The Meteoric Rise of Punjabi Music 📈
Last week, Jason Derulo announced a collaboration with Tesher- a Canadian Punjabi Pop Star, in what is yet another sign of how far Punjabi Music has come
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Last week we talked about how BTS has helped K-Pop establish itself as a driving force in influencing Global Music and Pop Culture.
Similarly today, we look at another regional genre: Punjabi- born out of the Northern state of Punjab, in India; the songs of which have been making strides on a global level following similar lines of K-Pop.
Amassing billions of views on YouTube among other streaming platforms, Punjabi Pop has been on the rise for the past few years now and shows no sign of stopping. With new artists dropping almost 20 songs every single day, the genre is the backbone of the Indian music and infamous Bollywood industry and has roughly 400 registered labels associated with the genre.
On YouTube, the music video for “High Rated Gabru”, one of the most popular Punjabi Pop songs off late, alone has gained over a billion views 🤯
Punjabi music dominates the Indian music industry not only in terms of views but also financially. It rakes in INR 700 Crore ($100 Million) annually, 5x more than its nearest competitor- Telugu Music, and is the highest contribution among regional genres, of the INR 1800 Crore ($250 Million) Indian music Industry.
However, the big bucks are not in the digital realm, but in the physical world. While streaming may play an important role in ensuring up-and-coming artists get blown up; it’s the live shows and concerts which contribute to a big chunk of the earnings of most Punjabi artists.
With a rich tradition of extravagant weddings and multiple ceremonies in Punjabi culture, the artists normally have their hands full even if they are not performing at a usual fan concert.
Most of them can go on to do anywhere between 75-100 events per year, and the really popular Punjabi artists easily collect between INR 40-60 Lakhs ($50,00-$80,000) per event. While that might not seem like a lot in USD terms, it is life-changing money for these artists.
Punjabi Pop broke into the Indian music industry when artists like “Honey Singh”, “Diljit Dosanjh”, “Guru Randhawa”, “Hard Kaur”, and “Baadshah” introduced rap and Hip-Hop into Bollywood music.
While many were unfamiliar with the regional language of the genre, they could not resist these tunes and slowly but surely, Bollywood was hooked on Punjabi music.
A lot of these artists have gone on to become so popular, owing to their multiple dabbles in Music and Films, their brand image rights alone contribute more than their day jobs.
Diljit Dosanjh- the multiple Filmfare award winner and top-charting Punjabi Singer/Songwriter, makes INR 30 ($4 Million) Crore just from promotions and endorsements per year.
Punjabi music has made its way not only into the Indian culture but also garners millions of fans across the globe. When we take a look at international reach, 20% of the total listeners are from outside of India, with the majority of those streams being from Canada.
One of the biggest factors that contributed to Punjabi music becoming a global phenomenon is the Punjabi Diaspora. The majority of Punjabis outside India hold residency in UK and Canada, and this contributes to the overall level of success that Punjabi music has found on an International level.
Unsurprisingly, love stories and luxury lifestyles in foreign countries have become one of the main themes of Punjabi-Pop Music videos, and people go crazy for it, which makes it easy for the video to get millions of views in no time.
However, the crossover into Western culture has not been restricted to just listening to Punjabi music. International Pop Stars such as Pitbull have collaborated with Punjabi Pop Stars like Guru Randhawa. Their hit song ‘Slowly Slowly’ got 250 Million views on YouTube, check it out here 👇🏻
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But how did the Punjabi music industry cross this language barrier and become an international sensation?
Punjabi music has always been an energetic and performative form of music that is produced with a huge amount of passion.
Music has always been a big part of Punjab’s culture and history. It is through Punjabi folk music that poets have narrated love ballads of Heer-Ranjha and Sohni-Mahiwal, Mirza-Sahiba, and Sassi-Punhoon. Several musical instruments like Tumbi, Algoze, Dhadd, and Chimta are unique to Punjab.
The production beats on many contemporary Punjabi songs are similar to Western Hip-Hop and Dance Music, and with the videos being known for their quirky and pompous style, it took no time into getting people from outside India, interested in this genre.
Our take on this?
The Punjabi music industry pumps out artists every week who reach astronomical levels of fame and money within weeks but over time they fade away. As it goes with any other genre of music, the greats will always continue to make music that does not let the spirit of Punjabi music die.
Boosted by social media and amassing millions of followers worldwide similar to K-pop, Punjabi music has only started its reign as a global force to reckon 📈
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