{"id":40768,"date":"2018-11-25T02:45:36","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T02:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/11\/25\/born-in-war-bangladeshs-rock-n-roll-is-dying\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:02:36","slug":"born-in-war-bangladeshs-rock-n-roll-is-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/11\/25\/born-in-war-bangladeshs-rock-n-roll-is-dying\/","title":{"rendered":"Born in war, Bangladesh\u2019s rock \u2018n\u2019 roll is dying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The seeds of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll culture were planted in Bangladesh during the birth of the country in 1971, after a war for liberation separated this majority-Muslim territory from Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most of the 20th century, the region was a traditional South Asian agrarian society. Its soundtrack: Bengali folk music, featuring instruments like the tabla drum set, harmonium pump organ and the ektara<\/a>, a one-stringed guitar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came a bloody war for freedom. And that political rebellion allowed some musical rebellion to take root, too, as my historic research<\/a> in the country shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rock spurs social change<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After independence, a handful of Bangladeshi performers \u2013 top among them Azam Khan<\/a>, a freedom fighter-turned-musician \u2013 began looking West for artistic inspiration, listening to Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison and The Doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khan\u2019s band Uccharon introduced drums, guitars and keyboards into their renditions of local music. Bangladeshi audiences had never heard anything like it. With his long hair, bell-bottom jeans, stadium concerts and powerful lyrics \u2013 which often delivered a social and political message \u2013 Khan became a pop culture phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one famous track from 1970s, \u201cBangladesh<\/a>,\u201d Khan paints a grim picture of his young nation, which was gripped by extreme poverty and famine<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sings of a boy \u201cborn in a slum near the rail lines\u201d whose death leaves \u201chis hopeless mom crying.\u201d Throughout the melancholic, guitar-driven song, Khan depicts the desperation of Bangladesh\u2019s early years, punctuating his lament with cries of \u201cOh, Bangladesh!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khan, who died in 2011, influenced a generation of young Bangladeshis to critically reflect on their country\u2019s traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As in the United States a decade prior, where rock music helped change cultural values<\/a> about race, religion and sexuality, Bangladeshi rock \u2018n\u2019 roll \u2013 dominated by Azam Khan\u2019s star power \u2013 showed people that a different life was possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khan \u201cwas a rebel to the dominant culture,\u201d said one man I interviewed, who saw Khan live in the 1980s. He traded his traditional Bengali garb for jeans, he said, because \u201cI saw Azam Khan used to wear jeans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The changes Khan pushed went beyond aesthetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was redefining Bangladeshi culture and promoting liberal values like freedom,\u201d the man told me. \u201cFreedom from conservative values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As another fan said, \u201cWe were becoming politically aware.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bangladeshi rock goes mainstream<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political awareness was a subversive thing in newly independent Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the government alternated between military dictatorship,<\/a> illiberal democracy<\/a> and autocracy. And though rural development spurred some economic growth, 41 percent of Bangladeshis still lived in extreme poverty by the early 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded as a secular nation, Bangladesh \u2013 which has a Muslim population bigger than that of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt combined \u2013 adopted Islam as its state religion in 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That decision, which the nation\u2019s highest court upheld in 2016<\/a>, made Bangladesh more socially and religiously conservative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rock culture was a kind of alternative universe \u2013 one where criticism of the government was encouraged and religious zealotry was uncool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Bangladeshi band Rockstrata, in 1985. (The Conversation via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Guns N\u2019 Roses, Pink Floyd and Aerosmith all became popular in Bangladesh in the 1990s. Local groups with English names \u2013 the metal pioneers Rockstrata<\/a>, hard-rocking Warfaze<\/a>, the popular Love Runs Blind<\/a> and a dozen others \u2013 performed to stadiums full of long-haired fans wearing tee shirts, boots and chain necklaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was revolutionary in a place where musical performances were historically quiet, calm and disciplined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rock concerts were loud. Fans smoked cigarettes, head-banged, and got in fights. Artists used alcohol, marijuana and other drugs, if not as heavily as their American or British counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rock democracy<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Bangladesh\u2019s economy