Producing music is obviously fun, so is DJing, but following a music scene and participating in it, and meeting the people in it also leads to a lot of interesting thoughts, observations, and insights. The Indian-American dance subculture in the United States is an important cultural vehicle for the promotion and reproduction of “Indian” culture amongst the diaspora. Interestingly, even with the upcoming Hasan Minhaj movie on the topic, it remains painfully under-studied and under-documented.
When TamilCulture posted a few months ago on their story that they were looking for article pitches, I figured it was time to start chronicling how Tamil music fit into the circuit.
It started from nowhere, and now frankly, Tamil music actually is disproportionately used in Indian-American dance circuits relative to the actual Tamil speaking population as a percentage of India. This mirrors box office earnings on Tamil films which are also a disproportionate percentage of Indian box office sales. The former however was not always the case, in fact it was at times, actively excluded. This provides the context for a piece I worked on with Dr. Srimix for TamilCulture titled “The American Collegiate Indian Dance Circuit and the Tamil Question (Part 1)” covering an “Introduction to the Indian-American collegiate dance scene and the role of Tamil music.” The article is available here: https://tamilculture.com/the-american-collegiate-indian-dance-circuit-and-the-tamil-question-part-1
Additionally TamilCulture put out a carousel on Instagram sparking many folks to share their own experiences: https://www.instagram.com/p/DaegU4Tlgvh
As a Tamil-American DJ, and someone at the forefront of promoting Tamil music in America to non-Tamils, it feels great to be able to get the writing muscle going again. I’m looking forward to working with G-tam and Dr. Srimix on future issues. When the best Tamil-American DJs in the game tie up, it’s not just about the music, but also about chronicling and promoting culture and language, and sharing it with others.