writing from the perspective of like a binned context, like a small village context, but it was sung by people in the cities, so he saw that there was like that connection there, even though the people in the cities likely didn't even know what a Lalaria was until his song came out, and he wants to connect people to his music. And he sees that connecting generations like a more rural generation that maybe sometimes then. move to cities and I think that connects like you know me like I grew up in a city my parents grew up pretty rurally and I didn't know what a La Laria was but also I'm a diaspora kid so that's a my that's a B problem but what he says is he's really interested in like writing to understand himself to understand relationships also describe moments like he gets inspired like things like he'll think about uh a moment at in at night and he'll be like okay let's let's write about an evening and that can be a source of inspiration for him so there's simple things that can keep a writer busy but he believes that his writing also helps him become very good at like analyzing the world. So he said he really likes this quote called don't mess with writers they can explain you because writers have to sit with like their own ideas but they also have to communicate those ideas about you to you and to the world and the way Carnagula does it is in a rhyme scheme that is inexplicably addicting to listen to. And he loves writing loves writing love stories which is so fun because obviously appropriate for February appropriate for this month and I think that's so fun because he loves writing those overwriting like those you know pump up songs he says like those songs that are like good yard me and my boys um he finds those easy to write but he says he loves writing from a girl's perspective like telling that poetry that type of song so I think that's really really fun because what he does is in that in that mixture of like writing from a woman's perspective he also is mixing genres so he'll bring in like rock sounds and he'll bring in like traditional Punjabi instruments he'll bring in like a tabla of you know all those fun things and he'll mix it together and and we get with product that is distinctly diasporic but also very very rooted in in his culture when Garnajla was coming up you know he was singing about his hardships or he was singing about life thinking about relationships and one of his contemporaries was Sudumusala who rest in peace Sudun Musa if you don't know is a Punjabi rapper and singer who passed away a few years ago tragically really tragically he was murdered and you can look him up and see what that's about but what's unfortunate is is Sudumusala was a contemporary for Garnajla and the two were you know allegedly in a feud between 2018 and 2022. But what my read on these situations is it's probably good for publicity. That's my read you know I I don't know what's what in you know I don't know what happens between people maybe it's real maybe it's not but honestly um this uh culture of you know me against you one against the other it it sells i that's my read of it but even if it was real I you know maybe they profited off of it so maybe that that's that's just my read of things and if you have anything you want to tell them tell me about that give me an at at DJ Rara Rabia on Instagram and you know what let me know because I'm not I'm not on either side here. And especially since Siddhuncela's passed away I think Garnajla has come out and really like you know said he did not he did not write songs indirectly about Siddhur's rivalry as it was widely perceived there's there's these things coming out and and I think losing a person that is your contemporary that was someone who you know came up with you in the first few years of drastic life changes out by them being positive uh and some of them being quite negative as they were being targeted as famous artists what does that mean for them? Garnajla losing Siddhunseala was another kind of like extreme stress as he had lost both of his parents which is a you know he speaks of as a a major tragedy in his life and then losing you know other folks in his life that he goes on to talk about and um in in his interviews and at lasting too and then losing Siddhumus and how I always think about you know if you are a younger person um in your 30s or younger even even older actually I don't want to say that but I think the tragic part of losing a peer is that you lose that perspective on life that you both had that you both experience these things at a very specific time uh you have the same like political memories of certain things you have the same ideas the same you know you're kind of like you can both look around and be like what the heck is happening like you ever feel like you meet someone your own age and you are talking about something and they you know they remember that oh yeah when we were in grade eight this happened oh that was crazy you remember like those memories that kind of kinship when that when a person your age is is dead that that's gone and that's that's what is is difficult you know I think when I when when I'm talking about Carnagala it is important to talk about the dangers of his life because the reason why he left Canada was because his house was shot up multiple times and he now lives in Dubai. So this is a real this is a reality that that Garnagla was living with and a lot of these famous wealthy you know singers were living with so while Siddu is revered as a rapper I I think like talking about his legacy another time would would be would be better. And I don't want to cut that short but let's go back into talking about Garnajla and the rise of peepop because while there is tragedy laced throughout his story and his peers and like you know throughout this you know conversation that I'm having with you uh the the joy is also so palpable like it's so there like he's he's joyful he's there he's there is um at least even if he's not you know maybe feeling it deep down he definitely brings joy into so many people's houses so so many people's houses and hearts right now what I'm gonna talk to you about is Carnajla and his own naming of his album Mjabi Peepop and that's what his tour is called and we're so excited about it but let's start about let's start at square one and when he started working on this album he said he started with a name you know he didn't come up with the songs