The article discusses the presence, prevalence and popularity (as well as preeminence, potency, penetration and predominance, if you will) of Bollywood/Billboard-Top-40 mashups among today’s generation of Indian American performance groups. Penn Masala, formed in 1996, “is credited for pioneering the fusion music trend that largely reflects Indian American tastes in the pairing of Hindi and Western songs.”
Long story short, the main takeaway from the article is that you can hit up Penn Masala on Pandora, Spotify and Grooveshark. So this finals season, you can finally say, “No, I am not still listening” to your Vitamin String Quartet station.
Did you miss the Dhamaka show this past weekend? Awkward. We bet that won’t happen again… Check out this uploaded-too-late promotional video that was clearly robbed of last night’s Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Sadly, we heard that Dhamaka did not triumph at Saturday’s Phillyfest (they were beaten by–ugh–NYU). Lucky for us, videos of the competition have been uploaded to YouTube, so you can decide for yourself whether Dhamaka was robbed or got served. Here they are, and please note the fake Mu Alpha Kappa frat house behind them, because we totally love it.
After being endowed with the UTB‘s Spicy Curry Award, I felt it my duty to inform Penn about the goings-on of the South Asian Community.
This Saturday, come support Penn Dhamaka (Penn’s first and only all male dance troupe) at the Merriam Theater as they compete against 11 other South Asian dance teams from around the nation at the 4th Annual Phillyfest Competition. At intermission, watch Penn Masala, which apparently is “the nation’s number one a cappella group” (Sorry Off the Beat).
South Asian dance competitions are part of a cult-like subculture that includes rankings, competitions, and forum trash-talk, and Phillyfest is one of the best exhibitions of this fascinating phenomenon. At the very least, come out to see the Indian version of your Jersey “guido.”
Penn Masala, Obama’s favorite all-male South Asian a capella group, is featured in no small chunk of this article on The New York Times‘ India Ink blog today.