opened up to the world in the late 1990s \u2013 its textile exports<\/a> leaving the country while Hollywood films and luxury vehicles flowed in<\/a> \u2013 inequality also rose quickly<\/a>, particularly in rapidly growing cities, where poverty persisted and new wealth accumulated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bangladeshi rockers were unsparing critics of these disparities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1998 track \u201cDhushor Manchitro<\/a>,\u201d or \u201cFaded Map,\u201d the metal band Warfaze sings of a \u201chopeless time,\u201d with \u201cdead bodies on the street every day\u201d and \u201carrogant blue Mercedes\u201d rushing past, \u201cdemocracy winking\u201d at the injustice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1997 track \u201cGonotontro,\u201d or \u201cDemocracy<\/a>,\u201d singer Maqsood O\u2019 Dhaka calls Bangladesh\u2019s democracy a \u201cconstitutional thugocracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rock artists also denounced Bangladesh\u2019s growing religious conservatism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the video for his anti-militancy song \u201cParwardigar,<\/a>\u201d Maqsood O\u2019 Dhaka opens with an anti-extremist message. Over images of terrorist attacks and peace rallies, he insists that \u201cblind fanatics and fundamentalists simply cannot snatch away our future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decline of Bangladeshi rock<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of those social and economic problems have only worsened since then<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who took power in 2008, has overseen some remarkable economic development<\/a>. Today, Bangladesh is a manufacturing hub<\/a> with a booming economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while there\u2019s good news economically, Hasina\u2019s administration has suppressed dissent<\/a> in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
In this Dec. 28, 2017 photo, Bangladesh’s former prime minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia, center, leaves after a court appearance in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Ten months later Zia was sentenced to seven years in jail after being found guilty of misusing her power to collect money for a charity named after her late husband. Separately, the Election Commission withdrew the registration of the country’s largest Islamist party in another blow for opposition forces. Zia’s supporters insist the criminal cases against her and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party are efforts to weaken the opposition ahead of the December elections. (A.M. Ahad\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the past year, two outspoken government critics \u2013 the photographer Shahidul Alam<\/a> and sociology professor Maidul Islam<\/a> \u2013 were jailed for spreading \u201cpropaganda and false information,\u201d a charge that carries up to 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nonprofit group Human Rights Watch<\/a> has called on Hasina\u2019s government to stop the arbitrary arrests of opposition activists. Bangladesh\u2019s prisons<\/a> reportedly house thousands of people<\/a> charged with<\/a> \u201csubversive activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religious extremism is also rising in Bangladesh<\/a>. Since 2013 a string of violent attacks targeting secular bloggers<\/a>, artists, religious minorities and free thinkers has shown the narrowing scope of civil liberties and acceptable public discourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decade the music died<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bangladeshis could use a protest music like rock. Instead, rock culture is fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partly, it has lost ground to Bollywood music<\/a> from neighboring India, with its colorful power anthems celebrating life and love. Bollywood songs dominates Bangladeshi radio, and pirated versions are available online for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Former First Lady Michelle Obama joins students for a Bollywood Dance Clinic in the State Dining Room of the White House on Nov. 5, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, a budding underground hip-hop scene has largely replaced rock as music of Bangladeshi rebellion<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domestic law has also failed to protect the financial interests of the artists who once drove Bangladesh\u2019s vibrant rock scene. Industry groups say<\/a> that just 10 percent of music in Bangladesh is purchased legally and estimate that music piracy annually costs US$180 million in lost earnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIdeas such as intellectual rights and royalties are not strongly embedded in our culture,\u201d Samir Hafiz, Warfaze\u2019s guitarist, told me. \u201cIt\u2019s really difficult to live as a rock musician in Bangladesh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increased religiosity, which rejects all things Western in favor of a traditional lifestyle, has also hurt Bangladesh\u2019s rock scene. Some young Muslims I spoke with even see rock \u2018n\u2019 roll as a sin<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rock music helped change Bangladesh. Now, there\u2019s little room left for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. <\/i>Mubashar Hasan<\/i><\/a> is a researcher in South Asia studies at Oslo University\u2019s <\/i>Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages<\/i><\/a>. His views do not necessarily represent those of Navy Times and its staffers. But we\u2019re chilling out to Maqsood O\u2019 Dhaka now, so … <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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