first he said what do I want to name it but then you know he moved on and then said okay let's make some songs and he made a couple of songs for this album and he said over six to seven months he wasn't really sure like what to call it but he was also thinking he felt he didn't have a name for the genre of music he made like when you when you're making you know when you're making like a a playlist and you're like I don't know what to I don't know what to name this. He's like I don't want to just name this Punjabi music because there's so many different types of Punjabi music this feels like a subgenre of that right like Punjabi music is just any maybe in my head any music that plays like heritage Punjabi instruments if that's what we're gonna call them or Punjabi language lyrics that might be one of them but he felt like he didn't have a name for the genre of music that he made and he was talking about pop culture with his team and thinking about it and he said you know what this is what it was if I was to make a playlist and name it I would name this Punjabi pop culture. And he writes it as a way to name his music and that described like it's a way that describes the way that you dress the way that you go it's where what what you wear how you you know the slang you speak it is a part of that Punjabi pop culture culture I guess you know it's like a movement a culture I guess that that's that's what that's where his music fits in and I think that's really unique because thinking about it as just Punjabi music was not enough. It is talking about what was this contemporary transnational South Asian Punjabi speaking and not even always Punjabi speaking but Punjabi singing and Punjabi enjoying like population resonate with and I think Punjabi pop culture is a very apt name to describe something that is so popular so like earwarmy as they call it like it just lives in your brain. So I'm really appreciative and grateful for this like name and I think it was an interesting framing of it as like as an artist being like where do I fit in these genres he was working with Ike uh the producer and he was thinking you know there's some songs where I have heavy metal guitar which is mixed in with Punjabi music. That's not always traditional Punjabi music or but you know it's not always what you would put in a box. So this is what I appreciate is that he does not put himself in that box but he lets himself figure out what that box is and then grow as an artist. So thank you Carnotula for letting us witness your growth as a writer as a singer as a performer and we're so excited to see you in Edmonton on May 5th oh my goodness so his emotions like I'm gonna wrap this segment up we're gonna talk about Punjabi Pop next but I think what's important to really hit home here as I mentioned is his emotions are key to his life and his writing his processing of emotions whether he does it through song whether he's continuing to do it it's always been reflexive and reflective on who he is as a sap or who the women he is in women are in his life right so those are all really fun and interesting things that I loved learning about Garnobsla and reading about him and watching his interviews and diving deep. So if there's any other fun facts you you think I want to know please give me a shout at DJ Rama Rabia on Instagram and please if you haven't already look into the tickets for Garnodla's P-Pop culture world tour. Up next we have Tomato de Martyr and we're gonna talk about what is Punjabi Pop. Even though this is what Garnodla's album is called it is a genre that sets itself apart so peepop I think is a funny name not not funny but it's because when you look it up it comes up as like no pop like our Filipino brothers and sisters or other regions like Pakistani pop you know there it's it's something that is uh used but peepop in in my brain is now you know obviously the Scared Hodjula album and Punjabi pop music. And Punjabi pop music what is it and why is it important and why am I talking about it? I think it's important to talk about because one it is a rising movement that really feels like it came out of nowhere in like tw after 2016 feels like there was a skyrocketing effect of rap music and Punjabi pop music that became more and more interesting and more and more fun to listen to there was more variety but it also is important because it blends traditional Punjabi folk with modern hip hop electronic and sometimes rock it creates these high energy relatable tracks that resonate with the world and even if you don't know what they're saying you know that you're you can dance to it that you know that you can lift some weights to that song that's for sure and especially amongst the vast Punjabi diaspora in Canada the UK the US in Europe across Europe and even in places like Australia and Southeast Asia there is a cultural significance for promoting for promoting that regional identity because we're so tied through it tied to it through these songs. And as a person that lives in the diaspora these songs help me feel like I'm connected to a culture when I'm listening to them I realize this I don't actually listen to a lot of Western music but when I'm listening to Punjabi music I feel like myself and I think that's important. And I think that's what Punjabi Pop does is it helps you feel more like yourself in a context where sometimes it's not easy to feel like ourselves what is Punjabi Pop according to the Fertado School of Music uh not Nelly Furtado but the Furtado School of Music they explain that there was a time when Punjabi music was only really echoing through villages through fields and at grand union weddings but today its beats travel across continents from Toronto to London to Los Angeles to Auckland to Australia to Burasco and the rise of Punjabi music worldwide is nothing short of extraordinary and it's not just a genre anymore it is a movement that redefines global global soundscapes which through its you know ability traverse ability to traverse many diaspora contexts it unites cultures throughout the rhythms and it puts India and regional you know languages like Punjabi on a world's map. So I think talking about the vibe of Punjabi music is is central to what the Fritato School of Music is talking about is Punjabi music tells stories. It tells stories about regular people on very simple instruments like Dol, Dumbi, Algoza. It creates this earthy festive sound that you know is a