American Popular Music in Britain’s Raj

American Popular Music in Britain’s Raj is the first systematic study of the character and scope of American popular music in India during British rule. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, it examines blackface minstrel shows, ragtime, jazz, and representations of Hollywood film music in Bombay cabarets and Hindi film songs, identifying key musical moments in the development of these styles between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The book describes the entertainment idioms and frameworks that supported the growth of these imported styles; further, it surveys a variety of historical contexts under colonialism that influenced their meaning and commercial value.

Focusing on Calcutta (modern Kolkata), Lucknow, and Bombay (modern Mumbai), Bradley Shope traces the movement of this music between the United States, England, and India, and addresses a variety of groups and communities, including the US military in Calcutta during World War II, Anglo-Indians in Lucknow in the 1930s and 1940s, and British residents across North India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Bradley G. Shope is assistant professor of music at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.