soundscape for Punjabi identity to grow upon over time we've grown as the diaspora has grown as we've moved around it blends folk with hip hop EDM pop and that is how we get what we call Punjabi pop music today. It makes for a universal rhythm because it is a universally you know it's a universal community that it comes from you don't need to understand what Punjabi is saying. You feel the beats you feel the energy and it is honestly a lot like a lot of other pop music around the world you just music is its own language and that's why we all love it. And the global success of Punjabi pop is obviously powered through its diaspora like us and the digital revolution but Punjabi communities in the UK US and Canada have been instrumental in this in spreading this sound and it really all started in the UK with one of the oldest diasporas out of India living there creating these really unique sounds mixing with their neighbors who were black Caribbean or maybe even with the the local kind of you know English sound like the the rock music coming out of there um also you know a black genre it is black scent three by the three months sales so it is you know credit where credit's due but those those were the first places where we heard like unique Bunje music coming out of and that was a great jumping point for artists like Carnage for Dilji for Jazzy B who I talked about many weeks ago now to be a part of this like almost global wave of people listening to Punjebi music. And I think streaming platforms like you know the algorithms that YouTube has Spotify has Apple Music has they've been key to helping keeping those songs popular. So they make like you know like there's a regional artist you might hear but like maybe your TikTok feed will let you like listen to a song maybe someone is like using it as like a dance as a dance video when that used to be really big. So these are all different ways that the international and transnational movement of P-pop has led to this taking over when I think of the icons of Punjabi pop music I think of Diljita Sanj and Garnajla this is Ravia this is 97.9 FM we are turning it up and understanding what is Punjabi pop music. Two icons that come to mind are Dildito Assange and Garnajla and they are kind of reading this wave of really fascinating music and fascinating because it's so high energy it's so culturally relevant for me sometimes it is almost too culturally relevant when I'm like but they have transformed Punjabi pop from a regional sound to an international phenomenon. And I think you know we talked about this a few weeks ago with Ljeet's coachella performance in 2023 being a historic milestone making him the first Punjabi artist to perform at a at the world's biggest music festival which is amazing. And on that stage he sang traditional folk songs he didn't sing his top hits. He also sang on in 2024 he sang on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon where he performed live and proudly represented Punjabi culture which was just beautiful to watch and Garnagla you know alongside him as we we just talked about just now has been pushing these creative boundaries with the bilingual collaborations with international producers. So he's like you know merging these Punjabi beats with these Western beats and attracting fans far and wide so side by side these two artists and many other artists are growing this movement. And let's talk a little bit about where it came from and how these cross-cultural collaborations beats broke those borders so the beauty of this global takeover lies in the collaboration and Punjabi artists have teamed up with international DJs, producers, pop icons and these DJs are real DJs not like me. They are really good at their jobs and they create this like really fun mix of sound that sounds beautiful and standing you know peep up is maybe alongside with kpop maybe with Latin music as a defining trend of this decade. And this is all what the Fertado School of Music has to say about P-pop and why it's important to study. I think this is so fascinating. A few weeks ago we talked about how there's oh last week we talked about how there's a um what is it it was a qu that DMU that teaches about Dita like what do you mean? So this this is just another fact that like you know the the rigorous study of these things is important because how else do we know where it comes from where we're going but also let's figure out where did Punjabi peepop come from where did Punjabi pop come from so it is kind of a mix of Punjabi music and folk music and hip hop but it's also has some rock influences there's also some like RB I definitely see some like jazz coming in it is an amalgamation of all the communities that make up diaspora communities and you know the producers and the and the singers may come from different communities but they create this beautiful sound that resonates with us. So for a long time like we said earlier Punjabi artists relied solely on folk music instruments like doombis, tablas, argozis, algozis for their sound which meant that when songs like Beware of the boys like rap song sounded like traditional music it was often relegated like those sounds you know were even combined they were like used only for Indian weddings or cultural spaces. It took the work of people like Jazzy B, you know, we talked about him too who found success in the mid-2000s but you know started in 1993 to fuse electronic and hip-hop elements in his music that inspired a new generation and this is something that the producer Ikey agrees with. He released Ike's house recently an EP that plays around with genre conventions and introduces the Punjabi language into the pop sphere with help from Punjabian English artists. His production work aims to blend his perspective of growing up in Canada with the positive cultural values that were established in Punjabi music for him. And this is a concept that he is working on and I think that's something that he is actually influencing much of the Punjabi music industry just the way producers can. So that's really cool. Iki's sound is resounding it reflects the diasporic sound and and like you said I do think that Punjabi pop music is definitely at the very early stages of global domination what the year 2016 meant to me in the music sense was it was a key year where Siddhusala and other songs other artists were coming out with music that my younger cousins wanted to listen to. Yes the younger cousins that were not super proud of being Punjabi were not really into it but later on kind of were like wait this is quite this is quite something I'm into because they saw themselves being represented in the music. A lot of people my age and older listened to a lot of rap music listened to a lot of music that was not Punjabi music because we felt that Punjabi music didn't always you know represent who we were and maybe all Indian music and not necessarily just Punjabi music you know I'm talking about Bollywood music and all of that. But where it is combined and flawlessly you know brings that global cultural impact and representation is in Punjabi diasporic and Punjabi pop music. So is that something an argument I'm making today I guess is that Punjabi pop music is Punjabi diasporic music? I don't know because I see Argentillon as a key person in that in that game uh you know in the Punjabi pop music scene and he's not really a part of the diaspora but so many of his themes are like there's that one song where he's like I work you know here And you work drive-through, and who's that guy that comes pick you up? Like it's clearly about someone who's working at like a fast food restaurant in Canada. And it's like, so it's it's you know, I wonder whose writers are. That that's what I wonder about. So these are these are some interesting things. Like, where are we gonna go from here? That's something that I'm thinking about. Because what we have right now is we have a fusion of tradition and modernity that is coming up and up again. When do we get a point where like this fusion becomes something, something else? Like, is it gonna lead to new genres? I really hope it does. That would be really exciting. And another thing we have right now is there is a massive diaspora and youth appeal. But with the increase of, you know, differences in like, you know, you know, people are not really into diversity and all that anymore, you know, and all that. Uh, that is one of those things that comes up where you have uh that diasporic community maybe stepping away from themselves, or do we see it, you know, increasing? These are things that I'm curious about. Again, with a huge Punjabi population in the diaspora though, I feel like we'll have lots of content and lots of listeners that are eager to hear about the music that resonates with them. And I think another thing that's really interesting about the way Punjabi pop culture kind of moves is it's independent from, and often is independent, from the Bollywood world. It's often unattached to films. Sometimes it is, but it is driven by independent artists, sometimes record labels, but collabs between people who are making good beats, making good music, writing great poetry, and being brought together. And that's a story that I want to listen to. I want to hear what it's like to bring something together. I want to be there in the room when people are being creative. Because how beautiful uh is that like process of creation. Because that music, that musical aesthetic and that visual aesthetic is achieved through many fine-tuning methods, many fine-tunings of you know, of pitch of vocals, of of understanding what sounds good and what doesn't. Like that that fascinates me. And another thing I want to mention is that like while we enter the next growth phase, I see there being new benchmarks, new scales, kind of new economic impact meters being, you know, you know, showcased, like being like, hey, like when Carnagula comes to your city, you're you're uh it's gonna be like the new Taylor Swift effect that there's gonna be like an increase of like your GDP, not your GDP, but you know what I mean. Like there's gonna be an increase in your local economy because of uh an artist coming, people are staying in hotels, going to restaurants, spending money. I think that's really exciting. When do we get to a point where it becomes unsustainable? Do we think it's gonna be unsustainable? I'm not sure. I really hope it doesn't. I love seeing where this goes, but you know, that's just my brain, that's my tomato de matre brain, where I'm thinking about how we can unpack these things and how we can be better people and better understand who we are. One of the things I want to bring up before we wrap up the show is a real, a real kind of issue, but also a thought that I have that I think is needs to still be unpacked. So let me know what you think. What I'm seeing a lot in pop in Punjabi pop culture music and in general uh of this like movement in of itself is a lot of caste-specific music. And you know, from my last name, you know from my name that there is a a very huge domination of Jut Sik dominant castes that have monopolized, you know, religious temporal matters in Punjab, in the state itself. And the dominant caste status of Jet Sikhs results from, well, first of all, their numerical strengths, uh strengths. They are over like one-third of the state's total population, and they own over 80% of the available agricultural land in Punjab. That is because of historical reasons. We can dive into that another in another day. But vellets in the state, on the contrary, are not only marginalized in terms of their share of land ownership, but also in a large proportion of the music that comes up. So there's a lot of landless agricultural laborers in on the lands of Jat 6, but there is a difference in the way people are treated. And in the era of, you know, there being an increase of like anti-diversity stuff, I think it's important, important to talk about what it means to be a Dalit person in the context of Punjabi pop and as it grows. What is that gonna look like? How can we grow? And do we need to acknowledge it? How do we talk about it? These questions are bubbling up for me. And if you have any thoughts on this, please let me know. This was Tomato Demater, where we dig into everything that's juicy, everything that's interesting. And I'm so, so excited to talk to you next week where I get to talk about where are the women? This is another thing, actually. Oh my gosh, yes, definitely want to talk about cast. Like that's something that I need to talk about. But where are the women in Punjabi Pop? I I feel like I was looking, you know, I was looking it up and there's there's names that come up, of course. But uh we'll we're gonna talk more about that next week. So please follow me at the at follow us at the universal radio and me at DJ Rap Rah Rabia.